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Capitals-Blue Jackets Fight Suddenly Turns Into Five Brawls At Once

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Antonio Losada | Last updated Apr 13, 2025 6:25 AM ET

A hard hit on Washington Capitals rookie Ryan Leonard turned Saturday’s game in Columbus into something closer to a brawl than a hockey match.

The Capitals were routed 7–0 by the Columbus Blue Jackets, but the lopsided score became a footnote when a second-period fight between Leonard and Sean Kuraly set off a chain reaction of chaos.

Leonard, who had already been flattened in the first period by Adam Fantilli and evaluated for a concussion, returned to the ice just in time to take another hit—this time from Kuraly.

The 20-year-old rookie snapped, dropped the gloves, and challenged the veteran forward.

Kuraly won the bout, but Leonard’s response lit a fuse that nobody expected to ignite so quickly after Leonard and his foe entered their fight.

5 different brawls broke out between Jackets and Caps

INCLUDING Ryan Leonard pic.twitter.com/I1pdAqkXYs
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) April 12, 2025

Within moments, four more fights broke out across the ice in a flurry of takedowns and misconduct penalties.

“Leonard went through a lot tonight,” one broadcast analyst noted. “First real welcome-to-the-league moment, and then he gets up swinging.

”That’s not going unnoticed in the Caps room.”

Columbus was already leading the Capitals 6–0 when chaos peaked in the second period.

The game itself was out of reach early as Zach Werenski opened the scoring just a minute in, and Fantilli added two goals, both after a Kent Johnson marker, to make it 4-0 just two minutes into the second frame.

The Blue Jackets added two more goals by way of Cole Singler in that stanza and a James van Riemsdyk's capper late in the third.

The Capitals (50-20-0 and 109 points) have now lost ground in their race for the Presidents’ Trophy , trailing the Winnipeg Jets (114 points) by five points but having one game in hand on them.

Coincidentally, Washington will be back in action on Sunday, facing the Blue Jackets for a rematch scheduled for Sunday night in the nation's capital.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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