Rasmus Sandin on playoff bench brawl between Capitals and Canadiens: ‘That’s what made the series a little bit extra fun’

The Washington Capitals and Montreal Canadiens faced each other this postseason for the first time in over a decade, but that lack of recent playoff history didn’t keep the series from getting heated.

Rasmus Sandin reflected on the matchup last week for the 32 Thoughts podcast as part of the European NHL Player Media Tour in Milan, Italy. When Elliotte Friedman remarked that “it looked like those two teams hated each other,” Sandin didn’t disagree.

“Yeah, that’s fair,” he said. “It was as a fun series to play. Montreal, they were really good at the end of the regular season, first, so they came in with a lot of confidence. We knew what we were all about, too. I think we all knew that we were a good team, even though a lot of guys on the outside did not think we were that good.

“And then obviously, Game 3, when they beat us in Montreal, it was kind of a wakeup call for us a little bit, too. Game 4, and Tom (Wilson) makes that big hit before we score a goal, win that game, we kind of knew. I think that sparked a little bit, too, where a little bit of the hate came from.”

Sandin has history of his own with the Habs — before joining the Capitals in 2023, he spent part of four seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of Montreal’s biggest rivals. He even had experience playing the team in the first round from when the Canadiens eliminated the Leafs in the 2020-21 season.

Though Sandin pointed to Game 4 as a turning point in the 2025 series, tensions had already boiled over in dramatic fashion in Game 3. Tom Wilson and Montreal forward Josh Anderson got into a viral bench brawl at the end of the second period, with Wilson later taunting Juraj Slafkovsky with a mock crybaby face.

Arber Xhekaj later revealed that the fracas started with chirping from goaltender Jakub Dobes, who entered the game after an injury to starter Sam Montembeault.

“So, Dobey stands by the bench, right close to their bench, and he’s looking over and he’s chirping every single guy to come off the ice, yelling at them, chirping them, next thing you know our goalie gets hurt and Dobey has to go on the ice,” Xhekaj said in July. “The period’s over so the other team has to skate across the ice and Dobey has to skate through all of them. So, nobody left, they just waited for Dobey, because they wanted to have a word with him, and then I got in there and it was just – it was madness.”

Sandin noted that the fight came as a surprise to the Capitals — so much so that some of the team had already left the ice — but saw it as a highlight of the series.

“When Josh and Tom was in the bench, too, fighting on the bench — literally — that was funny. The period was over, so half the team went in the tunnel and were like, ‘Where are all of the guys?’ So we went out and looked, and they were on the bench fighting. But, I mean, that’s what it’s supposed to be, too. That’s what made the series a little bit extra fun, too.”

And with no direct tunnel from the Capitals’ bench to the locker room, even head coach Spencer Carbery was startled by the chaos.

“Well, I was on my way to walk across the ice, because you have to walk across at the Bell Centre (to get to the visitors’ room),” Carbery said after the game. “So then I had to reverse my course and head back because there was two large individuals coming through the door that I was trying to exit.”