Tom Wilson’s head was bigger at the end of Saturday night’s game against the Canadiens at Bell Centre than it was at the beginning, and his swollen cranium had nothing to do with him scoring the tying and game-winning goals in the third period of a 4-2 Washington victory.
Wilson’s head was bigger because in the front half of the first period, the big winger took the full force of a Jakob Chychrun point drive off his left cheek, just below the visor. Wilson went off holding his face, which was bleeding, and few expected to see him again before game’s end.
“I honestly didn’t think he was [coming back], no,” says Caps’ coach Spencer Carbery. “I thought whether it was teeth or jaw, I thought it was going to be something long term.”
Initially, Wilson wasn’t sure either.
“Honestly, when it hits you, I feel like the side of my face is falling off,” says Wilson. “Am I bleeding? Am I cut? What’s going on? Then you just get into the room and you settle down and talk to [head athletic trainer and director of sports medicine Jason Serbus]. I was told growing up, ‘If you’re good to play, then you play.’
“We did a couple of tests, and I was good enough to get back out there. It was a fun win.”
For most of us mortals, it would have been resulted in a trip to the emergency room and no thought whatsoever of performing any physical activity for days.
For Wilson? A mere flesh wound. He was back in the game before the end of the first, although looking like he had been storing up a slew of fresh acorns for the long winter ahead.
Playing for the second time in as many nights and somehow winning their ninth straight road game to extend a franchise record, the Caps weren’t at their best against the Habs, and they spent a good deal of the second period struggling to advance the puck from their zone. But they drew enough inspiration from Wilson’s heroic return and the play of goaltender Logan Thompson – who snuffed our four third-period breakaways – to overcome the Canadiens with three goals in the third.
“Nothing surprises me about this group,” says Carbery. “I've learned that now, being two months into this [season], 27 games in with this group. In situations and scenarios where you've been around teams, you've watched games where you're on a back-to-back and you don't have your legs, pucks are not going your way, and it looks like the majority of your guys don't have it that night. And they just will not go quietly into the night. They're going to continue to fight.”
Another thing that’s not surprising is Wilson’s teammates’ reaction to his injury.
“The guy is a warrior,” declares Dylan Strome. “What else can you say? He does everything for this team. He kills penalties, he’s on the first power play, scores goals, makes hits, blocks shots. The guy is a warrior; he’s been doing it his whole career.”
“If it was anybody else, I would have thought they'd be gone for the night,” says P-L Dubois. “Tom, I didn't think he'd be back that quick. I don't even think he was bleeding. He was bleeding on the inside, but not on the outside, because you don't want to show anybody. But yeah, that's crazy. And then to come back and have an impact like that, that's what he does. Even if he didn't score, he has an impact every night and he's an extremely important player for us.”
Having faced Chychrun’s shot, Thompson was asked for his unique perspective on Wilson’s night. He provided it.
“Tom has a big head,” shrugs Thompson. “If that was me, I don’t know if I’d be back in the game. So, credit to Tom. You can’t even notice it.”
After Montreal’s first line – and specifically Alex Newhook and Cole Caufield – staked the home team to a 2-0 lead in the first, the Caps cut into the lead in the first minute of the second when Dubois scored on a one-timer from above the right circle – courtesy of a John Carlson tee-up – just 33 seconds in.
Through a significant chunk of the second, the Caps found themselves hemmed in their own end. Over a span of just over six minutes, the Habs out-attempted Washington 10-1, but neither team managed a shot on net. The Caps defended well while under siege in their end, blocking half a dozen of the attempts; the Habs missed the mark on the other four.
That spell without a shot for either side was broken when Lars Eller was boxed for slashing, a penalty Washington was able to kill without incident. Thompson made a strong stop on Juraj Slafkovsky’s one-timer, and when Nic Dowd cleared the puck from near his own goal line seconds later, his 183-footer was Washington’s first shot on net in nearly eight minutes.
The Caps managed to get out of that ugly second period without any damage, still just a goal down.
Thompson denied Jayden Struble and Josh Anderson on breakaways in the first five minutes of the third to keep it that way, and Wilson scored the tying goal at 7:10 of the third, putting back the rebound of an Aliaksei Protas shot from a tough angle to square the score at 2-2. Just ahead of the midpoint of the third, Thompson thwarted Nick Suzuki’s breakaway bid. Brendan Gallagher was the fourth and final Hab to be denied in a 1-on-1 situation with Thompson.
Those saves set the stage of Wilson’s go-ahead goal at 11:48. Protas blunted a breakout on the forecheck, then used Dubois as a middleman to get the puck over to Wilson, who buried a wrist shot to give the Caps their first lead of the night.
The Habs then took a pair of late penalties that delayed their attempt at a comeback. When Strome struck for a power-play goal – with the fearless Wilson providing a screen in front – off a sublime setup from Chychrun at 13:49, the Habs’ hole became too deep, and the Caps had their sweep of a weekend set of back-to-backs north of the border. And nine straight road wins.
“Obviously you need some things to go your way, which we certainly did tonight,” says Carbery. “This isn't like we played a polished game or anything like that. [Thompson] steps up and makes those saves, and we just keep fighting. We get some big plays, we move some lines around in the third period, [Protas] makes a great play to create that turnover. And Willie steps up and finishes.
“So yeah, I'm not surprised at this point by what our group is capable of doing, even when our backs are against the wall or when we don't have our best.”
