Wilson described that celebration in the right corner as being punched in the head repeatedly by his teammates, but he didn't seem to mind.
"I was saying to [center Jay Beagle] before, you've lived this moment in your brain when you're a young kid in the backyard or whatever when you're 8, 9, 10 years old," he said.
Except back them, Wilson wasn't dreaming about scoring against the Maple Leafs in the playoffs.
"Maybe I was a Leaf at the time, when I was a little guy," he said.
Wilson's favorite Toronto player when he was growing up was Darcy Tucker, an energetic role player who sometimes pushed the limits of legality to irritate opponents. Wilson, selected by Washington in the first round (No. 16) of the 2012 NHL Draft, has a little bit of that in his game, but he has yet to show he can score like Tucker, who topped 20 goals six times in his 14-season NHL career. Wilson has 21 goals in 313 games with the Capitals, including seven this season.
But on Thursday he turned out to be the kind of hero Trotz was talking about.
"Tom was really good," Trotz said. "I thought his game early in the game was just like the rest of us; it wasn't very good. You throw pucks to the net. Unexpected heroes, that third and fourth line, all of the time can be a difference-maker, and tonight it was."