Friday night, Jakub Vrana scored his first NHL goal after a beautiful setup by Evgeny Kuznetsov. In years past, Alex Ovechkin has pied the rookies during their postgame interviews to both celebrate and keep them humble.
With Ovechkin busy, fellow one-goal-scorer-on-the-season Tom Wilson decided to keep the tradition going, pummeling Vrana in the side of the face with a towel full of Gillette shaving cream.
“I got mine in the eyes,” Wilson said on Saturday after practice, reminiscing about his first NHL goal and his first NHL shaving cream pie. “I was all wide-eyed when I got mine in the eyes and I think my eyes were red for three hours.”
Wilson scored his first big-league tally November 5, 2013 after redirecting a pass from Ovechkin on the power play past Evgeni Nabokov.
After the game, Ovechkin nailed Wilson with the shaving cream pie directly in the face.
Willy Baby doubled over and stumbled out of the interview.
“I tried to give [Vrana] a little bit of a friendly treatment on the side of the face, but I think I got some in the eyes,” Wilson said, admitting he took a route so that Vrana could see him. “It’s no fun when that shaving cream gets in the eye. You definitely never forget it.”
“He’s a fun kid; he’s fun to have around,” Wilson continued. “Definitely cool to see him get his first goal and bring back those memories of scoring your first and getting your eyes kind of burned by Ovi. It’s just kind of fun thing that we love about this sport, having fun with your teammates and keeping that tradition going.”
One reporter asked Wilson if the towel concoction was difficult to make.
“No,” Wilson said smiling. “Surprisingly not. A little bit goes a long way. It was funny. I just grabbed some Gillette and whatever it was, threw it out on a towel, and made a little pie there for him.”
Wilson also admired Vrana’s toughness for continuing the interview. Vrana smiled, turned back around to the media, and said confidently, “Alright, next question.”
Saturday, Vrana laughed when asked about the incident.
“It’s fine,” Vrana said. “It’s all right. It wasn’t that bad.”
“Everybody obviously say ‘good job,’” Vrana said, speaking about his milestone. “You know it’s first one. You never going to forget the first one. It was a great feeling. I’m never going to forget the moment.”
Or Tom’s mischievousness.
Congrats to @JVranaa on his first of many!! #OTH pic.twitter.com/D9u2VeaSHq
— Tom Wilson (@tom_wilso) December 10, 2016
Additional reporting by Chris Gordon.
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