2012 Capitals first round pick Tom Wilson can be an enigma, but his play of late has been nothing short of spectacular. There is no better example of this than the 13 physical minutes he played against the Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday night.
Let’s do a quick summary first.
- Willy Baby was fantastic defensively.
- Wilson led the Capitals with 9 hits, most of which were of a devastating variety.
- Wilson blocked a point shot during a penalty kill with his buttocks and lower back.
- Wilson played almost four minutes of shorthanded hockey.
- The Caps owned close to 53% of the shot attempts when he was on the ice at even strength.
Coming off of a February in which he had six points in 12 games, Wilson appears to be finally turning the corner in his development.
Blocked shot
Early in the second period, Wilson blocked a point shot from Michael Del Zotto while penalty killing. The puck struck Wilson off the rump. He laid briefly on the ice in pain.
“The only happy part is that when it hits you, you know it’s not getting through you,” Wilson said during a CSN Mid-Atlantic interview after the game. “You have to be a bit of a psycho if you like taking the rubber and blocking those shots. You know what? Pay the price, get in the way, a lot of guys on this club will do that. That’s what makes us so good. We pay the price for the team and Holts. Whenever we can, we try to get in the way and turn that shot away.”
Wilson got a pretty funny souvenir from the shot.
“[My back] is sore,” Wilson said. “It actually hit me right beside my pad. Right in the tailbone, so I got a pretty funny mark there that the boys are enjoying and yeah, it’s all good.”
Rough stuff
Wilson also made his mark physically, distributing nine hits and chirping his offseason training partner Wayne Simmonds.
Tom Wilson lays out Brayden Schenn for the 10 trillionth time in his career pic.twitter.com/zgb3orYN5h
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) March 5, 2017
Tom Wilson also injured Andrew MacDonald with a big hit in the offensive zone.
Offensive play
Wilson also contributed two shots on goal from the team’s fourth line.
“I don’t want to talk about it too much,” Wilson said. “Our team is playing awesome right now. Whatever I can do, whatever role I have in the game whether it’s playing with Nicky and O for a couple games or coming down and playing with Winnie and Beags where I usually am. I just have to play my role and build that chemistry and keep the four lines rolling.”
Keep up the great work you follically gifted lad.
