Tom Wilson is one tough human and he provided another legendary example of that in the Washington Capitals’ 4-2 comeback win against the Montreal Canadiens, Saturday.
With 8:35 remaining in the first period, Wilson was struck in the face by a hard Jakob Chychrun shot from the point as he skated across the crease.
Doubled over in pain, Wilson glided back to the Capitals bench, holding his jaw on both sides of his face. The rugged Capitals forward quickly exited the game for repairs.
“If that was me, I don’t know if I’d be back in the game,” Logan Thompson said.
“I honestly didn’t think he was (going to return), no,” Spencer Carbery added. “I thought, whether it was teeth or jaw, I was worried that it was going to be something long term.”
Wilson, however, wasn’t in the locker room for long. After Cole Caufield scored with four minutes remaining in the stanza and made it 2-0 Habs, the Capitals’ alternate captain returned to the bench showing off a cut on his left cheek. Wilson missed only 4:35 of game time total and showed, at that moment in time, only minimal swelling on his jaw line.
“I see him come flying back out and you’re, ‘Okay, let’s find a way,'” Carbery said.
“Honestly when it hits you, I feel like my like side of my face is falling off a little,” Wilson explained, reflecting on the pain. “I’m like, ‘Am I bleeding? Am I cut? What’s going on?’ Then you just get into the room and you settle down. Did a couple tests and was good enough to get back out there.”
By the third period, Wilson’s face had swelled up like he was Sidney Crosby with the mumps or Ken Griffey Jr. in The Simpson’s softball episode.
Undeterred, Wilson scored twice — both the game-tying and game-winning goals — extending the Capitals’ franchise-record road winning-streak to nine games.
Wilson’s first tally was a “once-in-a-lifetime” shot, per Devante Smith-Pelly, that bounced past Canadiens’ goaltender Sam Montembault on almost no angle.
Four minutes and 38 seconds later, Wilson scored again, this time blasting a shot past Montembault after Aliaksei Protas forced a turnover in the offensive zone.
Between shifts, Wilson would ice his cheek on the bench — though it did not make much of a difference.
Between shifts pic.twitter.com/Xyz9sz0uC8
— Tom Gulitti (@TomGulittiNHL) December 8, 2024
“Yeah, if it was anybody else, I would have thought they’d be gone for the night,” Pierre-Luc Dubois said after the victory. “Tom, I knew he was going to — 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 he didn’t want to show anybody. But yeah, that’s crazy. And then to come back and have an impact like that, I mean, that’s what he does. Even if he didn’t score, still has an impact every night. And he’s an extremely important player for us.”
After his heroics, Wilson was interviewed on Hockey Night In Canada, receiving the prestigious HNIC towel. During the chat, he finally got a first look at his face on the monitor.
“It doesn’t look so hot,” Wilson said somewhat aghast. “My dad always told me, ‘If you’re good to play, you play.’ Went to the room, got checked out, felt good enough to get back out there.”
An impressed Spencer Carbery described Wilson’s cheek as if “he’s got a softball on it ”
“Credit to Tom, you can’t even notice it,” Thompson joked. “Funny how that goes.”
Wilson was named player of the game by Capitals players in the locker room and earned the team’s prestigious (and gaudy) gold chain.
He also garnered a new nickname, “Quagmire.”
“The guy is a warrior,” Dylan Strome said. “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.”
