Tom Wilson was effectively ejected late from Friday night’s game against the Calgary Flames after some hijinks between the two teams went a little too far in the third period.
It all began with 8:25 remaining, as Wilson, without the puck, shouldered Flames defenseman MacKenzie Weegar hard in the neutral zone. As the whistle blew, Wilson came to a stop right near the Flames bench, where 6-foot-8 forward Adam Klapka said hello by tapping Wilson on the back with his stick.
Wilson didn’t like this much, so he turned around and slapped Klapka in the head.
Officials met after the play and decided to assess only Klapka a penalty — a 10-minute misconduct — ending his night.
But that didn’t calm things down. Two minutes later, Nazem Kadri took a cheap shot at Jakob Chychrun as the Capitals defenseman got tangled up with a Flames forward and began falling to the ice. Kadri hit Chychrun from the blindside up near the neck, briefly injuring the defender and enraging the Capitals.
With exactly six minutes remaining, Wilson drew a high-sticking penalty on Flames defenseman Yan Kuznetsov at Calgary’s blue line, appearing to go down somewhat easily as the two made contact. The Flames bench was frustrated by what they thought was a dive by Wilson. So during the next stoppage, both Wilson and Weegar animatedly exchanged some words.
The refs had enough after that confrontation and gave Wilson a misconduct, effectively ending his game with 5:23 remaining in regulation and the Capitals only up 2-1.
“Yeah, I got slashed a couple times from the bench,” Wilson explained postgame. “So, I guess… Maybe those guys were watching last year’s shenanigans. I guess it’s the game within the game. You know, guys chirping each other and having some fun with it, and competitive nature and emotion. That’s why hockey is the best sport in the world.”
So what happened with the ejection?
“I was actually chirping a player,” Wilson replied. “I was going out… Weegar was kind of chirping me, and I chirped him back. And then the ref, I guess, decided that it was a 10 for me. I was kind of in… In the thick of it all night. And I think maybe the ref had just kind of had enough of me and sent me to the room. Not a smart play by me, obviously, in that situation. But I didn’t think I would get a 10 in that situation. But the boys did a good job closing it out.”
Thankfully, without Wilson, the Capitals would hold on and win 3-1 after Alex Ovechkin sealed the game in the final minute with an empty-net goal, the 918th tally of his career. The victory ended the team’s four-game losing streak and came after an embarrassing loss to the Vancouver Canucks two nights before.
The shenanigans Wilson refers to last season were when he had an epic battle — both hockey- and chirping-related — with former Flames defenseman Rasmus Andersson.
Andersson mocked Wilson’s toughness.
Wilson would then tease Andersson for his big head.
Though a Saddledome rematch between the two did not happen on Friday after the Flames traded Andersson to the Vegas Golden Knights for Zach Whitecloud, defenseman prospect Abram Wiebe, a conditional first-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft, and a conditional second-round pick in the 2028 NHL Draft earlier in the week.
