The Washington Capitals are comprised of the world’s toughest men, playing a sport where they wear shoes with knives on them, with the occasional punch thrown. Yet, they still get jumpy around an eight-legged creature, or something lurking below them in the ocean.
Everyone has an animal that makes their skin crawl, and the Capitals were asked to share theirs.
Even feared enforcer Tom Wilson.
Lions and tigers and snakes, oh my!#ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/LQZS6hnYvm
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) December 23, 2023
Wilson was a part of a group of players that were scared of snakes, and no, we’re not talking about Elvis Merzlikins. Though, we became more focused on Tom’s conversation with the producer after revealing his answer.
“Is a snake an animal?” Tom asked. “I don’t know if snakes are technically an animal, would it be…”
[He thinks to himself for a second.]“A reptile? Yeah, they’re definitely a reptile!”
Wilson, while on the right track in his attempted species identification, slightly missed the mark in his classification. While a snake does belong to the reptile family, they are still a part of the animal kingdom.
Even Tommy’s wife, Taylor Wilson threw a “head in hands” emoji in the comment section of the Capitals’ post. Taylor graduated from the University of Manitoba with a degree in microbiology, and hopefully, she can give Willy a few lessons in taxonomy.
Alex Ovechkin picked a larger animal: a tiger.
The Moscow native hails from one of the only countries that plays host to the Siberian (Amur) tiger, the largest and most powerful big cat in the world. This was an opinion agreed upon by goaltender Darcy Kuemper, who also can’t stand the striped predator.
Dylan Strome named bees and he did not skip a beat before doing so. The center was the only Capital to answer the winged insect, and apparently there’s a big reason why. According to several Instagram commenters on the video, Stome was once chased out of a Blackhawks practice by a singular bee.
Aliaksei Protas was one of seven Capitals players to name snakes, but “if we count it as an animal” — a similar confusion as Wilson.
This is an interesting fear for Protas to have, considering as a prospect, he earned the nickname “the Viper of Vitebsk” while playing for the Prince Albert Raiders of the Western Hockey League. For the record or for those who don’t know, a viper is a type of snake. Protas’s moniker came from the family with whom he stayed during his career with the Western Hockey League. The team even designed a bobblehead that features the center sporting a viper around his neck, his host dad still has one today.
Kuzy’s disdain for snakes is no surprise. During a “What’s in the Box?” with Paul “Biznasty” Bissonnette, he told the host “I’ll be fine as long as it’s not a snake, if it’s a snake, I’m going to run away.” This came after Biznasty mentioned a boa constrictor and Kuzy became petrified.
Luckily, the only killer in his box was the high fructose corn syrup in the gummy worms they chose to trick him with.
Other Caps hopped on the anti-snake train, including Rasmus Sandin, Anthony Mantha, Alexander Alexeyev, and Beck Malenstyn. The second-most feared animal was the shark, which was picked by TJ Oshie, Connor McMichael, Nic Dowd, Nick Jensen, and Sonny Milano.
John Carlson went off the board with leeches, which average a length of under 2.5 inches. Some are even as small as ½ an inch. So the rumors are true, even men with their names carved into the Stanley Cup are afraid of things you can’t see without their glasses on.
Then there was Martin Fehervary.
“Actually I really love animals, all kinds, so I’m not really afraid of anything like spiders or snakes,” Fehervary said. “I don’t mind, it’s okay.”
Sweet, sweet Marty. The D-man couldn’t even pick an animal to name. The animal lover was gifted his first pet dog for his 10th birthday, which he told W-Magazine was the best gift he ever received in life. On top of that, Marty is an avid fisherman, and recently won a carp-fishing competition in his home country of Slovakia, hooking a 57-pound “big-mama.” For his sake, we can only hope it was catch and release.
View this post on Instagram
Marty isn’t the only Cap with a knack for fishing, goaltender Charlie Lindgren seems to have quite a talent for the sport. His family spends time fishing in Canada, where the trout seem to flock to Chuck.
View this post on Instagram
Despite his love of fishing, he wasted no time telling Caps fans that he was not a fan of lions. Now that’s one I get.
Screenshot: @Capitals/X
