Nino Niederreiter sends Wilson into the Wild bench with a huge hit.

For a second there it looked like Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson had simply been swallowed up by the Minnesota Wild bench, but he eventually managed to crawl his way back out onto the ice.

Wilson was levelled by Minnesota Wild forward Nino Niederreiter early in the second period of their match up on Thursday night. Niederreiter lined him up perfectly, and Wilson was just close enough to the boards that the impact sent him over, and although he looked like might maintain his balance he plummeted to the bench floor.

Of course the Wild players on the bench could probably have given him a hand to prevent him from going all the way over, but let's be honest, where's the fun in that?

[pub]