This just happened in the Capitals’ game against the Bruins.
Sure, Tom Wilson can be the Washington Capitals’ enforcer, but he is and wants to be so much more than that.
In the second period of the Caps’ home opener against the visiting Boston Bruins, Wilson was being his usual self: getting under opponents’ skins and delivering hits left and right.
Then, he crushed Mark Kastelic into the boards and the winger had had enough.
Kastelic went after Wilson, grabbing him in order to push him to drop the gloves, but Wilson stunned everyone and did the unexpected. He turned down the fight.
He not only brushed away Kastelic: he just kept spinning away from him, like he could not bother wasting time on him.
According to Capitals insider Sammi Silber, this is something Wilson has been working on: turning down fights, especially when the time isn’t right.
“I talked to Willy a lot about this. There’s a time and a place, he tells me, and the second period of a 0-0 game where the puck’s bobbling and Caps need some offense is not the time.”
Still, fans would have love a good Wilson fight.
But it seems like it was a good thing for Wilson to focus on producing for his team. In the third frame, after Bruins’ David Pastrnak gave Boston the lead, Wilson tied it up at 1.
The Bruins however got the lead back later in the third frame, and eventually won the game 3-1.
I bet Wilson wanted to fight then, but he did make sure to end the game with one other MASSIVE hit, this time on Michael Eyssimont.
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