Last night’s Metro Division throwdown with the visiting Hurricanes was one for the scrapbooks…but it certainly didn’t feel like it would be early on in the game. Despite having the better of the play from the opening faceoff, a couple of unforced mistakes had the Caps down by two after the first period and down 3-0 before the second was five minutes old. It seemed like this game was destined to be one of those “executed well but couldn’t finish” losses that have plagued them from time to time.
But then, just a few minutes after Shayne Gostisbehere put the ‘Canes up by three, Hendrix Lapierre – and his suddenly hot(ish) hands – stepped in and cut the lead back down to two.
Then Dylan Strome tipped a beautiful pass from Aliaksei Protas past Frederik Andersen, and suddenly this game felt more like…well, a game. Whether you were in the building or watching from home, you could feel it start to shift. The Caps were already playing well but now there was energy behind it, and it almost seemed like a matter of time before the Caps tied this thing up.
Enter Tom Wilson.
See, Tom has developed this delightful habit of leveling an absolute monster of a check on an opponent in such a way that it either leads to his teammate scoring or to him getting a goal himself.
He famously laid out Montreal’s Alexandre Carrier in last year’s playoffs that led to a game-tying, momentum-changing goal by Brandon Duhaime (and a hit that was pretty widely credited with swinging not just the game but the series for the Caps):
He carried out another “horrifying act of violence” against the Rangers at MSG on New Year’s Eve, demolishing New York’s Noah Laba in almost exactly the same spot before this time taking the puck up ice for his own goal:
Last night, with his team down by one and time ticking away, it was time once again for the Tom Wilson Monster Hit That Changed the Game (…we’re workshopping names, don’t worry). This time, it was a massive hit on Logan Stankoven behind the Carolina net that set things in motion. Stankoven was coming around the back of the net, fresh off of dumping the puck to a teammate, when he got an up-close and personal introduction to a 6’4″, 225-lb Olympian-slash-menace.
Seconds later, Protas forced a turnover at neutral ice and brought the puck back into the Carolina zone, only to be faced with a pissed-off Stankoven, who tried to take a bite out of Protas…and found out that was almost as bad an idea as trying to hit Wilson, because he again ended up on the ice and Protas calmly sent the puck over to Jakob Chychrun. Chychrun fired the puck past Andersen and all of a sudden the game was tied with just over six minutes left in regulation.
Wilson would pick up an assist on the play, but his bigger assist was his ability to simply use his well-timed, well-executed physicality to absolutely change a game. All legal hits. All devastating to the opponent. All crucial for his team. This time, it was Justin Sourdif picking up the overtime winner to give the Caps a huge victory over Carolina.
And just like that, the Caps – FINALLY – have back-to-back wins for the first time in about two months. Try to focus on the “yay, they won two in a row” part and not the “…dear god, they haven’t done that since December 3?” part. Not time to rest on those very exciting laurels, though, as the Caps round out their pre-Olympic slate with more Metro Division fun against the Isles on Monday and the Flyers in Philly Tuesday night.
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