Last night in his 700th career game, Washington Capitals first line right winger Tom Wilson recorded his first career hat trick. A player hated across the NHL for his hard hits but beloved here in DC, Wilson is a gifted goal scorer and his offense has gotten a whole lot better.
The fact he lives rent free across the league is beautiful. Anybody would love to have Wilson their team but the Caps didn’t let that happen when they re-signed him for seven more seasons in a contract extension that kicks in next season.
With that hat trick, Wilson now has seven goals and five assists for 12 points through 20 games this season. Two of Wilson’s three goals on the night came on the power play.
"“We’ve switched up some stuff. We’re getting used to each other—a lot of new personnel. We’re playing with hunger. We’re retrieving pucks. We’re getting 2nd, 3rd looks at things. We’re starting to get our confidence back.”"
Per NHL PR, Wilson is the second player in NHL history to record a hat trick in their 700th career game, joining Phil Goyette of the New York Rangers at the time when he did it on Oct. 20, 1968 against the Los Angeles Kings.
Anaheim was also the setting of Alex Ovechkin’s first career hat trick which came in his rookie season which came on Jan. 13, 2006. With seven goals on the season for Wilson, he now moves to second on the Caps in leading goal scorers this season trailing Dylan Strome who has eight goals.
With two of those three goals being PPGs, it marked Wilson’s first career game with multiple power play goals. With one hat trick under his belt it would be poetic to see Wilson do it again but this time against St. Louis or Pittsburgh.