Tom Wilson has a reputation. Unfortunately that reputation isn't a very good one. That's something Wilson and fans of Wilson will have to deal with, likely until he retires. Probably even after that since some people simply will not let go of things.
Reputations, however, do not form out of mid air, or out of nothing. They come from something. That something in Wilson's case is questionable hits. Some worse than others. Some so long ago now that the league that is responsible for punishing players will forget. Or so they will tell you.
The good news for the Washington Capitals and their fans, Wilson understands this. I think anyways. He does not throw nearly as many questionable hits as he used to. At least in my opinion. That is terrific for the Caps for one really, really important reason.
Tom Wilson has become way too important to the Capitals to do anything bad.
When Wilson created his reputation, he was a 4th liner. Or a 3rd liner at best. When he did something potentially stupid, sure the Caps would miss his physicality, and his ability to change the game with one hit. But at the end of the day, he was a 4th liner, they could survive it. It was OK from a production stand point that he was sitting in the box for 5+ minutes. Or, maybe even the press box for a game or two.
Not anymore.
Tom Wilson is not a 4th liner anymore. He is a legit top six player, if not a first line player on nearly every team. As much as it may pain fans of some other teams to hear, Wilson is a darn good player.
Tom Wilson scored 33 goals this past season. He added 32 assists for a total of 65 points on the year. He scored 11 power play goals, as well as 17 points on the man advantage. He's become an important player offensively for Washington.
He's also one of the Caps top penalty killers too. Wilson was top five on the Caps in time on ice while shorthanded. Fehervary, Carlson, Dowd and Duhaime were the only guys who had more time on the penalty kill than Wilson. He also had 5 points and 2 goals while shorthanded. The 5 points being tied with Protas for the team lead.
Bottom line. Wilson has become a really, really important player for the Washington Capitals. They need him. They really can't afford him to be sitting in a penalty box for 5+ minutes, or even worse, sitting up in the press box, serving a suspension.
The Capitals need Wilson to be on the ice. He simply cannot afford to take himself off the ice. Like he did or could have done in a game vs Canadiens last series.
As much attention as the moment in game 3 got, and as much as Caps fans and other fans find the Wilson crying video hilarious, which it is, that moment could have gotten ugly. And at the end of the day, Josh Anderson of the Canadiens helped take Tom Wilson off of the ice for 10+ minutes, in a game where the Capitals were losing.
That moment happened, and it really didn't have to. Wilson ended up pushing Anderson on to his bench. That's where that moment should have ended. Wilson could have laughed at him, thrown him countless insults, or flexed at him to show how much stronger he is or was in that moment. Or honestly, all of those at once. Anything. Instead, he followed him onto the bench and the fight continued.
As good of a player as Anderson is, he only scored 15 goals this past season, He only put up 27 total points. In fact, if you combine Anderson's past two seasons, he still doesn't have as many goals and points as Wilson had this year. Anderson can go back to the locker room and say, "There you go guys, I took a 30+ goal scorer off the ice for half a period." and that can't happen.
The reason I'm saying this is because the next round feels different going in. The series vs Montreal felt going in like, Washington is better, this should be a quick series. It ended up being closer than I and I think many thought, but it still ended up a 5 game "gentlemen's sweep".
This series coming up vs the Hurricanes feels like it could get really nasty, really quickly. That's for more than one reason too. One, that's just kind of the way these teams are. They are physical teams. They are teams that don't seem to back down when they are challenged. Those kinds of teams can get in scrums and those scrums can sometimes get out of hand.
The other reason is probably the more obvious one. These teams met not that long ago, and that game did get out of control. On April 2nd these two teams played a game where 8 misconduct penalties were handed out. And yes, Wilson was one of those 8, as you might assume.
These two teams do not like each other going into this series. That's why this series feels different going in.
If this series gets on the uglier side, Wilson has to keep his cool. That doesn't mean he can't mix it up. That doesn't mean he can't get involved in things. You can't take the things he does away from him. You saw how he can turn things in the series vs Montreal. He throws a big hit in game 4, it was the Capitals series from that moment on.
You can't say to Wilson, stop being physical. Don't get involved in tense moments. If you take that away, you take away a good portion of what makes him pretty unique, and incredibly effective.
But this is not going to be Montreal you're playing next. It is a really good Carolina team. A Hurricanes team that has been on the cusp of something really good, frankly since they knocked the Capitals out of the playoffs back in 2019.
The Capitals will need Wilson even more in this series than the last. He and Washington can't have the Hurricanes take him out of games. There can't be someone on Carolina who can say I took off a thirty goal scorer, someone who has scored over ten goals on the man advantage and one of their penalty killing guys, who is dangerous attacking while shorthanded, off the ice.
Tom Wilson is way too important to the Caps to risk being off the ice for too long. I have faith that he can do this. But I think it's worth mentioning it anyways. He simply has to keep his cool in this series.