Capitals praise Tom Wilson after strong performance in Game 2: ‘He drives the bus every night for us’

The Washington Capitals weren’t happy with how they performed in Game 1, and it showed when they returned to Capital One Arena Thursday night. After falling 2-1 in overtime to kick off their series against the Carolina Hurricanes, the Capitals downed the Canes 3-1 in Game 2 to tie the series before it shifts to Raleigh.

Few players played a bigger role in Washington’s turnaround than Tom Wilson, who factored into the Capitals’ success on both ends of the ice. Several members of the team, including head coach Spencer Carbery, named Wilson as a standout player of the game.

“I thought he was leading the charge tonight,” Carbery said. “Even before the play he makes on the power play and on the empty netter, I just thought he was really engaged.”

Wilson’s strong showing comes after he helped shift the Capitals’ momentum against the Montreal Canadiens in the first round, and goaltender Logan Thompson joked Thursday that he was almost tired of singing his teammate’s praises.

“He was good. F—, I feel like I’m always talking about this guy,” he said, sitting beside a jovial Wilson for a postgame press conference. “Like I said before, he does everything the right way. We build off it. I think the whole stadium built off it. So, big part of why we won tonight, and going to keep this thing going.”

In Game 2 against the Hurricanes, Wilson put up a two-point night — his second of the playoffs — with a goal and an assist. He earned an primary helper on the power play, passing the puck through Jalen Chatfield to set up John Carlson for the eventual game-winning goal early in the third period.

The goal marked not only Carlson’s first since March 22, but also the first time anyone has scored on the Hurricanes’ penalty kill all postseason.

In the final minute of the period, he scored a goal of his own to seal the win, beating Seth Jarvis for an empty-net goal to negate the Hurricanes’ comeback attempt.

Wilson’s multi-point game might stand out on the score sheet, but his defensive plays proved nearly as crucial for the Capitals, stopping several dangerous chances from the Hurricanes from reaching Thompson.

Though he dove after pucks throughout the night, Wilson was credited with just two shot blocks, a number he questioned.

“I only had two of them? The guys up top need to pay a little more attention,” he joked.

Wilson noted that Thompson, too, was impressed by his shot-blocking efforts during the game.

“He actually said, ‘thank you’ for one of the blocks,” he said of Thompson. “That was a first for like the entire season, I think.”

Now at a point-per-game pace with 7 points (3g, 4a) in seven games, Wilson ranks second on the team in playoff scoring as he continues a career year. He set career highs in goals, assists, and points in the regular season, all while taking on a bigger leadership role as a full-time alternate captain.

For his part, Wilson deflected praise for his accomplishments, instead trying to put the focus on the roster as a whole.

“I don’t think I’m doing anything more than everybody else on our team,” he said. “I think there’s a full buy-in to be playing at this time of the year. That’s the expectation of our group.”

His teammates, however, tell a far different story. Brandon Duhaime was happy to highlight Wilson’s many accomplishments, though he couldn’t help but sneak in a chirp about his ego.

“He does it all,” he said. “We’ve been praising him all year. I think his head’s getting a little big, but yeah. He’s the heart of the team. He drives the bus every night for us. He’s physical. He dominates pucks and he scores big goals, makes big plays for us.”

After a disappointing Game 1, Wilson spoke frankly about the Capitals’ shortcomings, saying their performance “wasn’t good enough for the most part” and noting they were “a little bit off the whole night.” To head coach Spencer Carbery, Wilson’s dominant night not only helped the Capitals win Game 2, but also demonstrated a powerful leadership quality — the ability to turn a bad performance into a drive to do better next time.

“It’s up there with probably the best quality of our group and our leadership group — and he’s right at the forefront of that with John and O — is when we don’t perform to our standard, it for a lack of a better term, pisses them off,” Carbery said. “It doesn’t sit well with them. It doesn’t mean it’s not going to happen, but it doesn’t sit well with them. They take concrete action to fix it and make sure it doesn’t look like that again.

“That’s exactly what you saw the last 48 hours from Willy: problem solving, what can we do? He’s the first guy that comes to me about ‘what can we do off of this certain situation? Should we make an adjustment? Let’s look at it, let’s dive into it.’ It bothers them the way they played. They want to go out and do something about it. He leads the charge. It’s easy for some people to get uncomfortable with losing and, you know, they turn the page to the next day. It’s a whole other thing to do something about it in your preparation and then go out and lead the charge. To your point of leadership, he was right there tonight in dragging guys into the fight.”

The Capitals will now have to face the Hurricanes in their own barn for the series lead, set to take the ice at Lenovo Center for Game 3 on Saturday night.