Fifteen days ago, after reflecting on a viral crybaby taunt he made at the Montreal Canadiens, Tom Wilson told the press, “I should probably just shut up sometimes.”
Thankfully, Wilson did not change, and he gave social media more fodder during Game 4 of the Washington Capitals’ second-round series against the Carolina Hurricanes.
Wilson was back to his over-the-top, sarcastic self during the second period when he got in a scrum with veteran Hurricanes forward and “honest player,” per TNT’s telecast, Jordan Staal.
Wilson gave Staal a soft, nothingburger of a punch with his gloved hand. The 36-year-old Canes captain reacted by throwing his head back like a rock ’em, sock ’em robot meeting its fatal blow. While the scrum continued, Staal then threw a sucker punch at Wilson’s head, which then sent the Capitals enforcer into Expressive Tom mode.
Skating back to the Capitals’ bench, Wilson began chirping Staal and imitating how he threw his head back to try and draw a penalty.
Then, Wilson sarcastically did the Canes’ storm surge celebration, where the players clap around the faceoff circle together to celebrate victories.
Here’s another angle from Matt who was at the game. At the end, Wilson makes a lasso gesture for some reason.
What seemed funny at the time turned ill-fated later. The Capitals lost Game 4 by a score of 5-2, and the Hurricanes made sure to mock Wilson back.
“Bro knew the game was over so early he did the surge in the 2nd period,” the Hurricanes tweeted on X.
Well played, Canes. Sigh.
Well played.
Canes beat Caps 5-2
In Raleigh on Monday night, the Washington Capitals fell to the Carolina Hurricanes, a thing they can do only one more time, tops. Here’s how it went.
Shayne Gostisbehere turned some fancy puck-handling into the game’s first goal, the only one of the first period. Seth Jarvis made it 2-0 in the second period, cleaning up a rebound from Sebastian Aho to beat Logan Thompson.
Five minutes into the third period, Matt Roy served the puck to Jakob Chychrun, crashing the net to put the Caps on the board for freaking finally. Taylor Hall stuffed the Caps back in their two-goal hole with a breakaway. On a five-on-three powerplay, Alex Ovechkin scored a big goal from the Ovi Spot to bring the Caps back within striking distance momentarily. But Sean Walker made it 4-2 after Rasmus Sandin’s stick got stuck in the boards. Andrei Svechnikov scored the empty netter as soon as the Thompson fled the crease.
I hated the Ovechkin goal. I had finally become numb to the idea of losing this game, series, and season. I could have thousand-yard-stared my way into summertime. But then Ovi did his thing, and I was forced to feel again. That’s the insidious thing about this team. Just when you try to check out, they pull you back in. And that’s when you really get hurt.
But down 3-1 to the best-looking team of the postseason, the opportunities for the Capitals to hurt you are dwindling. Teams come back from 3-1 all the time, but is it ethical to do so? Consider the anxiety you would have to endure. Maybe the kinder thing for them to do is suck badly just one more time on Thursday and then fade into the obscurity of summer.
But maybe not.
