Tom Wilson is no stranger to going viral for his sarcastic taunts, and he did so again after his bench brawl with Josh Anderson.
During the Capitals’ 6-3 loss to the Canadiens in Game 3, Wilson created an instant meme when he acted as if he was crying like a baby and imitating a specific Habs player. While many assumed he was mocking Anderson, a reverse angle of the wild post-second-period fracas showed that the actual target of his contempt was Juraj Slafkovsky.
“Yeah, it was for one guy,” Wilson said Sunday. “I wasn’t doing it to their whole team. It was for one guy. I’m not going to say who, but he knows who it was, and obviously the camera was right on me, so I guess I should probably just shut up sometimes, but like I said, emotions get high. They’re playing hard, we’re playing hard. It’s been fun hockey so far, and we’ll keep it going.”
After winning their first game of the series, head coach Martin St. Louis will likely stick with the same lineup from Game 3 that featured Anderson and enforcer Arber Xhekaj. Wilson was asked if he believes any of the extracurriculars from the game will carry over into Sunday night’s Game 4.
“Yeah, it’s obviously been a lot of attention on that, pretty crazy, emotions get high,” Wilson said. “It’s playoff hockey, and he’s a competitor; I’m a competitor. I think that’s the game of hockey – that’s why everybody loves it, right? It can be a little bit crazy at times, and it’s physical and it’s playoffs. I think there’s always a little bit of carryover in the playoffs. There’s always those emotions. When you play a team over and over, it can get that way. It can become a rivalry.
“We gotta be better tonight. That game got a little out of hand on multiple fronts from our end, and we’ve just gotta be better between the whistles, play better, make better plays. That stuff isn’t what we’re focused on going forward.”
Anderson and Wilson have battled throughout the series and their careers at large, stemming from their days in the OHL with the London Knights and Plymouth Whalers, respectively. The two have fought several times over the past decade-plus and as recently as earlier this season.
“You know what you’re going to get with him,” Wilson said. “He’s doing his job, and I got to be a little bit better at maybe turning away and playing hockey.”
Keeping his emotions in check and away from unnecessary rough stuff will be even more paramount for Wilson, as the league is reportedly cracking down on any confrontations during non-game situations like warmups, TV timeouts, and intermission breaks. The Ottawa Senators and Nick Cousins were recently fined due to Cousins shooting a puck at Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Anthony Stolarz during warmups.
Capitals bench boss Spencer Carbery told the media Sunday that he had a conversation with Wilson after the Game 3 festivities to warn him of the increased scrutiny from the NHL’s Department of Player Safety.
“You’ve gotta be careful with that because that’s the stuff the league doesn’t want to see,” Carbery said. “Everybody rides the red line [in warmups] – I did that for many games. But when you go over and grab a puck, like now we’re starting to get into some different areas. TV timeouts – when you go out and you’re looking for certain things, or you have an objective in that timeout.
“So, those are the things that we’re conscious of, and I’m trying to tell our guys to just leave it alone, and the league obviously is looking. There are some things that are going on in those moments, which the league is big on: ‘We can’t have anything happening here where there’s confrontation, there’s guys hitting each other.’ That’s a separate deal that our guys and Willy specifically is cognizant of, and he knows to be smart and be cool in those situations.”
Carbery acknowledged that Wilson wasn’t actually a part of any of the purported shenanigans, but worried that he could be dragged into them given his reputation as a very emotional player. Wilson is an important player for the Capitals, playing a significant role at all strengths for the club.
“It’s such a great example of Willy and his leadership and who he is,” Carbery said. “There’s a primary example of the fiery competition that he is, but he also can take a step back and go, ‘I need to be better in this area,’ or ‘I need to calm down in this situation.’ I always appreciate that part of him as a competitor and as a leader. The competitive stuff inside the game, I’m fine with, like that’s part of the game.”
The Capitals and Canadiens, and Wilson and Anderson, will renew acquaintances in Game 4 at the Bell Centre with puck drop set for 6:30 pm.
