Tom Wilson was all over the scoresheet in the Capitals’ 5-4 shootout win over the Ottawa Senators Monday night, recording the second Gordie Howe hat trick of his 12-season NHL tenure.
Though he has garnered attention for both his scoring talent and his physicality, Wilson’s first career Gordie didn’t come until earlier this season, when he registered the milestone against the Montreal Canadiens on October 31. He may have needed more than a decade to achieve the feat the first time, but he’s managed a repeat just four months later.
“I thought he was setting the tone for our entire group,” head coach Spencer Carbery said after the win. “Liked his game a lot.”
Wilson said postgame that his teammates were egging him on, crediting Connor McMichael for encouraging him over the weekend and Brandon Duhaime for his in-game cheerleading efforts.
“Dewey was yelling at me the whole game that he wanted the Gordie Howe hat trick,” he said. “You can thank McMichael — he actually texted me on Saturday night saying he expected me to do something tonight, so we got it done. It was probably a little bit too much fun tonight and we’ll build on it and have a little more structure going forward.”
When asked, McMichael declined to elaborate on what, exactly, he’d said to Wilson ahead of time, though he praised Wilson for rising to the challenge.
“I don’t know if I’m going to reveal it,” he said. “I can’t say enough good things about him. He does a lot of things behind the scenes, leading this team into battle every night and picking the groove up when we need it.”
Wilson, who earned the Capitals’ player of the game chain, revealed during his postgame locker room speech that McMichael had directed him to get into his fourth fight of the this season.
“Mikey texted me on Saturday night, said he expected me to fight, so I had to go out there and do it,” he said.
He told reporters postgame that he’d meant to scrap with longtime Philadelphia Flyers captain Claude Giroux before Tkachuk stepped up to the plate instead.
“I was going after Giroux for old time’s sake, back to the Philly days,” he said. “And then Brady just kind of came over and, I don’t know, felt like it needed to happen I guess.”
He completed the second-line trifecta of goals a period later, doing his best Alex Ovechkin impression to score a power-play goal from the left faceoff circle.
What might have been Wilson’s biggest moment of the night, however, saw him play a supporting role to Martin Fehervary late in the third period. Starting deep in the Capitals’ zone, Wilson carried the puck to the other end of the ice, passing the puck back and forth with Aliaksei Protas before setting up Fehervary for a sliding goal from the slot. The goal put the Caps up 4-3 — though Tkachuk would even the score once again in with 1:08 remaining in regulation, Washington got the win in the shootout.
“Willy setting that thing up to get us back in front was a massive moment in the game,” Carbery said.
With 47 points (27 g, 20a) in 60 games, Wilson is now just five points away from tying his career high of 52 points and has more goals this season than anyone on the Capitals not named Alex Ovechkin. In what has proven one of his best seasons in the NHL, Wilson’s performance Monday showed off just what he’s capable of.
“He’s the heart and soul of this team,” said Logan Thompson. “He works his balls off for us every night. It’s a huge fight, motivates us, and it’s a hell of a game from him.”
