WASHINGTON — Tom Wilson would like a word with the official scorers about his blocked shots in the Washington Capitals’ 3-1 win in Game 2 against the Carolina Hurricanes.
“I only had two of them? The guys up top need to pay a little more attention,” Wilson said after the Capitals evened their Eastern Conference semifinals playoff series at 1-1 Thursday night.
Perhaps it was quality over quantity for Wilson in Game 2. One of his two blocks was a sprawling stop in the first period that took away a Grade-A scoring chance from Hurricanes center Jordan Staal in front of Washington goalie Logan Thompson (27 saves), sparking a roar from the crowd.
“He does everything the right way. We build off it. I think the whole stadium built off it. Big part of why we won tonight,” Thompson said of Wilson.
“He actually said ‘thank you’ for one of the blocks. I think that was a first this year,” Wilson, a 6-foot-4 winger, responded with Thompson next to him smiling.
Despite what the scoresheet said about his blocked shots, it felt as if Wilson was all over the defensive zone in Game 2 — and the offensive end as well.
He assisted on defenseman John Carlson‘s power-play goal 1:54 into the third period, the eventual game-winner and the first goal surrendered by the Carolina penalty kill this postseason (19-for-20). Wilson clinched the win with an empty-net goal, his third of the playoffs, with a minute left in regulation.
“Obviously he set the tone,” Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin said. “He’s our leader. He’s plays smart. He plays physical. Scored a big goal.”
The Capitals needed that effort after their 2-1 overtime loss in Game 1 on Tuesday night.
“Game 1 wasn’t good enough. We knew that. It was in our headspace for the last couple of days. It’s not a good feeling when you go home after Game 1 and you weren’t happy with your effort,” Wilson said. “As a group, we have the ability to look at each other and demand more. To know that the guy next to you is going to show up and give it everything is just a really cool thing.”
Wilson was one of the most vocally dissatisfied players after the defeat. His line with Connor McMichael and Pierre-Luc Dubois was dominated by Carolina in Game 1, getting outchanced 11-1 and finishing with a minus-21 in shot attempts.
Coach Spencer Carbery said that Wilson’s improvement game over game, and that of his leadership group as a whole, inspired the team.
“When we don’t perform to our standard, it, for lack of a better term, pisses them off. It doesn’t sit well with them. Then they take concrete actions to fix it and to make sure it doesn’t look like that again,” Carbery said. “And so that’s exactly what you saw over the last 48 hours from Willie.”
Carbery said Wilson was the first player to come to him and ask how the Capitals could be better situationally after a disappointing Game 1 loss.
“It’s easy for some people to get uncomfortable with losing and they turn the page the next day. It’s a whole other thing to do something about it in your preparation and then go out and meet the charge,” Carbery said. “He was right there tonight, dragging guys into the fight.”
Game 3 of the series is in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Saturday night.