As the Washington Capitals were celebrating their 4-2 win over the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of their first-round playoff series, Tom Wilson was being evaluated. Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette said following the game, suffered a lower-body injury at some point in the first period, according to the Washington Post’s Samantha Pell.
It’s unclear when Wilson was injured. However, he did crash into the board on an attempted hit.
Wilson logged just one minute and 31 seconds of ice time. He took a stick from Panthers defenseman Radko Gudas, drawing a high sticking penalty 49 seconds into the game.
It appeared Wilson was cut in the face. He remained in the game. The Capitals ultimately had a 5-on-3 advantage following a delay of game penalty on the Panthers. After the two-man advantage was killed, Wilson redirected a rebound off Anthony Mantha’s shot just as time expired on Washington’s second power play to give them an early 1-0 lead.
As the game continued, TV cameras showed Wilson being attended to by trainers before walking off around the 11-minute mark down the tunnel to the locker room.
He didn’t return during the first period. He wasn’t on the bench at the start of the second period. However, he came out and skated around the ice during a TV timeout.
But eventually he skated off the ice and went through the tunnel back in the locker room. Wilson did not return from that point on.
The Capitals missed Wilson early on, as the Panthers rallied to take a 2-1 lead going into the third period. Yet, the Capitals bounced back with three unanswered goals from Evgeny Kutznetsov, T.J. Oshie and an empty-netter from Lars Eller to stun the Panthers in Game 1.
With the win in tow, the attention immediately shifted to the status of WIlson. The Capitals need him on the ice, as he has emerged as one of Washington’s top secondary scorers with a career-high 24 goals this season behind 50-goal scorer Alex Ovechkin.
If the Capitals are to pull off an upset of the President Trophy-winning Panthers, they may need Wilson to be on the ice and effective.
