Tom Wilson has spent a decade as the player opposing fan bases most enjoy blaming. On Wednesday night in Washington, Juraj Slafkovsky left the ice for the dressing room after a collision with him, both benches emptied toward each other, and then something unusual happened.
Almost everybody decided Wilson hadn’t done anything wrong.
The sequence began with Ivan Miroshnichenko, who caught Slafkovsky in the neutral zone with a heavy shoulder-to-chest hit that knocked the 22-year-old off his feet. Slafkovsky went down and slid out of control along the ice. Wilson was skating the other way and didn’t have time to get out of the path. Slafkovsky’s head met his legs.
Montreal’s bench didn’t wait for the replay. Alexandre Carrier and Kaiden Guhle went straight at the Capitals, and the scrum that followed cost both of them roughing minors. Miroshnichenko took one too, and Washington ended up on the power play out of it.
What happened to Juraj Slafkovsky?
Officials initially put up a five-minute major so they could review the whole thing properly. On review it came off the board, with the conclusion being that nobody had targeted or hit anyone in the head.
Slafkovsky walked down the runway under his own power and was back on the bench inside five minutes, apparently fine.
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What followed online was a rare experience for Wilson.
“I hate Wilson but he did nothing wrong there. Reminds me of Perry on Tavares, accidental hit by a dirty player so people are mad,” one fan wrote.
“As weird as it feels to say, I don’t think that was a malicious play by Wilson. Awkward though,” another said.
“To be fair, I don’t like Wilson, but he even moved his elbow away. The rest of him was still there,” a third added, while someone else simply filed it under: “Rare Wilson did nothing wrong moment.”
The goodwill didn’t last the period. Arber Xhekaj went after Wilson on the ensuing power play after an extra whack at the net, which felt rather more like business as usual.
Washington won 5-4, with Alex Tuch scoring twice and Josh Anderson matching him for Montreal.
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