As much as opponents need to “keep their heads on a swivel” against Tom Wilson, the Washington Capitals’ heavy-hitter has to be alert in his own right.
According to Hockey Fights’ listings, Wilson engaged in his fifth fight of the season, and we’re only a little more than a month into 2017-18 as of Nov. 12. At this pace, Wilson may catch his career-high of 14 bouts from 2013-14.
Throwing so many big hits makes Wilson a big target, and in some instances, that means bringing a team’s bigger bruisers his way. Edmonton Oilers winger Patrick Maroon ended up “addressing” Wilson on Sunday; as Sportsnet’s announcers note, Maroon showed off an MMA-style takedown and then later switched to boxing in their normal fight.
Being that he’s moonlighting as a top-line forward with Connor McDavid most nights, Maroon hasn’t dropped the gloves all that often. Perhaps he decided to make it clear to Wilson who he’d need to deal with in the event that anything happens to number 97?
Either way, it’s a fairly entertaining set of skirmishes during what is, as of this writing, a grinding 0-0 stalemate between the Oilers and Capitals.
The game is currently scoreless in part because of this disallowed goal, by the way:
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James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.