Tom Wilson hits huge career milestone against Tampa Bay Lightning
Photo credit: Geoff Burke-Imagn Images
If you wanted an early October pulse check on Washington's identity, this was it. A stubborn 3 to 2 overtime win, earned with Wilson's fingerprints all over the puck and capped by a Chychrun dagger at Capital One Arena. The Lightning twice grabbed the lead, and twice the Caps shrugged, reset, and came back with authority.
Wilson did not just reach a neat round number. He drove the night like a proper heartbeat winger, finishing with a goal and two assists and the kind of edge that tilts a building. His tying marker came moments after
Brayden Point's power play strike, and the building's mood flipped as quickly as a neutral zone turnover.
The winner arrived just 79 seconds into overtime, when Wilson slid a cross-slot feed that Jakob Chychrun snapped home with zero hesitation. It was clinical, quick, and very on-brand for this newly confident group.
For anyone who missed the radio hit, the Capitals Radio Network laid it out cleanly after the horn, with postgame from Spencer Carbery,
Aliaksei Protas, and Logan Thompson, and a nod to Wilson's milestone.
Tom Wilson's 400th point and a louder leadership voice
There is something about the way Wilson is skating right now that feels different, and it is not just the production. He hits, he barks, and he still finds soft ice around the net at the exact right moment. Hit 400 points in this league and you earn the right to set a tone, and tonight he did exactly that.
A deflection goal here, a primary helper there, and one perfectly weighted pass in overtime that sent Chychrun striding into the spotlight. The numbers back the eye test as well, because Washington's first power play goal of the season finally dropped, with Wilson involved in the mix. Relief can be a powerful accelerant.
Credit to Thompson for keeping the night on script. Seventeen saves will not win him any Vezina votes, yet his timing mattered more than volume. He swallowed two slot looks that could have ripped momentum away, and he handled traffic gracefully when Tampa leaned on its cycle.
Andrei Vasilevskiy was sharp in the opposite net with 25 stops, but the Capitals owned the puck in overtime and never let the Lightning breathe. That last wave felt inevitable, and inevitability often comes from your best players making composed choices under noise.
I also liked Aliaksei Protas tonight, who continues to sneak smart touches into dangerous areas. He opened the Washington scoring off a slick
Connor McMichael feed, and those are the plays that keep a bench calm when a game gets twitchy. Add
Dylan Strome's two helpers to the ledger, and you start to see a spine forming beneath the headliners.
If the Capitals are going to be more than streaky, those secondary engines need to hum like this more nights than not.
Jakob Chychrun's overtime finish and what it signals
Chychrun's winner was not just a single highlight to replay on loop. It hinted at a relationship developing between blue line activation and Wilson's puck protection down low. When your top winger can draw two sticks and still feather a pass through the royal road, your attacking defenseman better be ready to step into the camera frame.
Chychrun was, and the release was pure. If that pattern repeats, Washington's late-game toolkit suddenly looks a lot more varied.
Reuters
Tampa Bay will leave annoyed, and fairly so, because
Jake Guentzel's opening strike and Point's power play rip usually travel well. But Washington's response spoke louder than Tampa's push.
The Caps are now riding three straight wins and quietly shaping an early-season identity around resilience, special teams that are waking up, and a goalie who looks calm behind it all. Minnesota visits on Friday, and that is another measuring stick to test whether this composure can carry on the road of an 82 game grind.
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OCTOBRE 15 | 5 ANSWERS Tom Wilson hits huge career milestone against Tampa Bay Lightning Is Wilson the heartbeat now |
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