Hurricanes hold Capitals’ Tom Wilson in check, to delight of Raleigh faithful
Raleigh’s Rialto Theater at Five Points had an interesting sign on its marquee the past few days:
“All are welcome except Tom Wilson.”
That would be Tom Wilson of the Washington Capitals. That would be the big forward wearing No. 43 who at times can beat you with a hard-working goal or become a heat-seeking missile on the ice who’s ready and willing to lay somebody out.
“He can smoke you,” Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Dmitry Orlov said Monday.
Whenever there is antagonism or angry faces or a scuffle on the ice, Wilson always seems to be involved. At 6-foot-4 and 220 pounds, he’s hard to miss, and the Caps feed off his energy and a defiant demeanor that some opponents — and opposing fans — would call nasty and the Caps call motivational.
He’s the player everyone seems to love to hate, unless you’re playing with him.
There were boos Monday at Lenovo Center in the second period of Game 4 when Wilson, during a scrum, pawed Canes captain Jordan Staal in the face. He later drew more when he faced the Canes bench and clapped his hands over his head, mocking the Canes’ postgame victory celebrations in the regular season.
But mostly there were cheers from the home crowd as the Canes took a 5-2 win for a 3-1 win in the second-round series.
Wilson was playing on Dylan Storme’s line with Alexander Ovechkin, a change made to load up the top line and find some offense. Ovechkin had 44 goals in the regular season and Wilson a career-high 33. while Strome had 29 goals led the Caps with 83 points.
Ovechkin scored a 5-on-3 goal in the third period, but the Caps will need a lot more from Wilson and the Strome line as Canes goalie Frederik Andersen continues to be sharp and the Canes’ pressure game is suffocating.
“He’s the engine who drives our team,” Strome said of Wilson. “When he’s going well, I think our whole team is going well.
“He can score, hit and make plays and he plays every situation whether we’re up a goal or down a goal late in the game. Power play, penalty kill, he’s out there. That’s why we follow him.”
Wilson led the Caps this season with 233 hits, which surprises no one. He had 11 hits against the Canes in Game 3 of the series.
“I think maybe the casual fan might think he does more hitting than anything else,” Strome said. “Obviously his stats this year would lead you to believe that’s not the case.
“I think he can do it all. I think when it requires a more physical game, he’s going to be right there. In the games we won 6-5 or 5-4, he’s right there with a two- or three-point night. That’s why he’s a great guy to have on your team.”
Ovechkin is the Caps’ superstar and enjoys superstar status at each spot in the NHL, befitting for the man who has broken Wayne Gretzky’s career goal-scoring record. He’s the captain of the team, and at 39 has the kind of veteran status that allows him to skate off the ice six minutes into the morning skate, as he did Monday.
Wilson, 31, stayed out, continuing to work after several players headed to the locker room ahead of him.
Nor was he in a hurry to leave, taking a seat in the room to patiently answer media questions.
“When you have a group like this and you look each other in the eye, you expect to have a bounce back. It’s the recipe you want in your locker room, an accountability and dependability for the guy next to you to show up,” he said.
Wilson won a Stanley Cup with the Caps in 2018. The playoff game Monday was the 96th of his career, giving him the experience needed to weather the good and the bad that comes with the playoffs.
Wilson credits such former teammates as Justin Williams as helping him develop that proper mentality and head space. Williams played for the Caps for two seasons before leaving after the 2017-18 season and returning to the Hurricanes, where he became the team captain.
Williams won three Stanley Cups, the first with the Canes in 2006 and later twice with the L.A. Kings, and was the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the playoff MVP in 2014 with the Kings.
“He could tell a story like, ‘Hey, we were down a couple of games’ and all the different scenarios that can show you how anything can happen,” Wilson said. “He’s one of those guys who was such a great teammate and great for hockey. He had so much composure under pressure and was such a great leader.
“We didn’t win (the Cup) together, but we won right after he left and I think a lot of the qualities and the lessons from him in how to carry ourselves were still in our locker room. He helped change the culture for the better. I still depend on what he taught me.”
The Canes’ Orlov also was on the Cup-winning team in 2018. He spent a decade as Wilson’s teammate in Washington before being traded and later signing with the Canes.
Orlov said Monday before Game 4 that Wilson could be the next to wear the “C” for the Caps as captain.
“He’s grown so much since I saw him young, and we played all those years together,” Orlov said. “He’s playing hard and has become a special player for that organization. When you played with and against a player for so many years, you know what they bring to the table.”
Wilson brings a lot, earning respect from some of his peers, disdain from some and a marquee message from others.
And about that message at the Rialto ...
“The Rialto marquee often aims to serve as the city’s collective conscience, and right now we think most Raleighites agree: we don’t like that guy,” Rialto owner Hayes Permar said Monday. “We would, however, reconsider our stance if he’s willing to participate in the Underwear Run at Friday’s screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, that is if the series goes to six games.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2025 at 10:05 PM.
