That all changed, he said, when he tuned in for Canada-U.S. and watched the chaos surrounding the opening moments.<\/p>\n
As they lined up for puck drop, U.S. forward Matthew Tkachuk<\/a> ignited things when he immediately invited Canadian forward Brandon Hagel<\/a> to scrap, which he accepted.<\/p>\n One second later, Matthew’s brother, Brady Tkachuk<\/a>, and Canada center Sam Bennett<\/a> did the same.<\/p>\n Six seconds after that, U.S. forward J.T. Miller<\/a> and Canada defenseman Colton Parayko<\/a> had their own bout.<\/p>\n \u201cThe way that started, I mean, it just added to how much I wanted to be in that game, be part of the team,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n As the NHL\u2019s active leader in penalty minutes (1,532), Wilson is no stranger to the pugilist side of the sport. With the Olympics being staged on the smaller NHL-sized ice surface, the physicality the 6-foot-4, 225-pound right wing plays with, especially on the forecheck, would make him an imposing force for the opposition.<\/p>\n But there is much more to Wilson\u2019s game than just brawn.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019ll beat you any way you want,\u201d Capitals teammate Dylan Strome<\/a> said. \u201cHe\u2019s intimidating out there, sure, but he doesn\u2019t get enough credit for his offensive skills.<\/p>\n \u201cI watch him on a nightly basis and he\u2019s the complete package, which is why I think he should be on that team.\u201d<\/p>\n To Strome\u2019s point: Wilson is coming off a season in which he set NHL career highs in goals (33), assists (32), points (65) and power play goals (11). Planting his hulking frame at the edge of the crease with the man-advantage understandably caused endless headaches for opposing goalies.<\/p>\n He also was a career-best plus-20 despite having 100 penalty minutes, a telling indication of how he\u2019s evolved into a 200-foot player. In the process, Wilson spent a chunk of the season as Alex Ovechkin<\/a>\u2019s linemate and was the perfect deterrent to any opposing players with aspirations of taking liberties with the \u201cGreat 8.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cConfidence is a big thing in our world, and seeing pucks go into the net definitely helps in that regard,\u201d Wilson said when asked how his role has changed from that of an enforcer earlier in his career. \u201cOver my time in the NHL, I\u2019ve been blessed with some great coaches and teammates that helped give me more responsibility on the ice in each passing year. And for me, I think the biggest thing was just trying to take advantage of that.<\/p>\n \u201cI was going to do whatever it took to make the League. I wanted to play in the NHL, and whether that was fighting a tough guy on the other team or chipping in on the penalty kill, I just wanted to do whatever it took. And then, when you play with world class players like Ovechkin, Nick Backstrom<\/a>, T.J. Oshie<\/a>, Evgeny Kuznetsov<\/a>, those guys helped me develop as a player and have helped me have a very cool run in my career.\u201d<\/p>\n One he hopes will continue with Canada in Italy in seven months.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s a special player with a unique combination of talents,\u201d Strome said. \u201cHe deserves to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"That all changed, he said, when he tuned in for Canada-U.S. and watched the chaos surrounding the opening…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":84014,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[293,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-84013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-nhl","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114898627759010341","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=84013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}