{"id":699142,"date":"2026-06-12T05:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T05:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/699142\/"},"modified":"2026-06-12T05:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-12T05:44:10","slug":"aliaksei-protas-details-how-tom-wilson-gives-the-washington-capitals-a-psychological-edge-in-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/699142\/","title":{"rendered":"Aliaksei Protas details how Tom Wilson gives the Washington Capitals a psychological edge in games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Wilson<\/a> is one of the Washington Capitals<\/a>\u2018 leading scorers and takes the ice in all situations. If that weren\u2019t enough, Wilson\u2019s physicality and toughness have a major impact on games, too, beyond the number of hits he throws as tracked by NHL statistics (for the record, he had 179, the 39th-most in the league last year).<\/p>\n

Aliaksei Protas<\/a> explained the added psychological edge that Wilson gives the Capitals in games during a Russian-language interview with BetNews<\/a>, alongside\u00a0his little brother, Ilya.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just who he is,\u201d Aliaksei said<\/a> of Wilson, as translated by Google Translate. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t really need to say anything, and opponents know who they\u2019re playing against. Every team has guys like that. When you\u2019re going to hit someone or do something extra, you remember, \u2018Oh right\u2026 There\u2019s a guy on the bench or on the ice who might remember this later.\u2019 And then you\u2019ll remember the next moment for the rest of your life. Guys like that are incredibly important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson, who has spent much of the last two seasons skating with Aliaksei, is no stranger to imposing his will on opponents, especially when they take liberties with the Capitals\u2019 skill players. For instance, when Jack McBain<\/a> broke Alex Ovechkin\u2019s leg during a game in the 2024-25 season<\/a>, the Utah Mammoth<\/a> forward had to answer the bell with Wilson, one of the NHL\u2019s most feared enforcers, despite no one thinking the hit was intentionally malicious<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Not only can Wilson make other players answer the bell, but he\u2019s<\/a> a next-level<\/a> trash-talker<\/a> and chirper<\/a>, sometimes calming down situations (because who wants to engage that guy) or making himself a target<\/a> \u2014 something he can handle due to his size and strength.<\/p>\n

Wilson can deliver big hits that not only cause opposing players to be more cautious on the ice but also change the course of games<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A huge hit in neutral ice by Wilson on Alexandre Carrier<\/a> not only led to a Brandon Duhaime goal<\/a>, but a comeback win in Game 4 during Washington\u2019s first-round series against the Montreal Canadiens in 2025<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s the heart and soul of this organization, right?\u201d Logan Thompson<\/a> said<\/a>. \u201cWhen he\u2019s making plays, big hits, we feed off that. Especially in our home rink, I think the whole building feeds off it. So, you know, he\u2019s a huge part of this team, and, yeah, no, we love him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Capitals would ride that momentum and close out the Habs in five games.<\/p>\n

Wilson has been described as a unicorn by analysts for how unique and valuable his contributions are, impacting not only the scoresheet but also opposing teams\u2019 focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe does it all for us: hits, goals, fights,\u201d Duhaime said<\/a>. \u201cHe just is a true leader for us, and he truly does it all.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tom Wilson is one of the Washington Capitals\u2018 leading scorers and takes the ice in all situations. If…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":699143,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-699142","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=699142"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/699142\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/699143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=699142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=699142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=699142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}