Tom Wilson wasn’t new to this, an opposing player inches away from his face, wanting him to drop his gloves. He skated away from the Islanders’ Eric Boulton, deciding five minutes in the penalty box for fighting wasn’t worth participating in an exhibition game spar with a player he didn’t expect to be in the NHL this season.
But what if he had encountered this same situation a year ago? Would Wilson have accepted that challenge?
“I don’t know,” he said last week. “Maybe.”
In his first two years in the league, the Washington Capitals winger got into 27 fights and spent 323 minutes in the penalty box, and his role was mostly limited to the fourth line.