Caps forward Tom Wilson appears to avoid significant injury after scary knee-on-knee collision

Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson has received extensive coverage in hockey media all week after his infamous punch on a downed Pavel Buchnevich and slamming superstar Artemiy Panarin to the ice without a helmet during Monday's Caps/Rangers game.

Just two nights later, the two clubs came together for the grudge match, which yielded over 100 penalty minutes and 6 fights in the early stages of the first period. Wilson was a willing participant in a scrap with Rangers defenseman Brendan Smith, and ended up leaving the game with an upper-body injury shortly thereafter.

There has been plenty of speculation as to whether Wilson's injury was legitimate or whether the goal was to have him exit the game in order to de-escalate the situation, which was clearly out of hand. Regardless of what the reality was, Wilson did not return to Wednesday's game.

The injury, if legitimate, was minor enough that Wilson was able to return to action on Saturday against the Philadelphia Flyers. Unfortunately his return to the lineup was derailed as he would be forced to leave the game midway through the first period after he was involved in a scary knee-on-knee collision at centre ice with Flyers forward Nicolas Aube-Kubel. You can see the hit below.



The early reactions to the play on social media were very karma-focused, which is a little ironic, considering that finding joy in someone else's misfortune is also bad karma, but I digress.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of Tom Wilson's on-ice antics and reckless play, but I certainly didn't enjoy watching his knee appear to hyperextend the way it did. Wilson could not put weight on his right leg and needed to be helped off the ice.

Thankfully for the Caps, Wilson did return in the second period, appearing to avoid any serious injury. Man, would that have been a tough loss for Washington, right before the postseason.