Capitals Winger Tom Wilson Takes Dangerous Run at Leafs' William Nylander

The Maple Leafs welcomed the Washington Capitals to Scotiabank Arena on Saturday to cap off the second half of a back-to-back after defeating the Detroit Red Wings on Friday evening in Detroit.

The game marked the 9th set of back-to-backs in the first half of the season for the Maple Leafs, who were absolutely roasted by the NHL schedule-makers this season with the Buds drawing a league-high 16 back-to-back sets this season.

3 of these back-to-backs have involved the Washington Capitals, with the Caps taking full advantage of the back-to-back situations, winning the season series against the Leafs by going 2-0-1 in their 3 meetings.

Thankfully for the Leafs, it was only the game that they had lost, and not superstar winger William Nylander.

During the loss, Tom Wilson travelled a very long distance to line up the Swedish winger for a heavy hit, which very well could have been viewed as predatory had it landed the way he intended.

Fortunately, Nylander saw Wilson coming at the last second and was able to avoid the worst of the hit.

Wilson is a multi-time offender when it comes to predatory hits, so we certainly shouldn't automatically give him the benefit of the doubt by saying he pulled up on the hit.

The reality is that Wilson likely let up on the hit slightly because he recognized that Nylander had spotted him and tried to spin off of the hit, and committing to a full speed hit under those circumstances could have led to Wilson getting the worst of it, colliding more with the boards than the player.

Nylander still took a pretty good bump and did wind up losing his footing, crashing down to the ice, but his last second move likely spared him from a more troubling fate. With Auston Matthews already sidelined, we should be thankful for that.