Tom Wilson shrugs off physical play, Islanders’ aggression after fight

He knew it was going to happen at some point, and so when Tom Wilson felt Anders Lee skate up next to him on Thursday and drop his gloves, Wilson knew it was time.

Lee, the New York Islanders’ rookie left wing, took umbrage to Wilson’s hit on defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky — a crushing blow that left Visnovsky unable to play Thursday in Game 5 of the teams’ first-round playoff series.

And so Lee took it upon himself to stand up for his teammate, jostling Wilson with his stick before the two fought at 5:22 of the first period. Lee, who sparred with Wilson in a regular-season meeting between the teams in November, then took roughly a dozen right hands from Wilson before the two fell to the ice.

The bout served as the culmination of two days of heated reaction by several Islanders players, who were no doubt worked up by Wilson hitting Visnovsky against the boards in the first period on Tuesday.

Wilson, for his part, maintained that the hit was clean — he was playing the puck, he never left his feet, he never made contact with Visnovsky’s head — and the NHL appeared to back that up by choosing not to discipline him for the hit.

But that didn’t mitigate the anger for the Islanders, who were charged up at the start of the game — 31 of their 49 credited hits were in the first period — and grew increasingly frustrated as the goals mounted in their 5-1 loss.

The hit, Wilson said, and the backlash from it, appeared to get in the Islanders players’ heads.

“It’s obvious,” Wilson said. “They got a couple guys thrown out late in the game. The thing is, with those, it’s a fresh start next game. We’re getting right back to square one, and we’re going to continue to do the same thing and stick to our system and do our thing.”

The couple guys Wilson referred to were fourth-line wings Matt Martin and Cal Clutterbuck, who were assessed 10-minute misconduct penalties midway through the third period, two minutes after Jason Chimera scored the Capitals’ fifth and final goal.

Martin was sent off first after approaching Capitals left wing Brooks Laich prior to a faceoff and smacking him in the butt with his stick. After the faceoff, Clutterbuck was whistled for jabbing his stick into Laich’s stomach.

Fourth-line center Casey Cizikas also let his emotions boil over moments earlier when he stuck his stick between Wilson’s legs and jabbed it upward.

“I know Cizikas off the ice a little bit,” Wilson said. “He’s a good kid, a good guy. Obviously, you never want to get a guy there. He apologized. Just heat of the moment. Fairly cheap play, but we’ll just kind of put that in the rear view. Winning is the most important thing right now.”

Coach Barry Trotz said before the game that he had no concern about the way the Capitals would handle any potential retaliation from the hit and insisted he hadn’t heard any of the Islanders players’ chatter about it. After the game, he applauded the way his players remained disciplined throughout the hitting and the penalties.

Wilson, who said after Game 4 he wasn’t interested in fighting because of the impact it could have on the series, also took the high road, applauding Lee for his actions.

“I was kind of trying, hoping, to get our team up [by fighting],” Wilson said. “I was trying to stay disciplined and trying to get our team up on the power play and use that, but the refs felt it was a fair match, and it was a good fight. Like I said, credit to him. He played well this year. He’s good for their team and he stood in there.”