That lift came in the form of an opinion from an independent arbitrator, a 43-page document concerning the fate of the Capitals' own No. 43, Tom Wilson. In that document, Neutral Discipline Arbitrator Shyam Das shortened Wilson's 20-game league suspension to 14 games, making the Washington winger immediately eligible to play in Tuesday's road trip opener against the Wild in Minnesota.
Buoyed by Wilson's return and with their forward corps now all present and accounted for, and slotted into their proper places for the first time this season, the Caps promptly went out and put a whipping on the Wild, 5-2.
"Obviously it was great to get him back," says teammate and former Wilson roommate Andre Burakovsky. "He is a key player for our team. He brings so much energy, both on the ice and off the ice, so it was a huge life for the team to get him back earlier than expected. I think he had a really strong game today. He obviously got a goal in his first game back and then some dirty works. I think he is a huge guy for us on the [penalty kill] and it showed today."
Wilson made his presence felt in his first game back scoring a goal and getting whistled for goaltender interference on the same sequence, getting into a fight with the Wild's Marcus Foligno and logging 5:23 worth of shorthanded ice time on a night in which Washington was down a dude for a significant total of the night, 11:27 altogether.
For the first time since they hoisted the Stanley Cup in Las Vegas last June 7, the Caps had their top nine forwards intact and in their proper slots in the lineup. And on the front end of a set of back-to-back games, they earned two points without any of their forwards playing more than 20 minutes. Lars Eller led Caps forwards with 19:23 in ice time. Eller played a strong game, logging an arduous 7:49 worth of shorthanded time, outpacing all of the team's defensemen in that regard.
Eller's line generated two of the Caps' five goals, and each of Washington's top nine forwards recorded at least a point in the game.
"We knew this road trip was going to be tough," says Wilson, "and we have to put our 'A' game together to have a good result in this building every year. They come hard, it's a great crowd, it's a great place to play hockey and we did a great job at coming out and dictating the play, capitalizing on our chances, and running them out of the rink a little."