Tom Wilson earns a big reward for his effort

The league handed Tom Wilson the Third Star for the week that wrapped on Sunday, after he piled up eight points in four games and Washington went a spotless 4-0-0.

The 31-year-old alternate captain scored four goals, added four assists, and turned what looked like a tough stretch into a statement run.

Wilson's heater now sits at five straight games with a point and an assist, nine points over that span. Three of his four outings this week were multi-point nights, capped by a two-goal, one-assist show on Sunday against the New York Islanders.

He also owns 30 career game winners now, sliding ahead of a cluster of big Capitals names and underlining how often he is on the ice when it actually gets decided.

Zoom out to the season and the numbers are even louder. Wilson leads Washington with 15 goals and 29 points in 26 games, his 1.12 points per game, five power-play goals and heavy hit totals putting him in that rare club that hurts teams on the scoreboard and the body.

His 15 goals sit tied for eighth in the league, and his 29 points are tied for 18th.

Not bad for the kid taken 16th overall back in 2012, who was once talked about mostly as a wrecking-ball winger rather than a top-line scorer.

At 31, Wilson looks like the fully realized version of that projection, the one front offices dream about when they bet on size and snarl in the first round.

The details of his game are driving this run, not just the box score. He is winning races on the forecheck, turning chip-ins into controlled entries, then parking at the top of the crease on the power play where goalies hate him most.

Team-wise, this all adds up to four straight victories and seven wins in their last eight, a stretch that has dragged the Capitals from «maybe bubble» chatter into the thick of the standings climb again.