Canucks centre Filip Chytil exits after huge hit from Capitals’ Tom Wilson

At the tail end of the first period, Vancouver Canucks centre exits after taking a massive hit in the neutral zone from Washington Capitals winger Tom Wilson.

Chytil takes an exit pass from Linus Karlsson and fires a bank pass off the boards to Evander Kane. He turns to the centre of the ice and is met by Wilson, who throws his shoulder into the centre of Chytil’s chest in the open ice and leaves him down on the ice. The trainer came out to tend to Chytil, who was on his knees on the ice for a while. He needed help from teammates to get to the bench and walked gingerly down the tunnel.

The Czech centreman has struggled with concussion issues throughout his career. He has suffered five reported concussions throughout his nine-year NHL career. The most recent being in March of 2025, when Chicago Blackhawks forward Jason Dickinson hit him from behind against the boards halfway through the third period of what was a 6-2 game.

Vancouver got out to an early 3-0 lead in the first period against the Capitals before the hit, with goals from Elias Pettersson, Tyler Myers and Kiefer Sherwood. Chytil did a good job of driving the net and causing chaos in front of Charlie Lindgren, which led to the Myers goal. So far this season, Chytil has three goals – two coming on opening night against the Calgary Flames, and the Canucks’ opening goal against the Dallas Stars that sparked a four-goal second period – and zero assists with a minus-one rating in 17:45 minutes of average ice time.

Before the second period began, the Canucks announced that Chytil and forward Jonathan Lekkerimäki would not return to the contest. Brock Boeser was also ruled out prior to puck drop due to personal reasons. The Canucks will finish the rest of the game with 10 forwards.