Ex-Sweeper Wilson Hopes to Clean Up

Ron Wilson, the gum-chewing master of sarcasm, began to get downright sentimental when he started thinking about the upcoming Eastern Conference finals series between his Washington Capitals and the Buffalo Sabres.

“My dad played 13 years in the minor leagues for Buffalo,” said Wilson, who lived two miles across the Niagara River in Fort Erie, Ontario. “And sometimes you look and you say (this series) is sort of a fate kind of thing.

“I learned to play hockey in Buffalo. A lot of the same people are there. The trainers are there that I swept the dressing room up with (at the old Memorial Auditorium). This is really going to be a lot of fun.”

Larry Wilson went to win a Stanley Cup with Detroit, and brother John Wilson, Ron’s uncle, got his name on the Cup four times with the Red Wings in the 1940s and 1950s. That bloodline of success has kept Ron Wilson’s goal higher than that of many Capitals fans, who in Wilson’s first season were simply hoping to see their team get past the first round of the playoffs.

“When you see people in your family with their name on the Stanley Cup, you understand its eternity,” Wilson said. “It’d be better than anything you’d put on a tombstone, I think. Maybe you just put, ‘Check the Stanley Cup, his name’s there.’ That’s what I’d want to be able to put.”

Wilson has already reached one lesser pinnacle, leading the United States to the World Cup title in 1996, but he was unable to repeat that success with the U.S. Olympic team earlier this year in Nagano. Wilson was stern and sour for days after the Americans returned embarrassed and medal-less from Japan, a performance further tainted by the trashing of some dorm rooms by players on the U.S. team.

Wilson doesn’t like talking about his Olympic experience, but it’s going to be a tough topic to avoid as Saturday’s Game 1 against Buffalo approaches. The Sabres are led by Dominik Hasek, the Czech goaltender who stymied the Americans in Nagano.

“I’m just glad it’s not a one-game elimination here, like it was in Nagano,” Wilson said after the Caps eliminated Ottawa on Friday night. “I get to at least face him four times. Maybe if we beat him once, I’d be vindicated.”

Usually, however, the 43-year-old coach isn’t afraid to show a full range of emotions. He leaps out of his skin higher than any player whenever the Capitals score a big goal, and his sardonic wit makes for entertaining post-practice comments.

Wilson recently used the movie “Groundhog Day” and the term “flesh-eating virus” to discuss the Caps’ tendency to blow big series leads in the playoffs. Not long ago, when asked by a local reporter what was left to be done before a big game, he replied: “What’s left is we need to get some decent hockey writers in this town.”

Wilson’s open candor was one of his problems in Anaheim, where he was fired last year despite leading the Mighty Ducks to their best season ever. Asked if Wilson’s dealings with the media had anything to do with his dismissal, general manager Jack Ferreira said: “Let’s put it this way. Ron’s a good coach. He’s also a good quote.”

Wilson also says a lot with his mere appearance. In Japan, he went to a barber and got a buzz cut -- the same hairstyle he had worn at the World Cup -- in a failed effort to rally his team.

Now that the hair has grown back, the focus has moved to Wilson’s gum, which during a game gets a more rigorous workout than Vanna White’s clapping hands on “Wheel of Fortune.”

“It’s just superstition right now,” said Wilson, chuckling at himself as he explained. “And I’m counting the number of pieces of gum I chew. I’ll go for months without chewing gum, I’ll have cough drops, I won’t have anything. I’ll drink water, and as soon as our luck runs out I change to another thing.

“I’m no different than anyone else out there in the world, you know.”