It is a time-honored tradition in the NHL. A player gets ready to face a former team and makes a deal with his current teammates. Whoever scores the winning goal will get some cold, hard cash for his trouble. The money usually goes into a general fund for team activities later in the season -- a night out at a bar, a big dinner, whatever. Earlier this week, Toronto Maple Leafs coach Ron Wilson took that tradition to a new level when he himself put "money on the board" for a game against the San Jose Sharks, who fired him after five seasons in 2008 following one too many Stanley Cup playoff failures.
Unfortunately for Wilson, he was caught on camera receiving a wad of cash from defenseman Francois Beauchemin after the win, and his players later spilled the beans about him posting $600 for what turned out to be his 600th career victory. Only six other men in NHL history have accomplished that, and Wilson was rightly beaming afterward. The money went to defenseman Carl Gunnarsson, who scored the eventual game-winner and later told Toronto radio station Talk Radio AM 640 that the money equals "dinner, great food and a bunch of water."
The former Caps coach -- Wilson led them to the 1998 Stanley Cup finals -- will pay some more for his transgression. The NHL doesn't find it that amusing when someone in management throws around extra benefits. So to prevent that from becoming any kind of precedent, according to ESPN and other media outlets, the league will fine the Maple Leafs. Costly victory, indeed.