Tom Wilson has been fined $5,000 by the NHL Department of Player Safety, the maximum allowable under the CBA, but will not face suspension or any further discipline for his role in Monday night's skirmish between the Capitals and Rangers.
The fine comes in direct response to Wilson roughing Pavel Buchnevich, one of two, two-minute roughing penalties Wilson was assessed (along with a 10-minute misconduct penalty) midway through the second period.
With the Rangers leading 3-2, Wilson spearheaded a dangerous dustup in front of the net, delivering a blow to a prone Buchnevich, who was on the ice in a heap, pointing face-down towards the ice. When other players jumped into the mix, Wilson — who made it back to his feet after Artemi Panarin had jumped on his back — appeared to grab Panarin around the head and launch him back toward the ice. Panarin also served a two-minute penalty for roughing but did not return, leaving the rink with a lower-body injury.
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Capitals teammate Lars Eller offered his perspective in a Tuesday morning appearance on 106.7 The Fan, saying, "I didn't think it was that big of a deal."
"Things happened really quickly out there, especially in front of the net around the goalies and all that stuff and there's a pile-up for people, so it's hard to get a good look at it in real time I think for anybody," Eller told The Sports Junkies. "But I didn't think it was that big of a deal."
"What happened immediately after, Tom just kind of defended himself," he said. "He first tried to defend our goalie and then tried to defend himself with a guy on his back or another guy trying to fight him or whatever it was. It is what it is. It happens."
"I thought it was just a scrum, like physical play," Capitals coach Peter Laviolette said after the game. "There was something going on originally with the goalie and the jamming at the goalie, and we had a bunch of players jump in there. It happens a lot."
Rangers head coach David Quinn saw things differently, telling reporters afterward, "We all saw it. There are lines that can't be crossed in this game. There's just zero respect for the game in general. You've got one of the star players in this league now who could have gotten seriously, seriously hurt in that incident."
"You saw what happened, and it happens time and time again with him and it's just totally unnecessary," Quinn added. "Hey, you all saw what happened. Like I said, it's just zero respect for the game and the players and everybody involved."
The Capitals sit atop the East Division with 71 points and could ill-afford to lose Wilson for a substantial period of time, with just four regular-season games remaining before the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Washington was already short-handed Monday night, missing: T.J. Oshie, who was out for personal reasons; Alex Ovechkin, who attempted to return from injury but left the ice after a short, 30--plus-second shift; and Evgeny Kuznetsov and Ilya Samsonov, who were scratched from the lineup for team-sanctioned disciplinary reasons.
Yet the Caps still managed to muster a big win on the road, rallying to a 6-3 victory.
"These things tend to happen in games," Eller said. "Whether Tom is on the ice or not, these things happen all the time with other teams too. I think a lot of times now, every time Tom is involved, there's gonna be a bigger deal made about it.
"And I think even sometimes you could argue that there seems to be a different standard for him than there is for others, even though he had a long time in between his last suspension and the suspension before that. That's a different argument, but in the big scheme of things, I wouldn't think too much about what happened last night."
"In the big scheme of things, I don't think what happened last night was a big deal, to be honest," Eller reiterated at the end of the interview.