The type of hit Tom Wilson delivered against Brandon Carlo — which resulted in the Bruins defenseman being hospitalized and Wilson receiving a seven-game suspension — is "just the way the game's been played for a long time," Capitals head coach Peter Laviolette says, promising the situation will come up again.
"We're gonna miss Tom. He's an important part of our team," Laviolette told The Sports Junkies on Monday. "I think that the hits that go on on the ice with players that have the puck sometimes can be really heavy, and they can be really physical. And nobody likes to see people get hurt, that's for sure."
"This will come up again, I promise you that. This will come up again," he said. "Maybe not with us, but it's just the way the game's been played for a long time, where you're able to take strides and you're really able to hit somebody really hard into the boards."
The hit in question came in the closing minutes of the first period Friday night. As Carlo was fighting Jakub Vrana for a loose puck along the boards, Wilson, who was already in full stride, "moved down from his support position to pressure Carlo," the NHL Department of Player Safety cited in its explanation of Wilson's suspension.
"With the puck bouncing in Carlos' skates as he attempts to locate it," the explanation continues, "Wilson approaches from outside his field of vision and delivers a high, hard hit that makes direct contact with Carlos' head, driving it violently into the glass and causing an injury. This is boarding."
The NHL defines boarding as: "A boarding penalty shall be imposed on any player who checks or pushes a defenseless opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to hit or impact the boards violently or dangerously."
Although Wilson was never actually penalized for boarding on the play, the league cited the existence of boarding, the fact that Carlo suffered an injury, and Wilson's significant prior history (which includes four previous suspensions and two fines) as the determining factors in administering a seven-game suspension to Wilson.
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Laviolette notes that it was beyond Wilson's control when, as he was already lining up his hit, Carlo lowered his head to find the puck to make it a part of the contact.
Asked if the Capitals would be in the same situation if Wilson had hit Carlo in the chest, Laviolette said, "I think we might now. The shoulders are important, too. Obviously the head's important, but like a separated shoulder or a dislocated shoulder or broken ribs."
"At the last second I think Tom was lining up a hit," he said. "And at the very last second, the puck got lost in the feet and the player's head dropped six inches, eight inches and became part of the contact. And so, maybe, maybe not."
"He got a boarding penalty. It wasn't a hit to the head," he continued. "And so under those rules, this happens quite a bit. There was one [Sunday] night in the game [against the Flyers]. Like I said, I'm not gonna go giving times and dates, but there was one [Sunday] night in the game where it was really, really hard, but the player didn't get hurt."
Laviolette expanded on that slippery slope argument in comments to The Washington Post, saying, "Now that it is a suspendable hit, it is something that we will try to talk to our players about and certainly educate a little bit. Up until this point I think everybody thought hitting somebody square up with the puck was a hit that was in the game."
The Caps coach agrees that Wilson's 6-foot-4, 220-pound frame — a rarity in the NHL — sometimes makes his hits look worse than they would if coming from a player of smaller stature.
"He's certainly good at what he does. He's a powerful man," said Laviolette. "There's not a lot of guys that can hit the way he can hit, and fight and be physical, and be a good leader in the locker room and be a great teammate, and put up a lot of points. It's a rare breed to begin with. There's not many guys like that and he is extremely good at what he does."