PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – Discipline is officially up to the league and they are handcuffed by their Collective Bargaining Agreement and an influx of Neanderthals that still persist like a disease in the NHL League Office in Toronto.
But why won’t the Capitals do something about their own player before someone else or maybe someday Wilson himself, get seriously hurt?
The latest was Monday Night in Madison Square Garden, home of many sanctioned fights. This one was supposed to be a hockey game as Wilson received just a fine for a couple of sucker punches and pulling the hair of a player to suplex him to the ice.
The fine as the league propaganda-machine website stated proudly ‘was the maximum amount allowed’. It’s 5-grand. According to spotrac.com, Wilson makes $4.1 million this year as part of a 6 year, $31 million dollar contract. Five thousand dollars is a cup of coffee to Wilson.
The problem is the enabling by his own club. This what Washington head coach Peter Laviolette said after this happened against the Rangers Monday night.
“I thought it was a scrum-like, physical play,” Laviolette said. “There was something going on originally with the goalie and jamming at the goalie. We had a bunch of players jump in there. Happens a lot.”
Happens a lot. Sucker punching to the back of the head and hair pulling to the ice? Maybe he meant it happened a lot because of what Tom Wilson’s reputation is.
Certainly Laviolette would have a clearer picture after seeing replays and have a different thought on Tuesday.
“It’s the discipline that’s send down from the league,” Laviolette said. “Tom will pay and we’ll move on.”
Of course you’ll move on, ‘nothing to see here’.
Thankfully, Laviolette was at least asked a follow-up question. If he talked with Wilson.
“I saw the beginning of the incident where he got fined,” Laviolette said. “It looked like they were jamming at the goal and Tom punched him in the top of the shoulder area and then punched him somewhere on the backside, as he was trying to get in there and pull them off and received a roughing penalty. After that, he had a couple of guys jump on his back and there was a big scrum that went on.”
“The message to Tom was that he’s big and strong. When he gets into scrums and wrestles, you got to be careful. With the attention on him he gets looked at in a certain way. He’s got to play his game. He has to be hard to play against. He has to be physical, but in the same sense he has to know that eyes are on him too.”
More enabling, he said Wilson has to be careful because of the attention on him. Not because anything was wrong with what he did. It’s more Tom Wilson the victim from the Capitals.
How about one of his peers stepping up, Brenden Dillon is a big guy. He’s played a decade in the league and with other teams. He can be physical but knows where to draw the line. Surely Dillon wouldn’t like what he saw Monday night.
“The play last night, from a young age until even at the NHL level, if a player is coming into the goalie to poke to push, just trying to score a goal I get it,” Dillion said. “For yourself as a defenseman, as a forward. Your job is to get them out of there. I know there are so many different ways, you can push, you can punch, you can crosscheck. Whatever it might be. I know the scrum happens last night.”
“For Willie, we are bigger guys. He’s a big boy. I think for the actual scrum itself, I don’t think there was any sort of malicious intent. All the guys had their gloves on still. If Willie wanted to hurt someone, he could have done that.”
The old ‘if he wanted to hurt someone, he could have done that’. Sure Wilson could have swung his stick like a baseball bat, could have grabbed a folding chair and smashed someone over the head, maybe introduce a foreign object into NHL fights. ‘If he wanted to hurt someone’, please. Let’s continue with how Dillon explained this on Tuesday.
“For Willie as a player and as a person, we have a pretty veteran team. A couple of guys over 1,000 games, a lot of playoff experience. He’s wearing a letter on our team a couple of nights ago (meaning an alternate captain). I think that says to how he approaches the game. He works so hard in practice. He works hard off the ice. He sets the work ethic example every day at the rink. I think for young guys look up to him and know how hard he works and battles. He’s continued to improve his game from a skill point as well.”
Former Pens forward Matt Cooke worked hard as well. He was a cheap-shot artist for most of his career. Just because someone works hard doesn’t mean they’re not dirty. Somehow the narrative is changed to avoid placing blame on another heinous act.
“I think he has changed his game,” Dillion was able to say with a straight face. “He’s had to deal with this and the fine today. He’s aware of things. I know he is trying his best.”
Trying his best, did he watch the play?
“As him as a bigger guy, it’s tough when you are in a scrum like that,” Dillon said. “Whether that’s someone jumping on your back, there’s just so many things happening so quick in this game. He’s first one to hope that Panarin is ok. He’s the first one to hope that nobody is getting hurt of injured. That’s the type of person he is he doesn’t want to see that happen.”
That’s not good enough that after you intentionally try to injure someone that you feel bad about it. That’s ok for the first or maybe second time, but not the next 123.
“Things happen so quick in hockey,” Dillion explained. “It’s one of those plays that happens so many times. It’s unfortunate it resulted in the scrum that it did. Glad that no one else was hurt and we went on with the game.”
There’s the hockey punishment model. No one died, so play on.
I get it, you don’t rat out a teammate. I get it, stuff happens on the ice. But it’s happened too many times with Tom Wilson and the league does nothing substantial about it. It hides behind technicalities and barbarism.
Just look at what his coach and teammate had to say about him. No wonder he never changes.
The Washington Enablers.