In the wake of Tom Wilson’s hit to Brandon Carlo’s head on Friday, which sent Carlo to the hospital and earned Wilson a seven-game suspension, one talking point that has surfaced is whether having an old-school enforcer on the Bruins would deter someone like Wilson from playing that way.
There are virtually none of those old-school enforcers -- the kind of players who only play a few minutes a game and are mostly there to fight -- left in the NHL, as teams have come to the conclusion that all 18 skaters actually need to be able to play and they can’t afford to reserve even one roster spot for that.
Jermaine Wiggins of The Greg Hill Show is one of those who has questioned whether this trend has made a player like Wilson more reckless since there’s no one to answer to.
Wiggy ran the idea by Bruins legend Ray Bourque during Tuesday’s show, but Bourque didn’t buy it.
“No. I mean, he is an enforcer if you want to talk about anybody in the league right now -- hits the way he does, plays the way he does, and he can go with anybody pretty much,” Bourque said, talking about Wilson. “But no, I don’t think… he’s got a reputation. This is not his first suspension. He’s gotten suspended for 20 games in the past, and a few other times. He’s been known to come up with these dirty hits at times. He’s a great player. He’s a player you would love to have on your team. Unfortunately, he crosses that line once in a while, and then you have to deal with these kinds of questions.
“But in terms of the player and how he plays, it’s like Marchy [Brad Marchand] for us. For a little while there, he’s right on the line, he’s gotta be on the line to be effective, but every once in a while you cross that line. It’s not that you want to do that, but it just happens with these guys. Then you’re dealing with suspension and you have to answer questions. But I don’t think an enforcer on the Bruins would’ve prevented a hit like that. Sometimes he just puts himself in that situation.”
Of course, Wilson did ultimately have to drop the gloves and answer for his hit anyways -- twice, in fact. Jarred Tinordi fought him in the second period of that game, and Trent Frederic followed suit in the third.
The NHL’s Department of Player Safety, while still flawed and inconsistent, has also served as at least somewhat of a deterrent to predatory hits, with longer and more frequent suspension than there were a couple decades ago. Wilson, for example, did seem to change his game after his 20-game suspension in 2018, but obviously that change didn’t last.