The Department of Player Safety has suspended Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson six games for his high stick on Toronto Maple Leafs forward Noah Gregor during Wednesday night’s game.
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35 Comments
Dead on Jesse..League is so inconsistent.
Amen, jesse!
The Department of Player Safety: where the number of games is made up and our rules don't matter
Come on you have a player who has not learned and continues to endanger other players by breaking the rules. He loaded up and swung that stick and somehow his past actions should not apply. A big reason to suspend players is to stop behavior that can hurt others or the NHL. You get caught speeding you get a fine, you keep doing the same things you lose your license, and or your insurance goes up. Malice was in his actions he was deliberately trying to harm another player. The Caps being in a playoff race should not influence anything. The team suffers when players are stuck on stupid. Wilson has all the tools to be a very good NHL player. He needs to stop being dirty and play like he has been as of late.
I actually feel like this makes the morgan Riley incident make more sense (hear me out). In simplest terms both accounts were hits to the head, Riley's while the game is considered "out of play" (post a goal being scored) and Wilson's during play so worse point for Riley, neither player was injured so its even there, and finally their histories. Morgan having zero history and Wilson having plenty which is as to why Wilson ends up with more games. There's a reason nuances and interpretations are needed in cases like this but the true problem with the NHL is often these cases fly one way or another leaving massive gaps for no logic to fall between them causing arbitrary rulings to seemingly fall out of the sky and effectively to appear decided based on a whim. I don't have any issues with the way these rules are written just the system for decided these rulings and punishment need to be handled more impartially more like an actual court with an ACTUAL impartial judge and not just bettman
I agree with you, Jesse, that the league is super inconsistent, and needs to be held to a standard. It's genuinely disgraceful how terribly the DOPS is run.
Though I also agree with the 6 game suspension. That's mostly because I can't envision any way that Wilson's actions could be explained as a hockey play. Even if it was fully an accident, he still hit Gregor very hard in the face. He is responsible for his stick, and thus should be held accountable for his actions.
I think 6 games is an appropriate punishment for a reckless action like that.
6 games is a bit much but I really don't care after the incident with Panarin & Buchnevich three years ago.
A few things:
If this happened to Nylander, people would be up in arms about it. I think Wilson's actions right after the incident tempered the outrage as well as who it happened to. No offense to Gregor.
18 months thing is for fines: 18.7 b 'A fine may be in an amount up to fifty percent (50%) of the Player's Paragraph 1 NHL Salary and Bonuses, but not including Performance Bonuses, divided by the number of days in the Regular Season, but in no event shall it exceed $10,000 for the first fine and $15,000 for any subsequent fine imposed in any rolling twelve (12) month calendar period. Player Salary and Bonuses forfeited due to a fine will be calculated based on a Player's Averaged Amount.' (page 118). I do not know where they are getting the 18 months from, probably to simplify the months that don't have hockey in them. The FAQ even says fines, not suspensions in those paragraphs.
For suspensions, 18.1 (c) even states: 'The status of the offender and, specifically, whether the Player has a history of being subject to Supplementary Discipline for On-Ice Conduct. Players who repeatedly violate League Playing Rules will be more severely punished for each new violation.' So repeat offenders like Wilson will be dinged harder and I think that is where the 6 comes from over the 5.
Lastly, as much as people want consistency, it would be very difficult to do as each incident is unique in it's own way, and I do think they attempt to be consistent when they can. For example Parker Kelly and Dmitry Kulikov both got 2 games for illegal hits to the head (listen to Kelly's it's off putting in another voice). I think player safety does a good job explaining where extra games come from. Here he describes the swing as reckless and forceful and starting from behind the back. Even if Wilson didn't hit Gregor in the face, it could have been a terrible slash causing injury. But how can anyone measure something like that? It is an eye test.
Or how can we measure something like 'happening after the play?' Is there a time limit for someone to engage a person like what Morgan Reilly did? I think that also needs to be an eye test. The NHL has a time limit with automatic suspensions if a fight is started after the 5 minute mark and it's a horrible rule that needs discretion. If Reilly dropped his gloves instead of cross checking, no one would have had a problem with it, but he wasn't allowed because of that rule.
Suspensions being doled out now seem to be on par with what people expect, and comparing it to incidents in the past is where the inconsistency is coming from, OR from fandom's wanting certain players suspended because they caused an injury to their teams player. We'll see if this holds up in the playoffs or not though. It will never be perfect, and maybe Player Safety needs to be overhauled to have a ruling committee of something like a former player, coach and ref, as well as a current random player, coach and ref decide on the discipline instead of this boy's club under Bettman, but that needs to be discussed in the next CBA.
Anyways, wall of text over. Have a wonderful day. Jesse, keep up the amazing work.
Department of Magic 8-Ball Discipline
i won’t speak to 6 games because idk what each action warrants purely based on action. I do not like the unclarity within the repeat offender definition. That for me is messed up. If you wanna go tougher on guys with SIGNIFICANT history, and make it last longer in their discipline record, like something like if player has accumulated at least 3 suspensions in their career the 18 month rule will be extended to 3 years or completely removed, then sure thats fine. Just make sure your own rules and standards make sense and are consistent.
Welcome to everyone's favourite game! SPIN THE WHEEL 🛟
I wish I could say that this suspension somehow makes up for the time Wilson jumped on Artemi Panarin and slammed Panarin's head into the ice, but it doesn't. It just shows how wildly inconsistent the DOPS is.
Just inconsistent nonsense that will never make sense, they are making it up as they go
Tom has cleaned up his game. This is a bad play and he should have been suspended but he has played over 200 games without a suspension. Should have been 2 or 3, just idiocy from DOPS, same with Reilly getting 5 like what a joke.
I disagree with you in the sense that DoPS shouldn't be able to look at a player's history even if they aren't technically a "repeat offender". Even by definition, it's a salary thing.
Wilson's actions were stupid and wreckless and deserved to be punished. Hopefully this is the start of more consistency from DoPS, but I have a feeling Steve was onto something in the pod about the GM meetings and Parros not wanting to talk to anyone from Leafs about the play.
Highsticking, history.
Slapshot into empty net gets a reaction from leaf players. Opponent swinging their stick wildly into your players face, no reaction from leaf players. Are they scared of Wilson?
I'm so fucking tired of Wilson being held to an insane standard while every single player is allowed to head-hunt and attempt to injure Caps.
Wilson high-sticks a guy and is the 1st player since McSorley to get a suspension for a high-stick??? But Trouba throws a head-shot at Milano, who sees him coming and ducks the brunt of the hit and STILL misses 29 games because of that dirty ass hit and… crickets.
CAR's goalie fucking KICKED Carlson… you're not gonna hear about that. There's one rule: if it's a physical play involving Wilson, whether or not he's the hitter or hittee, you're gonna hear about it and he's gonna be vilified; if it involves anybody else, the NHL just doesn't care.
Correction: Wilson was not suspended for "boarding" Carlo; he did not "board" Carlo, nor did the NHL attempt to argue that. He was suspended for
1 – hitting hard
2 – hitting hard
3 – having been suspended before
4 – hitting a defenseless player, which is (a) not inherently illegal and (b) not true, as Carlo saw Wilson coming and threw the butt-end of his stick into Wilson's face, drawing blood (an automatic game misconduct penalty), that hit causing Wilson's hands to come up so that, while the point of impact was low enough to be legal, he came up and that is what caused Carlo to be hurt.
The NHL admitted it was a legal hit when they suspended him, but they said the optics were such that since it's Tom Wilson, he needs to be suspended regardless.
I think it's insane.
Trouba baseball swings at a guy; crickets. Trouba takes out Milano for 29 games with a headshot; crickets. SO… he's NOT a repeat offender. WHY? Why is Trouba not a repeat offender? Because he refrained from suspension-worthy hits? Well, no; he's thrown more suspension-worthy hits THIS SEASON than Wilson has since 2018. But because THE NHL DIDN'T SUSPEND HIM. That's it. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But again, the NHL suspended Wilson in 2021 for getting butt-ended in the face by Carlo, and when they suspended him they released a statement admitting Wilson didn't do anything illegal, so… this is the world we live in, I guess.
I've been a Caps fan since 98-99, I'm used to the double-standard by now, in all things.
That is not a legal hit, you can see Wilson's forearm on Gregory's numbers.
Jesse has a channel?? Just found this out now sweet man
Totally intentional, don't listen to the oops excuses, hockey is full of oops, trust me, there intentional, most players are expert at making it look unintentional, it's not.
He still has to take responsability for what he did. Controll your stick, if it takes out three teeth from your opponent I want 10 games. And his salary for those games (but I am an ordinary person with bad teeth). Should the NHL skip that 18 month thing for people that DO repeat. Like 18 months for the first one, 18 month for the second one, and the third one is only "Ok, you are a dirty player".
You're defending this??? I don't care that he didn't want to slash him in the face, look at the play the force he swung his stick into Gregor's face deserves a 10 game but since it was kinda an accident drop it to an 8 game. You can't wind up your stick like that. He's lucky all he did was cut 3 teeth in half.
No player in the NHL could do what Wilson did and not get at least 6 games regardless of their history. He was not suspended because he's Tom Wilson.
He was suspended because he's a dumb a$$ that swung his stick with a ton of force at a players face. It also wasn't retaliatory Wilson was the one who delivered the hit and then decided, that didn't hurt you enough I'm gonna whack you as hard as I can with 1 hand. like wtf was he thinking, doesn't matter take a long seat bud.
He got only 6 games because he hadn't been suspended recently, if he did that after doing something dumb earlier this year that's an easy 8
As much as I agree the DOPS is like spin the wheel game and nobody knows what to expect, I do agree that there was 100% intent to swing his stick at Greggor's head. Did he pre calculate that he would hit him in the mouth and bust his teeth by doing so, no, but I believe he definitely intended to hit him in the "helmet" area as a retaliation. The stick swing is pretty clear and obvious. He's not off balance and there is no play he is trying to make otherwise that would cause that motion. He did a good job selling his "remorse" after the fact, but that doesn't change the fact of the act. I think 5 or 6 games is appropriate based on that alone, regardless of if they calculated history in or not.
first of all. the HIT WAS NOT FUCKING LEGAL TO BEGIN WITH. stop fucking lying. that was right on the numbers from behind directly into the glass. jfc
It is amazing how a goon like Tom Wilson can act like a coward like this.
Whats with the 1 frame per 10 second slow mo? Visually upsetting.
Don't want to get suspended for 6 games? Don't swing your stick at head level like an idiot. Pretty easy solution. Wilson really be out here surprised that he plays stupid games and wins stupid prizes. No sympathy from me lol. These guys can do with losing a couple thousand from 6 games and it don't matter so…
I think sometimes they just roll a dice and that’s the amount of games the guy gets
Should of been much more then 6. He literally swung his stick like a sword at another player…from behind…with nothing leading to that action besides a marginal hit that he engaged. Probably the only reason it was 6(besides nhl inconsistency) is due to the point you are making about the NHLPA.
Why is it awkward for them to punish Tom Wilson for being Tom Wilson? He's had five previous suspensions (and it could have been more)… i.e. he's a repeat offender. Whether the slash to the face was intentional or not, how is his significant past history not relevant in their decision-making?
I love it when Jesse gets heated.
That video definitely had the two greatest lines in NHL history:
-HIGH STICKING
-HISTORY
YAY!!! 🎉🎉🎉🥳🥳🥳