Capitals coach furious at call again Tom Wilson.

Dirty or not?

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HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Capitals coach furious at call again Tom Wilson.

Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson is once again at the center of controversy, although I will say there is a distinctly different tone to the controversy this time around.

On Friday night the Washington Capitals were taking on the New Jersey Devils at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. and although there wasn't much controversy on the scoreboard, a big hit from Wilson once again caused quite a stir. The hit occurred in the dying minutes of the game's second period and was delivered to 22 year old New Jersey Devils winger Brett Seney who went down in a heap on the ice following the hit.

Initially based on the body language of Seney on the ice it looked as if he had been dealt a blow to the head. Seney was hunched over in pain down on the ice and appeared to be clutching at his head with both hands following the contact, leading many to believe that Wilson had delivered yet another head shot to an unsuspecting player. In fact the National Hockey League's officials on the ice appeared to believe that is exactly what happened as Wilson was not only awarded a penalty on the play but was ejected from the game outright. 

Following the game this elicited a rather fiery response from Capitals head coach Todd Reirden who clearly did not agree with the call on the ice. To put things in perspective here, Capitals insider Isabelle Khurshudyan stated that this "was easily the most fired up Reirden has been about anything all season."

"[Wilson] isn't even intending to make a hit," said Reirden. "It's incidental contact, and he is following his defenseman down the wall, the player backs into him, he tries to get out of the way of the player, makes himself as small as possible, and there's incidental contact."

"This guy is doing everything he can to try to play the right way, and this is how things are happening. It''s a tough situation. We just have two players that got concussions, they don't even call a penalty on [those hits]."

Now obviously you could simply waive off the comments made by Reirden as the bias of a head coach towards one of his own players, but that does not appear to be the case here. For one based on the replay angles that I have seen there does not appear to be contact to the head of Seney on the play here at all, but most important of all the man who took the hit said himself that he did not feel he had been hit in the head when he was asked about the hit following the game.

"It was more kind of back of my shoulder. I don't know if he was intending to do it or what. I haven't had the chance to look at it yet."

In fact when you watch the replay it even looks like Wilson makes an effort, although perhaps a half-hearted one, to avoid making the hit at all as Seney turns his body into the play. The good news is you can watch the replay below and judge for yourselves.

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