Tom Wilson ejected in preseason game after monster hit on Oscar Sundqvist!

Sundqvist gets crush in preseason action.

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HockeyFeed
Published 5 years ago
Tom Wilson ejected in preseason game after monster hit on Oscar Sundqvist!

Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson is a player you absolutely need to be aware of at all times when you're out on the ice against the Capitals, and unfortunately for St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist that was a lesson he learned the hard way in the final game of the preseason.

The game between the Blues and Capitals had been relatively uneventful through the first period although things began to pick up a little after the Blues came out with a bit an extra bounce in their stride for the second period. The Blues picked up an early goal in the second thanks to a solid wrist shot from Robert Thomas and it was shortly after that goal that the physical play from Wilson became a factor. 

Less a minute after the Thomas goal was registered Wilson caught Sundqvist cutting across open ice and although he was some distance away he managed to close the gap very quickly and laid a punishing hint on Sundqvist. Unfortunately it was not clear from the replays provided during the live broadcast where exactly the point of contract was for Wilson on this hit so at this time it is very difficult to make a judgement regarding whether or not this was a clean check , or a predatory hit from Tom Wilson.

Either way the end result for Sudnqvist was the same, the 24 year old center was sprawled out on the ice and if it was not for some very small movements on his part I would have assumed that the vicious impact of the hit had knocked him out cold. The Blues immediately went after Wilson once it was obvious that Sundqvist had been seriously hurt on the play but the National Hockey League's team of officials were even quicker to react and prevented things from escalating any further. Wilson was immediately carried off to the penalty box where he sat and waited as NHL officials conferred and discussed how they should proceed. 

The officials discussed it for just a few moments before coming back to the respective benches and notifying both head coaches that Wilson had been awarded a 5 minute major for what they had deemed to be an illegal check to Sundqvist. Unsurprisingly head coach Mike Yeo of the Blues seemed satisfied while Capitals head coach Todd Reirden did not seem to like the decision very much. I get the feeling that the National Hockey League's Department of Player Safety will want to take a look at this one, especially given the major and given the context  Wilson's track record in the NHL as well.

Update: A new angle shown in the video below courtesy of Sportsnet appears to show that Wilson's initial point of contact on the hit was the shoulder. That being said though one need only look at the body language from Sundqvist to realize that after exploding through the elbow there was also contact made with the young center's head, and the NHL has become less and less tolerant of head contact in any form. Camera angles cna be deceptive though and the hit may look better or worse in the additional angles the league itself will have access to.

This is going to be a tough one to call for NHL Player Safety and they are going to make a number of fans angry which ever way they rule on this one.

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