It’s seven hours before game time and T.J. Oshie and "the boys are fired up" for Game 4, the Capitals forward was saying, his ears burning redder than his jersey.
But before then, Oshie would like to sit down with the Penguins, any of them, and review the film from Game 3 and of a certain hit that caused a certain three-game suspension.
You know the hit we’re talking about, right? The hit Tom Wilson laid on Zach Aston-Reese, breaking the Penguins rookie’s jaw and leaving him with a concussion. This one:
“I’d like him to watch the hit and I would like him to break it down to me,” Oshie said. "From what we see, it’s two guys that hit each other. It's a north-south hit. Tom goes straight through his body. Yes, his head gets hit but there’s been a million times where I’ve gotten hit (and) I go to the ref and say I got hit in the head and the ref says, 'He’s bigger than you.' And that’s the way it goes."
Oshie called Wilson's three-game ban "extreme, very extreme." He then reiterated a claim that several Capitals have made since Wilson's questionable hit on Brian Dumoulin in Game 2 that the league is trying to rid itself of physical play.
But, first, he wanted to preface his remarks.
"I want to get this point across, you never want to see a guy break his jaw and leave the game like that," Oshie said. "I don’t know what the concussion status is, but I’ve had that before and that's something I wouldn’t wish that on anyone, but it’s a physical game.
"It seems little by little we’re taking physicality out of the game. I agree with the dirty hits, the unnecessary hits, but this is playoff time. It's man vs. man and one guy falls down. That’s just the way it goes."
Oshie missed six games in December with what he said at the time was his fourth documented concussion.
The 31-year-old is a 10-year veteran of over 665 regular-season NHL games. He says that players, in general, have to be more "aware" of their surroundings and who is on the ice at all times.
"If I’m out against a heavier guy on the other team, I know if I get a puck in this situation, I know where he is on the ice," said the 5-foot-11, 195-pound Oshie. "I think that's part of playing in the NHL, that’s part of being a mature, aware player. I think we have too many guys in the league now who think they can go out and do whatever they want. If anyone touches them they think it’s going to be a penalty or a suspension. There has to be more emphasis on guys being aware of their surroundings. "
Here, Oshie explains about taking a hit to the head this season:
Devante Smith-Pelly, who will replace Wilson on the Capitals' top line, said that George Parros, the league's Department of Player Safety, who was at Tuesday's game, initially told the Capitals that there would be no suspension for the Aston-Reese hit.
"The night it happened, the league called and said it was fine, shoulder to shoulder," Smith-Pelly said. "And then we wake up the next day and see … it is what it is. I can go on and on about it. But it is what it is. We have to move on."
Oshie added that the Capitals have lost not only Wilson, but also some swagger and confidence after winning the last two games to take a 2-1 series lead.
"One-hundred percent, the boys are fired up," he said. "We had a sense of confidence and I think any arrogance that could have come from our last couple victories has been squashed from the fact that we’re losing Tom. To me, he’s been taken away from us for a couple games here and we’re fired up and want to win the game for him."
