Tom Wilson is at it again.
Wilson received a match penalty Friday night in Washington for an illegal check to the head of the Devils' Brett Seney late in the second period:
While it isn't clear if the principal point of contact is Seney's head or shoulder, it's still a hit from behind on an unsuspecting player, and Wilson will likely have another meeting with the NHL's Department of Player Safety. Because Wilson is a repeat offender, the CBA mandates that players "will be more severely punished for each new violation".
Wilson's hit came in only his seventh game back from his first suspension this season, after an independent arbitrator, Shyam Das, reduced his suspension from 20 to 14 games. Both the league and the players' union made clear after Das' ruling that they had nothing to do with it. The most recent suspension was Wilson's fourth in a 105-game span.
After the game, a 6-3 victory that extended the Capitals' winning streak to seven, Seney told reporters in D.C. that the main contact was "more kind of the back of my shoulder," adding, "I don't know if he was intending to do it or what. I haven't had the chance to look at it yet."
Todd Reirden, the Capitals' coach, said he was surprised at the on-ice call.
"He isn't even intending to make a hit," Reirden said. "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. I think any other player, I don't know, it's maybe an interference call. ... and we get a five-minute penalty that could've cost us the game. This guy is doing everything he can to try to play the right way, and this is how things are happening."
