NHL in hot water over Tom Wilson’s suspension!

On Saturday, the National Hockey League announced that its Department of Player Safety had suspended Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson for seven games. Wilson, who therefore got the fifth suspension of his career, was banned for boarding Boston Bruins defenseman Brando Carlo on Friday. The poor blue liner had to be taken to the hospital following the hit. 

On Monday, Elliotte Friedman revealed what else what says behind close doors by the NHL when it came to Wilson’s hit and suspension: “The league just felt the totality of it all was illegal,” he said.

But all this wasn’t enough for George Parros, director of player safety, who’s now getting called out by Ken Campbell of The Hockey News, who puts it like this: 

“But the reality is that a seven-game sentence in a 56-game season is the equivalent of 10 games in an 82-game season. Given Wilson’s rap sheet and the circumstances surrounding the hit, 10 games is not near enough, but it’s a lot by NHL standards.”

On top of that, he refuses to accept the boarding call of this suspension as Wilson targeted Carlo’s head and writes this: 

“Take the words Parros said himself in the NHL’s suspension video and if you can figure out how the NHL came up with a boarding infraction, please let us know. “With the puck bouncing in Carlo’s skates as he attempts to locate it,” Parros says in the video,“Wilson approaches from outside his field of vision and delivers a high, hard hit that makes direct contact with Carlo’s head, driving it violently into the glass and causing an injury. This is boarding.”

Really? Because when you say that Wilson makes direct contact with Carlo’s head, it actually makes it sound an awful lot like a headshot.”

Campbell wonders if the league will agree to put up with Parros’ wrong decisions adding that “those in the highest positions of power in the game, the disproportionate majority of them ex-players, love this stuff.”

He is disappointed with the league’s missed opportunity to send a clear message to rule out this dangerous hits entirely. 

A lot of heat on the NHL and Parros, wouldn’t you say?