Tom Wilson said that he understands the message the NHL is trying to send by fining him for his knee-to-knee hit on Connor Sheary in the first game of the Washington Capitals’ second-round playoff series against the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Wilson was fined $2,403.67, which is the maximum allowable under the collective bargaining agreement, for hitting Sheary as he left the ice at 4:07 of the third period of the Capitals’ 4-3 overtime win.
It appeared that Wilson went out of his way to strike Sheary’s left knee with his own left knee, but Wilson said that he was merely trying to “bluff check” the Penguins left wing. Sheary lost his balance and fell to the ice, which led to Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin also being tripped. No penalty was called on the play.
“On that play I wasn’t even going to hit him,” Wilson said. “That wasn’t my intention. I was just trying to … give him a fake and kind of go to the bench and our legs got caught up. Hockey’s a fast game, and sometimes stuff happens that you don’t really intend on. I think it looked a lot worse than the outcome was. The impact really wasn’t that great. He was trying to get out of the way. Just kind of an unfortunate circumstance, but the league does their job.”
Sheary told reporters following the Penguins’ morning skate that “the league takes care of all that” and that he saw Wilson approaching, but that he didn’t want to talk much more about it.
“It was probably a little unnecessary, but I did see it was sort of a shin-on-shin versus any kind of a knee or anything like that,” coach Barry Trotz said. “We’ll just go forward. Tom’s made a lot of adjustments in his game for the positive and that, so that’s another learning type of thing for him.”
SEE ALSO: Capitals’ Tom Wilson fined for knee-to-knee hit on Penguins’ Conor Sheary
Wilson, who ranked third among all players with 163 penalty minutes and 44 minor penalties during the regular season, has said on several occasions that he tries to exercise caution when hitting players, even when the outcome leads to penalties.
He reiterated that stance on Saturday morning, noting that “until this one, I’ve been completely off the books” in terms of supplemental discipline.
“There’s going to be emotion,” Wilson said. “It’s playoffs and I’ve just got to make sure that I’m putting our team kind of up a man not down a man. It’s playoffs. Stuff happens. That was kind of an unfortunate one, but I’ve talked to Barry, I’ve talked to numerous refs, the league — I’ve talked to people. It’s no secret that I hit hard and that I play the game hard. I’ve just got to make sure that I’m staying within the rules and doing what I have been doing.”
• Zac Boyer can be reached at zboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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