PITTSBURGH — One game after a hit on Brian Dumoulin temporarily got him in hot water, Tom Wilson was in the spotlight again on Tuesday in the much more hostile environment of PPG Paints Arena.
When Wilson leveled Zach Aston-Reese in the second period of the Washington Capitals’ Game 3 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins, it broke the Penguin winger’s jaw and gave him a concussion, coach Mike Sullivan said after the game.
Wilson was not penalized for the hit, but could receive a suspension from the NHL before Game 4 Thursday.
“We just have to stay focused, you know? We lose a guy to a broken jaw that’s going to require surgery and a concussion because of another high hit to the head,” Sullivan said. “So at some point, we would hope that the league might do something. But as far as we’re concerned, all we can do is control what’s in our power and that’s our focus on the game that’s where our focus will be.”
Wilson was not made available to the media after the game.
The incident happened in front of Washington’s bench. Replays showed that shoulder collided with shoulder, but both players’ heads also bobbled around from the force. The momentum lifted Wilson onto the boards and laid Aston-Reese out on the ice, a few blood drops dotting the area around him.
When he got up, Aston-Reese threw his glove at the Capitals’ bench before leaving the game for the night.
Penguins fans rained boos onto the ice and threw their terrible towels while the officials took an extensive pause in the action to confer with one another and the coaches.
On-site NHL representative Paul Devorski said officials are not required to provide coaches with an explanation, but they did because Capitals coach Barry Trotz insisted he saw it as a clean hit.
“When we have a big hit like that, and there’s a lot of stuff going on on the ice, our guys come together — because obviously both referees didn’t put their arm up, so obviously they didn’t think there was a penalty,” Devorski said, according to a pool report. “So now they bring in the linesmen, who if they think it’s a major penalty, they’ll tell the referees. So they all got together and they said, ’You know what, we’ve got a good, clean check here.’”
Trotz said the Capitals will accept whatever the league decides to do.
“I first look at the hit and both guys were bracing for it, it was shoulder to shoulder and he just blew through him,” Trotz said. “As I say, there’s very passionate fan bases. We have a very passionate fan base. Pitt does. You can’t be neutral. That’s why there’s a neutral party that looks at it. … To me, it was a hard hockey hit.”
The rest of the period was emotional and fights broke out around the ice, leading to an unsportsmanlike conduct call on Wilson and cross-checking penalties by Alex Ovechkin and the Penguins’ Jamie Oleksiak.
The NHL Department of Player Safety will decide whether to hold a hearing concerning Wilson’s hit. The department declined to do so following Game 2, when Wilson and Ovechkin sandwiched Dumoulin in a hit that took him out of the game.
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.