PITTSBURGH — Hockey is a physical sport, and teammates frequently stick up for each other as everyone gets battered around the rink. Still, Pittsburgh Penguins coach Mike Sullivan might have been surprised that he was asked point-blank Tuesday if his team considered planning “retribution” for Tom Wilson.
“We’re just going to play the game,” Sullivan said ahead of Tuesday night’s Game 3 between the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh. “We’re going to try to play the game that gives us the best chance to win.”
Wilson and Alex Ovechkin sandwiched Penguins defenseman Brian Dumoulin in a hit in the first period of Game 2 Sunday. Wilson’s shoulder hit Dumoulin’s head. But the NHL Department of Player Safety did not call for a hearing to review the play, and Wilson was not suspended.
Consider Wilson’s reputation. The 2012 first-round pick is an enforcer who led the Capitals in penalty minutes this season and received two suspensions before the regular season even began. Wilson also raised eyebrows in the first round of these playoffs for a hit on Columbus’s Alexander Wennberg that forced the center to miss three games while recovering.
But Wilson, 24, is equal parts sympathetic to Dumoulin and steadfast in insisting he is not a dirty player, just physical. Since Sunday night, the word he has kept coming back to is “unfortunate.”
“I think it’s important to keep in mind game speed. It happens really quick and from my viewpoint, I’m skating and it’s unavoidable,” Wilson said before Tuesday’s game. “It’s an unfortunate hockey play, obviously, the way he gets hit. My intent there is not to get him in the head or anything. I heard he’s doing well and that’s good and hopefully we’ll see him in the lineup tonight.”
Wilson, who once only skated on the fourth line, spent most of this year on the top line with Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov and doubled his goals from the year before (seven to 14). But he is aware that his physical brand of hockey will continue to put him under the microscope.
“There’s always going to be that reputation I think just because of the way I play the game,” he said. “The refs are going to be more prone to watch me versus maybe Kuzy when he’s finishing a check. It’s a little bit different.”
Fellow forward Brett Connolly feels Wilson has evolved since his start in the NHL and found a balance between scoring and hitting.
“Every little hit that he’s gonna do is gonna be scrutinized,” Connolly said. “Not everybody’s gonna agree with it. The fans from opposing teams are definitely not going to agree with it. But he brings an element to our team that not a lot of teams have, a guy who can score and kill penalties and create offense, play physical, stick up for his teammates. You know when he’s on the ice for sure.”
As Wilson has changed, he observed something: So has the league. Players are less physical until the Stanley Cup Playoffs roll around, he claimed.
“It’s a two-way street. I’m going to change my game if it needs to, (but I’m) just trying to keep that element of hard play and playing the right way,” Wilson said.
Was Wilson going to be on the lookout for a retaliatory hit?
“I’ve played my whole career with the other team maybe not liking me. But it’s the playoffs,” he said. “The media obviously likes to jump on this and make it a thing, but I think both teams are pretty worried about the game. They’re worried about the two points and that’s what matters.”
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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