PITTSBURGH — Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson will miss the team’s next three games after the NHL suspended him Wednesday for an illegal check to the head on Pittsburgh Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese in Game 3.
Wilson will sit out Game 4 of the Capitals’ second-round Stanley Cup Playoff series Thursday night in Pittsburgh, Game 5 Saturday in Washington and a hypothetical Game 6 Monday in Pittsburgh. If the Capitals win the series in five games, Wilson will miss Game 1 of the Capitals’ following series.
The high hit, which took place in the second period of the Capitals’ 4-3 win Tuesday, flattened Aston-Reese on the ice for several moments before he left the game under his own power. Wilson was not penalized during the game for the move, but Aston-Reese sustained a concussion and a broken jaw on the play, according to Penguins coach Mike Sullivan.
The NHL Department of Player Safety ruled that the play met both considerations for Rule 48.1 about illegal checks to the head: whether the head was the main point of contact and whether the head contact was avoidable.
“While some angles make it appear that Wilson does make contact with Aston-Reese’s front shoulder, reverse angles show Wilson’s shoulder making direct contact with the head of Aston-Reese,” the department’s video statement said.
The video, released Wednesday night, also noted that Wilson was a repeat offender under the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, and said he “extends up and into the hit unnecessarily, rising up onto the toes of his skates, then coming completely off the ice through contact.”
It was Wilson’s second controversial play in as many games. In Game 2, Wilson and Alex Ovechkin collided with Brian Dumoulin and Wilson’s shoulder hit the side of Dumoulin’s head, but the Department of Player Safety did not call for a hearing to review the play. But that was not Wilson’s fate the second time around.
Wilson has not been made available for comment since Game 3.
Before knowing he would be without the top-line forward, Capitals coach Barry Trotz said the team was preparing for Game 4 like normal. Without Wilson, someone else will be pressed into action to skate alongside Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Wingers T.J. Oshie and Devante Smith-Pelly have skated on the right side of the Capitals’ top line before. Trotz could choose to pencil in either of them for the upcoming games.
The Capitals will now be missing two of their regular top-six forwards, with Andre Burakovsky still “week to week” with an upper-body injury. Chandler Stephenson has taken Burakovsky’s place on Nicklas Backstrom’s line, but during Game 3, Trotz shuffled the left wingers mid-game to move Jakub Vrana to the second line, Stephenson to the third and Brett Connolly to the fourth.
The loss of Wilson and forthcoming lineup shuffle also means another winger will fill in on a lower line. Nathan Walker, Travis Boyd or Shane Gersich could make his Stanley Cup Playoff debut in Game 4.
Some Pittsburgh players expressed frustration after Game 3 that Wilson was seen on the bench grinning or laughing in the moments after the play while Aston-Reese was still down on the ice. Penguins defenseman Justin Schultz called it “disrespectful.”
Trotz took exception with that reading of the situation and provided a different explanation.
“What was happening, 19,000 people were booing him and something funny was said on the bench and that’s why he was smiling,” Trotz said Wednesday. “A guy made a funny comment — ’He’s got all his friends in the building,’ something like that. That’s why he was smiling. I do take a little bit of offense. I understand what’s coming out of the Penguins’ locker room, but that was not the case.”
Other players at the Capitals’ optional skate Wednesday morning did their best not to focus on what was then a what-if question.
“(The decision is) not up to us, so we kind of just forget about it,” Jay Beagle said. “We don’t really think about it too much. We’re more focused on the task at hand for tomorrow and seeing probably the best game that we’re going to see out of Pitt tomorrow. We’re excited for the challenge.”
• Adam Zielonka can be reached at azielonka@washingtontimes.com.
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