The National Hockey League came down hard on Capitals forward Tom Wilson earlier this week. Wilson was handed a 20-game suspension for a hit to the head of Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist in Washington’s preseason finale last weekend. Only five NHL players have been suspended longer than Wilson’s 20 games for incidents that have occurred on the ice.
The suspension was Wilson’s fourth since September of 2017, a span of 105 games. The suspension also comes just 16 games after his last suspension, a three-game ban for breaking the jaw of Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese
Suspending Wilson was an easy choice for the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, however, some feel suspending Wilson for a quarter of the Capitals season was a bit too harsh. But for the Department of Player Safety, it was the frequency of suspensions in the last 13 months that had a large factor into their decision.
"This is Wilson's fourth suspension in his last 105 games, an unprecedented frequency in the history of the Department of Player Safety," the league said in its suspension video.
The 20-game ban for Wilson is clearly an attempt by the league to send a message to not only Wilson, but the rest of the NHL, Brad Marchand should take notice.
I’m sure most markets outside Boston will disagree, but Brad Marchand is not Tom Wilson.
After his licking incident(s) in last season’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, Marchand vowed to change his ways, the Bruins sure hope he follows through.
Marchand has previously been suspended six times. Once in 2011, once in 2012, twice in 2015, once in 2017 and then most recently last January. Marchand has been suspended for a total of 19 games.
Yes, Marchand has been suspended two more times in his career than Wilson, but all four of Wilson’s career suspensions have come in the time frame mentioned above.
Many were calling for the NHL to throw the book at Marchand after his incident with Lars Eller Wednesday night. With the Capitals up 6-0 on the Bruins in their season opening victory, Eller added onto the route with the Caps seventh goal of the night. Marchand took exception to Eller’s celebration and made sure he knew of It later in the game.
What Marchand did on Wednesday was not suspension worthy. Some are saying he jumped Eller, some are saying he suckered him. He grabbed Eller at the faceoff dot and did not throw a punch until they reached just outside the blue paint of the crease. If you want to say Marchand didn’t allow Eller much of a chance to reject Marchand’s invitation to drop the gloves, I will agree with you there.
With his history of suspensions and fines, Marchand is always on the league’s radar. Maybe his bout with Eller on Wednesday has the league keeping a closer eye on him, who really knows. But the bottom line here is the NHL showed with Wilson they’re not messing around anymore and should Marchand do something stupid again he could be the next example of that.
Love or hate him, there’s no denying Marchand has developed into one of the league’s prolific goal scorers. Since the 2015-16 season, only Alex Ovechkin and Vladimir Tarasenko have scored more goals than Marchand. Losing Marchand for double digit games due to a suspension would be a massive blow to the Bruins.
If Marchand and the rest of the league are to learn anything from Wilson’s suspension it should be that the league is not messing around when it comes to repeat offenders