Tom Wilson received a match penalty and was ejected from the Capitals game last night for a blindside hit. Probably just a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time…

Tom Wilson hit on Brett Seney pic.twitter.com/1DSpoctEnc

— Rob Taub (@RTaub_) December 1, 2018

He’s either an idiot or a psychopath. He’s a player that deserves no benefit of the doubt. This wasn’t a bang bang play. There is clear distance between players, clear time before the puck is gone, clear time to not do the thing he did.

Really?! pic.twitter.com/NhqkCpZ19C

— Travis Yost (@travisyost) December 1, 2018

You really have to question anyone who says the contact on this play was “incidental”. I mean how stupid do you have to be? It’s a ludicrous interpretation of the situation. Apparently, you have to be the guy coaching Tom Wilson

Reirden: "[Wilson] isn't even intending to make a hit. It's incidental contact, and he is following his defenseman down the wall, the player backs into him, he tries to get out of the way of the player, makes himself as small as possible, and there's incidental contact."

— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) December 1, 2018

Matt Cooke was a blight on the Penguins reputation. Even Pittsburgh saw the light and became self-aware with how ridiculous supporting him was. The Capitals are clearly not at that point.



The Capitals can pretend that they don’t have the league’s number one predator in the league, but they do and the league is better when he’s not playing. Whether he’s a psychopath or an idiot he’s going to continue to do these kinds of things unless the league doesn’t let him...

WSH has been told there will be no @NHLPlayerSafety hearing for Tom Wilson’s hit last night.

— Bob McKenzie (@TSNBobMcKenzie) December 1, 2018

****

Pittsburgh and Philadelphia will meet for the first time today and both teams are wishing the standings looked more like 2017-18 than they do at the present moment. Pittsburgh is 11th overall in the conference while the Flyers currently reside in dead last. Both have played 24 games which is tied with some other teams as the fewest played so there is potential to close the gap. A regulation win by either team today would be a much needed two points and waste the others game in hand.

Even if the Flyers lose every game the rest of the season 2018-19 will still be a win for them. Gritty can’t be stopped

Game, blouses. pic.twitter.com/oKQ7wOky2O

— Gritty (@GrittyNHL) December 1, 2018

Pittsburgh should be getting a boost to their forward depth with Patric Hornqvist returning from a concussion. This allows Mike Sullivan to continue to try out using Phil Kessel with Derick Brassard. In games like the other night Sullivan keeping Brassard and Kessel together was a detriment to the team because it left too big of a hole in the top six with known production. Pittsburgh needed to return the favor to Colorado in loading up and did not. With Hornqvist you have more flexibility to increase the Brassard/Kessel sample.



Here’s some follow up information on goaltending from yesterday. Jimmy Howard is in the positive. Casey DeSmith is playing exactly how he should given the shots he’s faced.

Goalie charts are updated.

By rate, the best goalies this year have been:
Big Save Dave
Rinne
Gibson
Halak
Andersen

Gibson and Andersen should catch your eye for maintaining these great rates while facing heavy workloads.https://t.co/0g9bBhj1oO pic.twitter.com/joHhRknaHg

— Sean Tierney (@ChartingHockey) December 1, 2018

Thanks for reading!

Join the Discussion: » 243 Comments » Post New Comment

» Penguins news and notes

» Getting your Penguins fix

» My thoughts on Penguins thoughts

» It's their fault

» Still alive, for now