NHL suspension - the Aston-Reese hit

So we haven't had a good hockey hit debate for a while. The caps Tom Wilson just got a 3 game suspension for his hit on Zach Aston-Reese.

What say ye? legal/clean hit with bad outcome? Intent to smoke/injure/run over like a bus? Somewhere in between?

I think what the nhl/hockey has to comes to term with is that while a hitter may not want to intentionally injure another player and put him out of the game, the idea of a big hit where someone gets blasted in today's game with the size and speed of the players means that there's a good chance someone will get injured. It seems reckless to think that running into a guy at 20+ km/hr is not going to result in someone getting hurt. Maybe it's time to start teaching players the idea of letting up a bit when you're going to hit a player in a vulnerable position.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DesV4FgSbsY

eeshh that's a bit much. Intent to injure.

Put the shoulder right into him. 3 games? The whole series be more appropriate.

The only reason it wasn't a lot worse is because A-R got his head up about 2-3 seconds before the hit and had a brief moment to brace.  Dirty hit.  Shoulder clearly at cheek level and no attempt to mitigate that.

Posted by: KenN

The only reason it wasn't a lot worse is because A-R got his head up about 2-3 seconds before the hit and had a brief moment to brace.  Dirty hit.  Shoulder clearly at cheek level and no attempt to mitigate that.

What's hilarious is in Twitter world there are people saying Aston-Reese got what he deserved cause he had his head down. I tend to think he was aiming for a shoulder check, but also aiming to knock him in to next year

The NHL shouldn't allow short players.

there was clearly eye contact just before the hit,he saw it coming. that said if Wilson wasn't shooting for his head he would have used his right shoulder. Wilson needed to use his left shoulder to get inside at his chin.the fact he was seen laughing about it on the bench didn't help his case.Wilson is a repeat offender and should have gotten the rest of the series.

Posted by: FLATCH

there was clearly eye contact just before the hit,he saw it coming. that said if Wilson wasn't shooting for his head he would have used his right shoulder. Wilson needed to use his left shoulder to get inside at his chin.the fact he was seen laughing about it on the bench didn't help his case.Wilson is a repeat offender and should have gotten the rest of the series.

I think it looks more like his intent was to come in with his left shoulder so that he didn't end up against the boards but he ended up at a bad angle.  Either way, it doesn't matter.  I think the NHL just needs straight guidelines and try to avoid looking into the crystal ball and determining intent.  I find that thought process lets the "good" guys off the hook and the "bad" guys get the heavy hand.

Posted by: chupacabra

I think the NHL just needs straight guidelines and try to avoid looking into the crystal ball and determining intent.  I find that thought process lets the "good" guys off the hook and the "bad" guys get the heavy hand.

Agreed.  It should be like a high stick.. it doesn't matter how your stick ended up hitting someone in the face, you're responsible for preventing it from happening.  If your shoulder comes into contact with someone's head, no matter how, you get a game misconduct or match penalty.

Posted by: PaulB

Posted by: chupacabra

I think the NHL just needs straight guidelines and try to avoid looking into the crystal ball and determining intent.  I find that thought process lets the "good" guys off the hook and the "bad" guys get the heavy hand.

Agreed.  It should be like a high stick.. it doesn't matter how your stick ended up hitting someone in the face, you're responsible for preventing it from happening.  If your shoulder comes into contact with someone's head, no matter how, you get a game misconduct or match penalty.

This.

Posted by: grambo

Posted by: PaulB

Posted by: chupacabra

I think the NHL just needs straight guidelines and try to avoid looking into the crystal ball and determining intent.  I find that thought process lets the "good" guys off the hook and the "bad" guys get the heavy hand.

Agreed.  It should be like a high stick.. it doesn't matter how your stick ended up hitting someone in the face, you're responsible for preventing it from happening.  If your shoulder comes into contact with someone's head, no matter how, you get a game misconduct or match penalty.

This.

While I agree but, previous offender or not, in this case as already said, eye contact was made and he was well aware it was incoming. He was already in a crouched like position and didnt stand up or ready himself to take the hit, which is still part of the game. This hit is in the same category as the players who'd turn to face the boards after dumping the puck, get crushed and carted off while the other player would get a boarding call and a misconduct. As for whats bolded, that's subjective to any injury sustained as theres many variables where heads hit certain things unintentionally.

And its obviously an NHL conspiracy: Bettman loves the kid and cant let Ovi get one more series win on him (let alone a cup). This suspension is similar to Aaron Rome circa 2010 anyone?