Thats my exact thought. You can't admonish a player for being violent and dangerous and then spend 60 minutes being violent and dangerous unless you're going to really put the NHL on blast afterwards.
If the Rangers were smart they wouldn't fight him and just go around slashing the shit out of him all game, the NHL doesn't give a fuck about stick penalties. Maybe you can goad him into doing something dumb again
Spoiler If you are looking for consensus on Tom Wilson and his melee with Pavel Buchnevich and Artemi Panarin of the New York Rangers, look elsewhere. But if you’re looking for some thoughts from NHL executives, coaches and former players, some who know Wilson personally and some who do not, that might help explain some of the nuances of the firestorm that took place Monday night at Madison Square Garden, well, maybe this is the place for you. Wilson was handed a $5,000 fine for the incident. In response, the Rangers released a statement saying that the NHL’s head of player safety George Parros is “unfit to continue in his current role.” Panarin will miss the Rangers’ final three games of the regular season. They were officially eliminated from the playoff race Monday after their loss to the Capitals and Boston’s win against New Jersey. Our panel from those inside the game shared their thoughts on a number of aspects surrounding the incident. What was your initial reaction to the incident? Longtime player turned NHL executive: “I didn’t think it was as bad as everyone said it was. I guess maybe because I waited to see it, I blew it up in my own mind. And what was in my mind was a lot worse.” Former player: “I was going to time how long that entire incident took. You would swear that we had World War V. It’s one of those ‘blink of an eye’ things. And I saw all kinds of bullshit things (on social media).” NHL team executive: “I’m really surprised on this one. I thought this was an opportunity for the league to make some sort of statement. They’re lucky that Panarin didn’t get seriously hurt there. When was the last suspension in the league? Was it Edler/Hyman, (Vancouver’s Alex Edler was suspended for two games for kneeing Toronto’s Zach Hyman) which happened during the course of the game, right? This didn’t even happen during the course of play. That’s an interesting one. That’s a challenge.” How did the situation turn so ugly so quickly? League executive: “Wilson turned around and didn’t really know who it was because Panarin jumped on his fucking back. Like he should have stayed out of it or just sort of grabbed him. Tom Wilson would not have done that to Panarin, I think, if he didn’t jump on his back and there was a whole shitstorm going on. And I’m the last person to defend this guy. I really am. “To be honest I’m watching it now as we’re talking and I’ll tell you what, it could have been a lot worse. He didn’t even drop his gloves. Yeah, you get caught up in that. Yeah, he fucking threw him down. His helmet came off. Panarin should not have jumped on his fucking back. “If you don’t want to get involved in that stuff, that’s your decision. But don’t bring a knife to a gunfight. Don’t go at Tom Wilson and expect him to treat you with kid gloves because of who you are. He’s not going to, so don’t go in there.” Former player: “When players engage, is Panarin allowed to do what he wants with Wilson, then Wilson is allowed to do what he wants with Panarin? There’s that. There’s a huge scrum and Panarin is overly active in it. I love that he got involved for his teammate.” Another NHL executive: “(Panarin) didn’t confront Wilson, he stood up for his teammate. There’s a difference there. He didn’t confront Wilson in an open forum and say, ‘You know, I’m confronting you.’ He was sticking up for his teammate who was getting pummeled from the top. To me, there’s a difference in that. He didn’t instigate. He didn’t light the fire. He didn’t provoke. He was sticking up for a teammate, which any teammate would do.” What is the motivation for Wilson’s anger? Former player: “I do know this — Buchnevich cross-checked Ovi (Alex Ovechkin) in the back and hit him from behind and didn’t get a penalty. And after that Ovi was incensed. So Buchnevich mixes it up. So I don’t know if there’s some of that mixed into the Wilson thing.” Player/executive: “Is he upset about Buchnevich for something else there? Is there something from three months ago where Buchnevich over-celebrated a goal? And Wilson sat on the bench and went, ‘Arrrgh.’ I don’t know. You’re not going to see them in the playoffs. Sometimes you see this late in the season when a team is posturing against another team that they’re going to see in the playoffs and you’re sending some sort of message to Buchnevich. “It’s not like the old grudge days. We had a real tough guy and he fought a guy on the other team and I was like, ‘What was that all about?’ And he was like, ‘Oh he was a couple of years older than me when I went to my first junior camp when I was 15 and he was a real asshole and I always said if I ever got a chance …’ And I was like, ‘Seriously?’ So you don’t know any of that. But if you take it as a standalone it makes no sense.” NHL coach: “My initial reaction was that it was totally unnecessary. And then he lost it. He’s got to be able to control himself. There was no reason for him to punch Buchnevich when he was down. You understand why the Rangers guys jumped on his back. And even when he threw Panarin down I could see, ‘OK, that’s part of the thing.’ Panarin, unfortunately, lost his helmet but then he starts punching him and then (Wilson) picks him up and throws (Panarin) down again with no helmet on. I don’t understand his mindset. There’s a connection obviously, just a wire just gets loose.” So, no suspension from the Department of Player Safety. Now what? NHL executive: “Henrik Lundqvist got a $5,000 fine for squirting (Sidney) Crosby with a water bottle. And (Wilson) got a $5,000 fine for fucking rag dolling a human being.” Former player: “On the other side of all of this, I think the Department of Player Safety is the biggest culprit in the NHL for all of this. Because their standards aren’t just double standards, they’re way worse than that. I go back to one of the worst things I saw this year was what Mark Stone did to Tyler Bozak. No-talk headshot. I just think the hypocrisy of it all. They’re driven by social media, I think, on a lot of it. I think the league is blamed for all this controversy and they bring it on themselves for not being consistent. “If you go by the letter of the law someone should have gotten a third man in. Who would it be? If Tom Wilson jumps into a pile like that would he be the third man in? Buchnevich or Panarin could have been the third man in if you go by the rules. We don’t know what is the call. We don’t know what is suspendable.” Longtime coach and NHL executive: “This guy, he’s living on borrowed time.” Former player: “They’re waiting on him. He’s going to hurt someone and the league knows it.” Would you want Wilson on your team? NHL coach: “You know if you put him up for free agency every team would want him. The Rangers would offer him a boat-full of money to come to New York. … The guys really like him. The guys view him as the big brother. I haven’t heard any of the players ever speak bad of him. Everyone wants these guys that are physical and can score. Those are the kind of guys you want. And Tom Wilson can skate and he’s a good penalty killer. He’s got a lot of attributes, he’s just got this one little thing that sometimes goes awry.” Former player/executive: “He’s in the middle of a long-term contract and he’s been handsomely rewarded and he’s a commodity that if you ever put him on the market there’d be 30 calls. Now, there’d be 30 calls but 10 of those would say they didn’t call. Because everyone would call and half the league wouldn’t admit they called.”
Why wouldn’t McSorely turn around and fight. If he just did that Brashear wouldn’t have been forced to club him. Lots of blame to go around
Now I’m remembering all of the people blaming Steve Moore for having his career ended by Bertuzzi for which he missed a whopping 20 NHL games
To be honest, I don’t see one fight where he loses (if he even loses), will change the way he plays. He needs a 30+ gamer/season ender & no playoffs type suspension to possibly change the way he plays.
This is all a cultural problem that the NHL needs to make a conscious decision to move away from. It’s the only major sport where fighting is actually condoned. It’s also the only major sport where physicality and altercation after a whistle is normalized (as long as it isn’t egregious). Those things are not normal, and they don’t really make the game substantively better other than perhaps driving TV ratings. All in all, hockey culture has some dated bravado-fueled concepts that need to go by the wayside. The idea that a guy skating with his head down means he deserves to be beheaded is not a legitimate idea in this day and age. Separate him from the puck, sure. But intending to injure in those scenarios has been normalized from youth hockey on up. Same with defending your own goalie. If an opponent taps your goalie’s 5 inch thick foam pads it means you can beat the shit out of him. That type of mentality just doesn’t exist in other sports, because it’s dangerous and not sustainable. Same can be said for having the players police themselves. The problem is the old boys club/powers-that-be don’t want to change these things. So they’ll be complicit with another major accident that will inevitably happen down the line.
Any time Dolan gets involved in the hockey side, it’s a total shitshow. So yeah, I think your assumption is safe.
The fact that David Quinn is still employed right now and Davidson+Gorton are not feels like a cartoon. Is it April 1st?
So I'm to believe that the first-ever team statement in a top-4 US sport to ever call on the league to fire an executive was not signed off by the coach, GM, director of Ops, or owner? I can assure you that that is not true