Wilson to have hearing on Aston-Reese hit, start the defense

[ruxpin]

1 minute ago, SpikeDDS said:

But trust me, Kronner's hits were VERY intentional, just a bit more center-mass than this one

 

Absolutely.  And that was the beauty of it.  Maximum carnage while skating up against lines but never crossing.  It was really was a thing of beauty.  I'm probably in the vast minority of non-Wings fans that actually appreciated his handiwork.  

[SpikeDDS]

5 minutes ago, B21 said:

 

Good post. Agree with some. Disagree with some. One point...a hit is either illegal or not. "Just barely illegal" is still illegal and therefore warrants the three games based on him being a multiple repeat offender. If you feel it's illegal (barely or not) you can't take issue with the length. 

I can't argue with this. As I said, I do think it warrants discipline. It did cause injury. I just didn't think his repeat offender was very relevant to this as much as when players grossly cross the line. I don't think 3 games is terribly unjust, and I can accept it. If I had been on the "committee" making the decision, I would have said 2 games, and if the decision made was 3, I'd be fine with it. I am, even if I wouldn't have done the same.

[ruxpin]

6 minutes ago, SpikeDDS said:

I disagree with you.

 

LOL  I disagree with your disagreement with my disagreeing.

 

Your serve.

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

19 hours ago, pilldoc said:

 I just don't get it...   I get it... 

 

@pilldoc,

 

Bipolar much?  You know there's pills for that!!  LOL

[AlaskaFlyerFan]

10 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

1. My first reaction to the hit was that I thought it was a good hit.

 

As did I.  In fact, I still think it was a good hit that had a bad result.  Had it been Ovechkin or Malkin delivering the hit, it would have been legal.  Wilson's reputation got in the way.

 

10 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

2. The explanation for the suspension by the DPS is BY FAR the longest explanation for any hit-related infraction that I have ever seen. When you have to take almost 5 minutes to justify your decision, it means that the hit was very close to being a legal one. Thus, anyone who says that this hit was egregiously illegal is full of it. To me, and to the DPS, this was a close call.

 

Totally agree.  In fact, I don't think the DoPS was even going to look at it.  I read something the morning after (on the internet so it had to be true) that the DoPS hadn't decided to review the play.

 

10 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

3. I'm conflicted in that I know that in the instant that a play like this occurs, it is IMPOSSIBLE for a player making the decision to hit or not hit to consider all of the things that DPS is spending minutes discussing, much less probably hours of analyzing. To wit, I feel for Wilson and other players who need to make these decisions instantaneously. OTOH, an analysis of the details of this hit does clarify the DPS's position on these kinds of hits, which is important in establishing a standard. So I appreciate that they went into detail on why they considered this hit illegal. DPS owes it to players to communicate the standards so that players can be properly held accountable. They have a history of being somewhat ambiguous about their standards, and their decision-making often seems ad-hoc. So I like the clarity here.

 

And the problem I have with this is the timing.  You don't try to establish a standard in the middle of the playoffs.  This needs to be done at the beginning of the season like has been done with the icing, interference, slashing, and other rules.

 

10 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

a. Wilson used his left shoulder instead of his right. This made head contact more possible and driving through body mass less direct.

 

I thought that this was the one factor that might have saved him from a suspension.  Most of the "picked his head" illegal hits come from the right shoulder to left shoulder (or vice versa) hit attempts.  The checking player misjudges or takes the wrong angle and "slides" off the shoulder and then catches the head with their shoulder.  There was no slide on this hit.

 

10 hours ago, SpikeDDS said:

4. The decision of illegality hinged on 3 COMBINED things:

 

a. Wilson used his left shoulder instead of his right. This made head contact more possible and driving through body mass less direct.

b. Wilson drove up and left his feet AFTER making contact--which they admit, even in this video,  is a natural tendency to do on hits like this.

c. The jaw is broken which suggests that the major force went to the head rather than the shoulder. There was somewhat of a head clip. It was not, by ANY means, a black and white head clip. There was definitely shoulder contact. But the way Wilson bounced off him up and to the side does suggest his momentum was not going through the body mass as much as the head. 

 

Not sure if I agree with the bolded part.  I think it had more to do with the switching from right shoulder to left that caused some rotation and the momentum kept him going that way.

 

I think it was the Penguins logo on the injured player was the major factor.  (Just kidding, I threw that in there for @B21 and @nossagog! LOL)

I think  the injury and Wilson's reputation were major factors in why they decided to look at the play.  Anyways, good post @SpikeDDS.  

 

[SpikeDDS]

19 minutes ago, AlaskaFlyerFan said:

And the problem I have with this is the timing.  You don't try to establish a standard in the middle of the playoffs.  This needs to be done at the beginning of the season like has been done with the icing, interference, slashing, and other rules.

 

Totally agree...except that unlike most hits, which are mostly gross violations, this particular hit had exactly the nuances that they have needed to elaborate on. While I DO agree strongly that this could have and should have been done before using a collection of different hits to illustrate the subtleties of each particular qualification, I’m still glad they FINALLY did it. 

 

23 minutes ago, AlaskaFlyerFan said:

Not sure if I agree with the bolded part.  I think it had more to do with the switching from right shoulder to left that caused some rotation and the momentum kept him going that way.

 

If the hit is center-mass, the hitting player doesn’t fly off like this. They bounce back or stay right where they are. This was a partial body mass miss which resulted in him flying up and to the side. Kronwall’s hit library proves this time and again.

 

And I also agree with you that had he used his right shoulder and missed like he did here, it WOULD have been a head clip. If he does go shoulder-to-shoulder that way, it is legal annihilation. That can be a very fine and precarious line.

[nossagog]

12 hours ago, ruxpin said:

 

Hey, you be more clear or I will misspell a bunch of curse words and put them together incoherently!

 

No worries, I really wasn't sure.  I was on Twitter and some Caps fans were actually arguing he didn't.  When I saw the two posts here I actually started looking at it really closely and thinking, "I must be drunk."

Wait,  were any of them the ones that tried to make the argument that he wasn't really trying to hit Letang, but that he was trying to block the clearing pass and accidentally hit him.  Because on that big board, that was actually someone trying to make that argument.

[B21]

On 5/4/2018 at 9:01 AM, SpikeDDS said:

I can't argue with this. As I said, I do think it warrants discipline. It did cause injury. I just didn't think his repeat offender was very relevant to this as much as when players grossly cross the line. I don't think 3 games is terribly unjust, and I can accept it. If I had been on the "committee" making the decision, I would have said 2 games, and if the decision made was 3, I'd be fine with it. I am, even if I wouldn't have done the same.

 

I can see that point. That's one thing the league has been clear on though is how they view repeat offenders. Whether they have been consistent in applying those factors is another matter.