Washington Capitals: Reliving Some Big Tom Wilson Hits

Capitals forward Tom Wilson may very well be public enemy number one in the National Hockey League.

Tom Wilson is a big dude. When you combine his size with his physicality and speed you will be sure to get some big, big hits. The reason he is hated across the NHL is some of those hits haven’t exactly been “clean”.

We all know which hits those are for the most part. We’re not here to talk about those. Those hits have been talked about enough and penalized. As for those plays, they are over.

Today we’re going to relive some big hits from this bruising forward. I’m sure even these hits will get debated by Tom Wilson critics. For some reason, everyone claims to know what an illegal hit is. The funniest part is while every fan and commentator claims to know what is legal and what isn’t, the league itself doesn’t know what is.

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So, until the league gets it stuff figured out all we can do is debate and pretend we know what we’re talking about. One thing we know here today, these hits are big. While the illegal or suspendable ones get all the talk, maybe these should be talked about more.

Kuhnhackl vs The Penguins 2017 Playoffs

Wilson got a penalty as a result of this play, but as far as I remember or know it wasn’t for the hit, it was for the little scrum after it. The penalties mostly being a result of the Washington Capitals being down 5-2 later in a game. A game and a loss that would see the Caps go down 0-2 to the rival Penguins. I’m sure the referees were trying to make sure things didn’t get out of control at this point.

The hit itself, to me, was pretty good. It actually looks like a big shove rather than a light him up hit, but it still had the same effect and sent his opponent flying. Coming into the zone Nick Bonino sends a little backhand flip pass to Kuhnhackl who spins with the puck only to look up to see an incoming Wilson who gives him a shove in the high chest area.

To me, this is a 100% clean hit. If you take this play out of hockey you’re taking hits out of the game. Maybe some people want that, but not me. It’s a physical sport. This is a physical play. It’s not cheap and that’s what we want out of the game.

Visnovsky vs The Islanders 2015 Playoffs

This time Wilson got a charging penalty. I can’t say I agree with the call, but again, I’m sure Wilson and Capitals haters will call for Wilson to get the death penalty after this hit.

Wilson has the puck leading a rush, after gaining to zone he sends a weak shot or perhaps a pass attempt to Jason Chimera who is going to the far post. The puck does not get there. It goes behind the net where Visnovsky tries to make some kind of play with it, instead, he gets run over by big number 43.

Again, if you take this hit out, what are you leaving? You can see head contact with Wilson’s shoulder for sure, but Visnovsky is bent over. If he is standing up even sort of straight Wilson’s shoulder goes into the chest. The game is too fast, if you want hitting you can’t expect players to make adjustments that quickly.

It’s not predatory, he doesn’t pick the head out, he doesn’t jump into the hit or launch himself. It’s a big guy crashing into a smaller guy who is also crouched a bit. It’s a big hit and a pretty clean one in my book.

Zadorov vs The Avalanche

This is one of the few moments in hockey where you have a big hit and nothing comes out of it in terms of penalties. This is also a game where Wilson ended the game with 6 hits, no one bigger than this.

This is an unfortunate position for the guy getting hit. He has the puck going behind his net, he has an opponent on his back, looking down at the puck or looking for a somewhat close range play. Meanwhile, Wilson is lining him up and doing so perfectly. You see right before contact is made Zadorov realizes what’s about to happen. Thankfully he did see it or he likely would have been knocked out cold if he didn’t

You can always tell when a big clean hit is delivered. Usually the big, sometimes if not usually dirty hits happen away from the play. The puck has left and the big and illegal hit happens. The play by play guy is usually unsure of what happens because he’s following the play. This hit is right in Capitals play by play commentators vision with the puck being right there and you get that awesome call from one of the best callers in the sport Joe Beninati.

This is as clean as it gets if you’re asking me. There’s no charging, he doesn’t explode up into the hit, I’m not sure there’s even any head contact at all. What probably hurt was the whiplash and hitting the ice.

If you want to teach kids how to hit, show them this video.

These are just three of the bigger hits Wilson has thrown over his career so far. There are plenty more. Leave some of your favorite hits in the comments and perhaps we will reconvene in the future to discuss more big hits from Tom Wilson.