Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin disagrees with the NHL’s seven-game suspension of teammate Tom Wilson, calling Saturday’s ruling “a kind of joke.”
Ovechkin told reporters Sunday it’s unfortunate Brandon Carlo was injured on a head hit from Wilson during Friday’s matchup with the Boston Bruins, but the punishment didn’t fit the crime.
“Well, first of all, no one wants to hurt a player and make a dirty hit, but I think it’s a kind of joke. Because we were talking to refs after the first period and he said, ‘I don’t think it was even two minutes. It was a hard hit’ And on the ice, (there was no call),” he said.
“Yeah, the player got hurt, it sucks, but I think when you play hockey you have to be ready for that and you have to know who’s on the ice.”
Carlo was sent to the hospital in an ambulance after the hit and Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said Sunday he’s “feeling better” but “he’s obviously going to be out for a while.”
The suspension is Wilson’s fifth since September 2017, the most recent being a 20-game ban that was reduced to 14 in October 2018 for an illegal check to the head of St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist. He’s now been suspended for a combined 30 games (pre-season, regular season and playoffs) and has forfeited $1.291,456.39 in salary during his career.
