You can hate Wilson’s hit on Carrier, but that doesn’t make it illegal

Prepare to get angry, Montreal Canadiens fans. Get angrier, rather. You’re already angry after Tom Wilson’s devastating hit on Alexandre Carrier changed the face of Game 4 versus the Washington Capitals Sunday night at the Bell Centre.

Midway through the third period with Caps trailing 2-1, Wilson freight-trained Carrier, who has been one of Montreal’s most important all-around blueliners this season, erasing him from the play. As Carrier collected himself and scrambled to the Habs’ bench, the game continued, with the ensuing odd-man rush leading to Brandon Duhaime’s tying goal. Montreal couldn’t fight the momentum shift after that, Andrew Mangiapane gave Washington the lead at 16:23 of the third, and the Habs now trail 3-1 in the series as it shifts back to D.C.

All because of that devastating hit from Wilson.

“I felt like it should’ve been a whistle,” Canadiens goalie Jakub Dobes told reporters after the game. “It was kind of a scary hit, but I guess the rules don’t apply for everyone.”

What if I told you the rules do apply, they did apply on the Wilson hit, and that they were applied correctly?

Hockey Twitter loves fewer pastimes more than the Freeze Frame Game. You’ll find many a clip paused at the exact moment it looks like Wilson is delivering a blow directly to Carrier’s head. But to cherry-pick milliseconds simply distorts the he truth: Wilson delivered a clean, vicious body check on which the principal point of contact was Carrier’s shoulder.

Watch it here. Don’t pause it at the moment fitting your narrative. Watch the hit, start to finish, in one motion:

Wilson delivers the devastating force into Carrier’s upper shoulder. The force of the blow, which is akin to Carrier getting run over by a small horse, does snap Carrier’s head back. During the follow through, Wilson makes some contact it the head. But I have bad news for you, Canadiens fans: that’s allowed. The NHL rulebook does not prohibit incidental head contact during the process of executing a legal body check in which the principal point of contact is a different body part.

If we break down how the NHL assesses Rule 48.1 for illegal check to the head, the first tenet is most important to understand on this play:

“In determining whether contact with an opponent’s head was avoidable, the circumstances of the hit including the following shall be considered:

(i) Whether the player attempted to hit squarely through the opponent’s body and the head was not “picked” as a result of poor timing, poor angle of approach, or unnecessary extension of the body upward or outward.”

(ii) Whether the opponent put himself in a vulnerable position by assuming a posture that made head contact on an otherwise full body check unavoidable.

(iii) Whether the opponent materially changed the position of his body or head immediately prior to or simultaneously with the hit in a way that significantly contributed to the head contact.“

To be clear: Carrier didn’t do anything to violate tenet (ii) or (iii). He wasn’t reaching for the puck and putting himself in a vulnerable position and didn’t drastically change his body positioning right before impact. But to focus on tenet (i): Wilson doesn’t pick Carrier’s head or extend any limb in a targeting movement. His shoulders are tucked to his body. Not only is he not launching himself, he’s actually angling himself down to deliver a textbook clean hit. During the follow-through, Wilson’s shoulder does ride up toward Carrier’s neck and catch his head, but that’s not illegal. You’re absolutely allowed to hate it, but in this case, the issue is more the NHL rulebook than anything Wilson is doing. Players will take headshots even on hits deemed clean in the rulebook because incidental head contact is allowed. The only way to fully eliminate headshots is to ban incidental head contact, and if we want that, we have to accept a drastic reduction in hitting and a different-looking game. Some hockey fans may be ready to, but others won’t want to let go of the physicality that defines the sport.

And here’s the other hard truth: it’s far from the first time we’ve seen Wilson hurt someone on a clean hit, and there’s no chance it’ll be the last. It might happen again in Game 5. It might happen twice in Game 5. It’s what Wilson does, because he’s 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds and is the most devastating open-ice hitter among all forwards in his generation. Carrier is 5-foot-11, and that five-inch height difference is the primary reason he took head contact from Wilson.

I’ve written these words many times before and I’ll surely write them again: if you hate the Wilson hit, that’s a perfectly understandable position, but your issue is not with Wilson. Your issue is with the rulebook.

_____

POST SPONSORED BY bet365

_____

Recently by Matt Larkin

• Was Game 4 a blip, or will Leafs’ familiar ghosts return?
• If Senators get swept…is their season still a success?
• The Leafs used to get ‘goalied’ in the playoffs. Anthony Stolarz has flipped the script
• The Oilers made their bed by not addressing obvious deficiencies in goal
• It wasn’t just the win – it was how the Leafs won Game 1 that matters