It appears George Parros has a soft spot for Tom Wilson.
How touching.
The Washington Capitals bonehead has drawn the ire of NHL followers far and wide for his actions Monday against the New York Rangers — which included punching a defenseless Pavel Buchnevich from behind and bodyslamming a helmetless Artemi Panarin.
Despite this, Wilson only was fined for his actions, not suspended, a decision that baffled even the most renowned enforcers, like John Scott and Matt Cooke.
Well, it appears Parros, a former enforcer himself who now leads the NHL’s Department of Player Safety, didn’t even want to suspend Wilson back in March.
That, of course, was for hitting Brandon Carlo’s head into the boards, which sent the Boston Bruins defenseman to the hospital, gave him a concussion and kept him out for nearly a month.
“Parros, we’ve heard, didn’t even want to suspend Wilson for the brain-damaging assault on Boston’s Brandon Carlo, who suffered mood changes and blurry vision from his concussion after being hospitalized by Wilson in March,” The Athletic’s Rick Carpiniello wrote Tuesday. “(NHL commissioner Gary) Bettman didn’t like the optics and ordered a suspension. So Wilson got seven games. Before that, he wasn’t even considered a repeat offender, because the CBA erases priors after a certain period of time transpires. Just absurd.”
If at all uncertain about the severity of the Carlo hit, click here to read what the defenseman said about the whole ordeal.
We’ve said it ad nauseum at this point, but this behavior won’t from Wilson won’t stop so long as the league and his team — head coach included — continue to enable him.
