League finally gets punishment right for longtime NHL goon

Welcome back for another season of The Backcheck, where apparently we have walked into an alternate NHL reality where Tom Wilson is actually handed a lengthy suspension for doing something completely in line with his regular, buffoonish behavior.

For all the bad things we — and everyone else — have said over the years about the lack of discipline from the Department of Player Safety, we need to give them a hearty pat on the back for the 20-game suspension handed down for Wilson’s utterly reckless, dangerous and borderline malicious headshot on the Blues’ Oskar Sundqvist.

The hit occurred Sept. 30 in the Capitals’ final preseason game. Sundqvist was coming across the middle of the ice and was about to release a shot — a completely eligible (if not vulnerable) position to be hit. But as Wilson accelerated and turned to enter the zone, he found a way to target Sundqvist’s head and damn near decapitate him.

The stick goes flying, Sundqvist’s brain is irreparably damaged — as was his shoulder — and it’s just another day in Wilson’s life. Thankfully, the refs handed him a match penalty.

Even more thankfully, the head of the DoPS, George Parros, handed Wilson the longest of his four career suspensions, one which will also take about $1.26 million out of his pocket and mercifully go into the Emergency Players Fund.

“This hit on Sundqvist occurred in only [Wilson’s] 16th game since his last suspension, also for an illegal check to the head,” Parros said in the video. “In short, including preseason and postseason games, this is Wilson’s fourth suspension in his past 105 games, an unprecedented frequency of suspensions in the history of the Department of Player Safety.”

Remember when Wilson essentially ended the career of Islanders defenseman Lubomir Visnovsky with this gem? Visnovsky never played in the NHL again, and Wilson was given … a two-minute charging minor? Then-Capitals coach and now-Islanders coach Barry Trotz even defended the hit back then, part of the league-wide coddling that keeps plays like this in the game.

“Tom Wilson didn’t do anything other than run him over,” Trotz said, before alluding to three Islanders players who are now under his charge — Matt Martin, Cal Clutterbuck and Casey Cizikas. “It’s really no different than like Martin or Clutterbuck or Cizikas. They’re hitting hard and they’re hitting clean.”

Really, there are enough awful hits in Wilson’s history that it’s sickening to go through them all — as the Washington Post diligently did this previous postseason after a recent bit of brutality, getting suspended for three playoff games following a gross shot to the head of Penguins forward Zach Aston-Reese.

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Know how Wilson was rewarded for that one? By coming back to score two goals in the Stanley Cup final, where his Capitals beat the Golden Knights in five games, then with a whopping six-year, $31 million deal. He was set to start the season on the top line with Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, but instead, he had to watch the championship banner be raised without playing in the game.

Poor guy. Something tells me no one is going to take away his championship ring, with 252 diamonds, 35 rubies and one sapphire. Just as nobody is going to take away the rest of the $29 million left on his contract — that is, unless it’s him doing more dumb things like this.

Listen, hockey is a violent game. We all know that. In some regard, that’s part of its allure.

Wilson is 6-foot-4, 218 pounds, and he’s a good skater. That means the power he creates when delivering even a clean body check is severe. He thinks that makes him a target. He even discussed it with Parros in person this past year during the Capitals’ trip to Western Canada. But again, he came out of that thinking he was a victim.

“I think anyone that’s watched hockey can admit that the game’s changing,” he told the Washington Post in May. “Those big collisions, the league’s making us aware that they don’t want those anymore.”

The only thing that makes the 24-year-old a target is his undeniable history of bad hits, the kind of plays that ruin opponents’ careers, if not their lives. He’ll likely appeal, and odds are it will get to an arbitrator who might or might not save him a couple games (and bucks).

Maybe this appropriate initial penalty will make him change. Maybe not. But at least it’s a start.

All hail The Alien!

Sure, it’s one game, but my preseason pick for the Calder is looking great. Vancouver’s rookie winger, Elias Pettersson — nicknamed “The Alien” by his teammates for his “otherworldly skills” — scored a sweet goal in the regular season opener. Also, nice reaction on the bench from the 19-year-old Swede, the No. 5-overall pick in 2017.

Stay tuned …

… to the video-game drama. No doubting the fact the young players coming up in the league now — the 19- to 25-year-old range — love playing video games. But the fact the Canucks banned video games on the road drew a curious response from 20-year-old Jets winger Patrik Laine.

“They need something to blame after last year,” Laine said of the last-place Canucks. Ouch.

Parting shot

Of course, in his first preseason game with the Leafs, John Tavares scored twice. And of course, in his first regular season game, the former Islanders captain scored a terrific goal. The Isles faithful might want to avoid highlights of any Leafs games this year (like they needed me to tell them that).