You spent WAY too much time on the "why" behind the bolded bottom line of truth, which is the crux of the matter. "Why" is an excuse. And when the issue is unpunished headshots, with so many clearly taking direct aim at the head and not even getting a hearing (like Malkin on Oshie) the excuses are hollow.
Caps fans want CONSISTENCY in treatment of players. It's currently open season on Caps players where elbows and shoulders are being thrown to the head intentionally, and nothing is being done. We aren't losing role players and scrubs to this, our stars have been going down all year, and the league is doing next to nothing.
Claiming "yeah will people hate Tom Wilson and he hits guys in the head" as justification for that is not acceptable. Just because you and Tom Wilson or Caps haters don't care doesn't mean it's not an issue.
Of course it doesn't. But your fanbase does itself no favors by ardently defending every single thing Wilson does. And don't get me wrong any fanbase that employs a serial suspendee does it too. I was just reading through the Raffi Torres hit thread and it was the same story as pretty much every Wilson thread.
I'll be honest I don't know what it was that injured Kuznetsov or caused injuries to any of your other key players. But I doubt the majority opinion is "it's okay that they got injured if your team employs Tom Wilson." Maybe there are some who do, and maybe there are some that are callous cause it's the Caps but people are especially vicious towards Wilson, or in this case indifferent or glad about his injury
because the amount of times he's injured a guy or potentially injured someone is quite high and every time one of his hits drums up controversy there is always a subset of fans who insist that he didn't and doesn't ever do anything wrong.
You wanna say it's unacceptable to make an exception to a desire to see physicality held to a less reckless standard when Wilson finally suffers the same treatment he's dished out to others, fine. You wanna say it's unacceptable? Fine. It won't stop people from getting mad at Wilson if he ever does something again. It won't stop people from getting mad at people who defend him for it. And as it is now with Caps fans all of a sudden calling for players being held to be more responsible for their hits, it won't change that it's in the NHL's hands to be consistent about how they crack down on illegal checks to the head. Which, you know. Didn't happen on this or the Seney hit.