The only difference, though, is that in Ovechkin's younger years people were still screaming "stop turning from hits", and now it just happens too often to make a note of it anymore. Now we talk about how players make "avoidable contact", there's even less responsibility with the player being hit. There is functionally no difference in the way they approached the physical element of the game, only the surroundings have changed.
While I do agree with your points that Wilson doesn't use too much excessive stickwork or slew-footing, I think the bold is kind of a stretch. Not exactly sure "emasculating" is what's happening, I think people just don't like seeing reckless players injure other guys with high hits, especially with all of the attention surrounding concussions these days. Playing recklessly is dirty, in my opinion, especially with the size and strength that Wilson has. As you said, it's possible to love the physical game, but guys still need to adjust their play when they're continually injuring opponents. I remember an old coach of mine saying "you want to hurt a guy, but not injure him". The issue with Wilson is that after so many hits that are "within a few degrees of acceptable" it makes it hard to give the benefit of the doubt that he's not intending to injure for a lot of people anymore.
I don't hate him at all, I like tough players and have regularly defended Wilson to other Penguins fans. I just want him to play less recklessly so that on the plays where he does miss hits, and doesn't end up wiring someone's jaw shut, or putting someone out for long stretches.
You shouldn't be allowed to be as big and strong as Wilson and also have the wheels that he does. He's a terrific skater with both great acceleration and straight line speed. When he's on, his style of play opens up the ice for everyone else on the team. Because he's so big, fast, and strong, hits that other players would throw with little no consequence can look much worse or have a bad outcome when Wilson does it. He's realized where the line is and changed his game a lot, which might not be noticeable to people who don't watch the Caps on a regular basis but it's true... but that doesn't mean he's not going to get close to the line from time to time. It's unavoidable when you play the way he does not to push the envelope.
I will have to take notice of Wilson pulling up on hits or avoiding unnecessary contact when watching him in the future. I understand that no guy can ever get his game to a point where he takes literally zero penalties, especially a hitter like Wilson. However, it’s just difficult to still give him the benefit of the doubt at this point. I’d imagine it’s akin to a Penguins fan trying to convince someone Cooke changed his game. Every hit will raise question marks simply on reputation alone. It’s somewhat unfair, but that’s the hole these kind of players dig themselves.
It’s not akin to Cook at all. I understand your premise. But Cook knowingly did things outside the game to hurt people. (Elbows). Tom hit people that weren’t ready for it, which is part of what the game is *now* trying to remove. Elbows were never part of the game. Open ice hits (see Scott Stevens) were once “ok”. Now they aren’t.
I didn’t mean to compare Cooke with Wilson as a player, Matt Cooke was way dirtier than anything that Tom Wilson exhibited. My point was just that he made a concerted effort to change the way that he played and I think he was successful at doing that. However, he was never going to get the benefit of the doubt from anyone outside of Pittsburgh due to his history and reputation.
