What ever happened to “keep your head up”? I get that it was a dirty hit from Wilson by today’s standards. But in all honesty how do you cleanly hit a player now a days when he’s in that position? Hip checks are too low now, regular hit would hit the head of a player who just took a shot as his head was lowered. So how do you hit him cleanly in that situation? Can players just put there head down now and cut to the slot unimpeded? Are defenders just not supposed to hit the player in that situation now?
While I agree that players need to look out for their own safety and that Sundqvist put himself in a terrible position there... many other players find ways to make hits on forwards coming across the blueline without getting suspended for the hit. Why can't Wilson? It's not even all that hard... all he would have had to do was slow up a touch and instead of jumping or raising his shoulder into the hit, crouch down a little and he would have completely flattened Sundqvist... and it likely would have been legal. Instead he went as high as he could, and tried to murder him.