Three minutes after Alex Ovechkin tied the game up 2-2, Andrew Ladd took back the lead for the Islanders on a broken play that left the Caps a man down.
Let’s take a closer look at the controversial play.
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After blocking a point shot with his leg, Tom Wilson was decked by Johnny Boychuk in the left shoulder and fell into the side boards. Wilson laid on the ice injured for about five seconds before slowly getting back up. Meanwhile, the Isles would score.
Did the Isles deserve a penalty? Barry Trotz certainly thought so.
“Yeah, absolutely,” Barry Trotz said after the game. “I thought there was an absolute penalty on it. But they didn’t call it, so you just have to play on. They were able to keep it in the zone. We had a couple guys go down to try and block. They found Andrew Ladd off to the side.”
“To me, that sort of unraveled us a little bit,” Trotz continued. “They scored shortly after that. All of a sudden – an opportunity to go on the power play – wasn’t called, they score. It sort of unraveled us for a few minutes. Then we got it back together and almost came back.”
On top of the potential miscall, play ultimately could have been blown dead by an on-ice official because of Wilson’s injury. He laid on the ice in the fetal position.
The problem here is there is too much nuance on the play. The Caps never regained possession of the puck after the shot block. Wilson wasn’t struck in the head or bleeding. He did not have a medical emergency. There was nothing that should have negated an Islanders scoring chance.
And while Boychuk’s crosscheck was unnecessary, he hit Wilson in the shoulder. It was also not clear what injured the Caps forward. Wilson was felled by another shot block at the end of the second period which could have caused his third period injury.
