Earning his fourth suspension in 105 NHL games, the league has laid the hammer down on Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson, serving him with a 20 game suspension for an illegal hit to the head infraction.

The hit came during a preseason game against unsuspecting forward for the St. Louis Blues, Oskar Sunqvist. It was ugly, it was exactly what the NHL is trying to take out of the game and it was not the first time Wilson had been hit with a suspension for targeting an opponents head while in a vulnerable position. In his first year of a new six-year $31 million contract, Wilson will forfeit a large chunk of change due to his inability to control himself when it comes to being a repeat offender under the terms of the NHL's Collective Bargaining Agreement.

The NHL's Department of Player Safety released the video of the incident along with the explanation for their ruling in Wilson's specific case. Laying out the fact that Wilson could have avoided the hit, could have taken a different approach or could have hit his opponent legally in a different spot and trajectory, the NHL ruled this was a clear hit to the head, resulting in the player being injured.

The NHL also determined that more games needed to be levied due to an unprecedented number of suspensions for one player in the history of the department. Wilson clearly doesn't get it and the NHL had to set an example by serving him with a longer suspension in an effort to send a message. Should he receive another suspension, he's on the verge of playing himself out of half an NHL season.

For Washington, they will miss Wilson's contributions. He was set to play in the team's top-six and 20 games is a quarter of the season. Last season, Wilson scored 14 goals and 35 points in the regular season, along with 5 goals and 15 points in Washington's playoff run toward the Stanley Cup Championship.

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