NHL champion Capitals welcome back Wilson after ban shrunk
Washington Capitals right wing Tom Wilson was reinstated to the reigning National Hockey League champions on Tuesday after an arbitrator reduced an illegal check suspension from 20 to 14 games. The 24-year-old Canadian will be eligible to return to the Capitals with Tuesday night's NHL game at Minnesota. Wilson, who has played all six prior NHL seasons for the Capitals, sat out the first 16 games of the campaign after a ban was imposed for a check to the head of St. Louis Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist in a pre-season game. It was the fourth time within a year that Wilson had been suspended for dangerous hits to the head of an opponent, including a three-game ban during last season's playoff run to the Stanley Cup. The suspension imposed by the NHL player safety department was upheld by NHL commissioner Gary Bettman but arbitrator Shyam Das trimmed the ban on appeal by Wilson and the players' union. "I am not persuaded that there is substantial evidentiary support for the league's determination to impose a 20-game suspension on Wilson," Das wrote. Wilson was to have forfeited $1.26 million in salary but will have $378,048 returned to him thanks to the smaller ban.
