Mark Madden: Penguins could use a player like Tom Wilson

The Penguins have a Tom Wilson problem. Specifically, they don’t have him.

They had a reasonably facsimile, Ryan Reaves, for part of the 2017-18 season. Not as good, not as tough, but good enough and tough enough. It remains one of Mike Sullivan’s biggest mistakes as Penguins coach that he didn’t use Reaves much, and one of Jim Rutherford’s worst gaffes as GM that he didn’t make Sullivan play Reaves, but instead traded Reaves.

It was a gratuitous lack of communication between GM and coach. Why get Reaves (especially in a deal that gave St. Louis a first-round pick) if Sullivan won’t play him?

Rutherford gave his coach free rein. In that instance, he shouldn’t have. Reaves could have been useful in the Penguins’ second-round playoff loss to Washington (and Wilson) in ’18. Wilson gave Zach Aston-Reese a broken jaw and concussion with a check to the head in that series.

Wilson is detestable, unless you have him. Every team would take him. The Washington winger isn’t unique, but he’s close.

Wilson is big (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) and dirty. He can hit and fight. He is good enough to play top six, so he can protect your stars. Imagine Wilson on Sidney Crosby’s wing. (Wilson scored the winning goal Thursday, BTW.)

Wilson is often mired in controversy and has been suspended four times since entering the NHL in 2013. He did the former and courted the latter when he hit the Penguins’ Mark Jankowski with a late hit Thursday. It was shoulder to chest, but set-your-clocks-ahead late.

Wilson got a minor. It’s harder to assess him a major and game misconduct because he didn’t target Jankowski’s head. (If that’s Crosby, Wilson gets ejected. Wilson wasting a damaging hit on a fourth-line foe confirms he neglects to think on a lot of levels.)

Wilson delivers shots like that all the time. But 20-25 years ago, that’s just a good hit.

Penguins defenseman Cody Ceci, who has so far outperformed reasonable expectations, got some degree of revenge by decking Wilson with an undeniably clean hit. But Wilson nonetheless got angry, which is typical of his ilk. I hit you, that’s hockey. You hit me, how dare you!

If you live by the sword, be prepared to get stabbed occasionally.

The era of the goon is over in hockey, and that’s good. But each team lacking that presence makes Wilson all the harder to deal with. It’s worse because he is in the Penguins’ division. The Penguins and Capitals have played six times this year. The body count has been manageable.

It’s surprising no one has ever sucker-punched Wilson, or otherwise fouled him gratuitously. You’d get suspended, but no one would hate you or feel sorry for Wilson.

Then again, what if your cheap shot didn’t hurt Wilson? Run to the hills.

The Penguins’ 5-2 loss at Washington on Thursday can be blamed on Kris Letang’s stick manufacturer. Washington’s winning goal and first empty-netter can be traced directly to Letang’s stick disintegrating.

Go to the bench and get a new stick. That hurts you a lot for five seconds. Maybe that makes more sense than being hurt a little until play stops, you clear the puck or something bad happens. On Thursday, something bad happened. Twice.