The Puck Stops Here
Next entry: Early Season Top Rookie
Previous entry: How To Offload An Unwanted Salary
Ovechkin and Artyukhin’s Slew Foots
by PuckStopsHere on 10/24/09 at 01:25 PM ET
Comments (7)
On Thursday, the NHL suspended Evgeni Artyukhin of the Anaheim Ducks for three games for his slew footing of Matt Niskanen of the Dallas Stars. Niskanen injured his head (probably a concussion) on the play. He has not played since the Wednesday 4-2 Dallas victory where the incident occurred and is not expected to play tonight vs. St Louis. On the night of the three game suspension, Alexander Ovechkin slew footed Rich Peverley of the Atlanta Thrashers. This happened in the final minute of the Capitals 5-4 victory. Peverley was not injured on the play, but it still looked like something that merits a suspension from the NHL.
Artyukhin was suspended for three games and forfeits almost $35,000 in salary for his transgression. Ovechkin was not suspended to his. He was fined an undisclosed amount by the NHL (which under the current CBA is limited to $2500).
If the Ovechkin slew foot was 1/3 as bad as the Artyukhin one, shouldn’t it be worth a one game suspension and a fine greater than 1/14th of Artyukhin’s? This is yet another example of the inconsistent NHL suspensions policy where star players who sell tickets do not receive the same punishments as lesser players.
NHL vice president and director of hockey affairs Colin Campbell argues that one significant difference between the players is that Ovechkin is not a repeat offender. This is a false situation that exists only because the NHL has looked the other was on Ovechkin’s past transgressions. They are using the precedent of letting Ovechkin off light in the past as a reason to let him off light today.
In last year’s playoffs, Ovechkin was not suspended for a knee-on-knee hit that hurt Sergei Gonchar of the Pittsburgh Penguins. Last season, Ovechkin was not suspended for a vicious hit from behind on Jamie Heward of the Tampa Bay Lightning. Heward suffered a concussion from the hit and has not played an NHL game since. His career is likely over. In 2007, Ovechkin had a late hit of Daniel Briere (then a Buffalo Sabre) that resulted in a $1000 fine. The only reason Ovechkin is not a repeat offender is that the NHL looks the other way in his prior offences.
Evgeni Artyukhin is a repeat offender as well. Last season, he had a two game suspension for a kneeing incident with Ville Peltonen of the Florida Panthers. Apparently, he was also fined for a slew-footing incident in pre-season (though I cannot find details of the suspension when it occurred or which team and player were involved - if you know please leave a comment - edit to add: it was Dustin Brown of the los Angeles Kings). The pre-season slew-footing incident is so low profile that it slipped below my radar and that of the mainstream media (at least until Colin Campbell uses it to justify the current suspension). There may be Ovechkin incidents that slipped below the radar as well that are not under discussion here, they will forever be forgotten because Ovechkin is too good a player to be suspended, while Artyukhin is not.
The Evgeni Artyukhin slew-foot was worse than the Alexander Ovechkin one, but not so much worse that it justifies a 3 game suspension while the other is unsuspended and justifies 14 times the fine. It is an example of the favoritism to NHL stars when suspensions are considered. Worse, they use past favoritism to justify the current favoritism, by claiming Ovechkin is not a repeat offender, when clearly he should be one.
Filed in: | The Puck Stops Here | Permalink
Tags: Alexander+Ovechkin, Anaheim+Ducks, Evgeni+Artyukhin, Washington+Capitals,
Comments
Hey Observer, as far as I know, the writer of The Puck Stops Here is NOT a Pens fan. Believe it or not, Pittsburgh fans are not the only ones who think Ovechkin gets away with murder out there and gets preferential treatment.
Posted by LGP8771 on 10/24/09 at 04:05 PM ET
I’m not a Penguins fan and I believe Ovechkin should have gotten at least one game. He is a slew-foot repeat offender. It’s a dangerous and stupid play that can lead to incredibly serious injuries to players. The horrible standards when it comes to player discipline have been a problem for quite some time. I understand from a league standpoint that you want your face-of-the-game players to be in every game. Fans may be less likely to attend a Capitals game if they know Ovechkin isn’t going to be playing. However, the league has a duty to keep the players safe. Suspensions for dangerous plays are an integral part of accomplishing that.
I like that Ovechkin plays hard. He’s an electric guy on the ice. However, nobody can deny that there are plenty of times where he’s crossed the line between playing all-out and playing dirty.
I just wonder how many games a guy gets if he slew-foots Ovechkin…
Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 10/24/09 at 04:16 PM ET
This is yet another example of the inconsistent NHL suspensions policy where star players who sell tickets do not receive the same punishments as lesser players.
gee, you mean like a certain infraction that is a black-and-white automatic suspension, but apparently only if it’s not against Gary’s favorite team in the Stanley Cup Finals?
inconsistent is an understatement for this league. I love hockey, and hate the NHL.
Posted by PaulinMiamiBeach on 10/26/09 at 10:24 AM ET
PaulinMiamiBeach - What are you talking about? Don’t you know the Red Wings had 9 more power plays in the Stanley Cup Finals than the Penguins? You’re a bitter loser. This has nothing to do with the Stanley Cup Finals and if you think Gary is pulling all the strings for whatever you think his favorite team is, then you’re just a nutjob conspiracy theorist.
Was the moon landing staged back in the 60’s and was Obama born in Kenya too? You bitter loser.
And what certain infraction are you talking about? The Penguins did nothing in the Finals worthy of a suspension. You fail again. Thanks for playing… You lose.
Posted by LGP8771 on 10/26/09 at 04:29 PM ET
Malkin was given a well-deserved instigator penalty with fewer than five minutes to go in a game. That should have been an automatic suspension. I realize that the Wings were given more power plays and will even give that the refereeing was fairly balanced in the series. But, it wasn’t the referees who reversed the call on Malkin, it was the head office.
Try to make the argument that saying Malkin deserved a suspension is the same thing as saying the moon landing didn’t happen or that 9/11 was an inside job all you want. After all, one of the easiest ways to dismiss a valid argument is to take it to a ridiculous extreme that the person making the argument didn’t, putting words into your opponent’s mouth so to speak.
Within the confines of the argument that the NHL gives preferential treatment to star players as it comes to discipline, the Malkin incident fits
Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 10/26/09 at 04:59 PM ET
Hey J.J. - you and I both know that Datsyuk and Zetterberg would not have gotten suspended in the Stanley Cup Finals if they had received an instigator after fighting someone on the Pens, just like Malkin wasn’t. Same for Lidstrom or Hossa or just about anyone on the Wings. I’m pretty sure the NHL reserves the right to not suspend someone depending on the circumstances. I don’t think a 3rd liner gets suspended after a play like that in the 1st round of the playoffs. So that’s a really bad example.
I was not comparing that to the moon landing or other conspiracy theories, though. I was comparing the Penguins supposedly getting preferential treatment, not star players in general getting it.
So you misunderstood what I was saying. The fact of the matter is anyone who believes the Pens get preferential treatment from the refs because Gary Bettman is pulling the strings is biased against the Pens for whatever reason. Many Caps, Rangers, Flyers and some Wings fans all believe stuff like that. All those teams have something in common - they’ve all lost against the Penguins in the playoffs the past couple years. Those fans don’t look at facts - such as power plays for and against, which are usually even and sometimes in favor of the Pens’ opponents.
They are jealous or bitter and they use the simple fact that Crosby plays for the Pens to try to justify their beliefs when they have absolutely nothing to back up their conspiracy theories.
Posted by LGP8771 on 10/26/09 at 05:31 PM ET
Add a Comment
Please limit embedded image or media size to 575 pixels wide.
Add your own avatar by joining Kukla's Korner, or logging in and uploading one in your member control panel.
Captchas bug you? Join KK or log in and you won't have to bother.
Most Recent Blog Posts
The Flip Side To Best Teams Pre-Lockout
Future Hall Of Famer Brendan Shanahan Retires
About The Puck Stops Here
The Puck Stops Here was founded during the 2004/05 lockout as a place to rant about hockey. The original site contains over 1000 posts, some of which were also published on FoxSports.com.
Who am I?
A diehard hockey fan.
Why am I blogging?
I want to.
Why are you reading it?
???
Email:
Donate to Kukla’s Korner
but it still looked like something that merits a suspension from the NHL.
Maybe for you and your Pens friends only
Posted by Observer on 10/24/09 at 03:13 PM ET