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Ovechkin ejected against Canes
by David Lee on 11/30/09 at 07:46 PM ET
Comments (23)
Alex Ovechkin has been given a five minute major and a game misconduct for a knee-on-knee hit on the Canes’ Tim Gleason. This is the second major penalty for Ovechkin in less than a week. On Wednesday, he was given a five minute major and game misconduct for boarding Patrick Kaleta of the Sabres. Here’s the knee-on-knee hit with Gleason:
Ovechkin wasn’t suspended after the Kaleta incident, presumably because Kaleta wasn’t seriously injured. In a bizarre twist, Kaleta himself was suspended for two games after he was guilty of boarding the Flyers’ Jared Ross on Friday.
Double standard? Sure. When you’re a superstar, you get special treatment.
Although Ovechkin wasn’t suspended for the Kaleta hit, he’s automatically on probation. He must go 41 consecutive games without another boarding major, or he will face a mandatory one game suspension. Apparently, he doesn’t care about that. He told the Washington Post:
“I can’t do nothing about it. I just play my game. I’m not going to change. It’s me.”
It’s time that Collie Campbell stopped being a wimp and throws the book at a superstar. If this is anyone else in the league, there is no doubt that the offending player is suspended. The NHL, though, has a longstanding agreement that superstars aren’t disciplined the same way fourth-line wingers are. After all, they don’t want a Ricard Riot on their hands.
Still, this is two majors in the last four games for Ovie. He’s already said he’s not going to let fear of discipline alter his play, but the league has to do something to protect its players and deter guys from habitually doing things like this.
Last spring, in the playoff series against the Penguins, Ovechkin delivered a nasty knee-on-knee hit to Sergei Gonchar. And he got off with nothing more than a minor penalty.
This time, it appears that Ovechkin actually bore the brunt of the collision. There’s no telling what the extent of his injury was, but Gleason returned to the ice after missing just two shifts.
All of this, incidentally, came just minutes after Carolina lost Joe Corvo to injury. Corvo collided with a Caps player leaving the ice, and was accidentally cut on the back of the leg. He was rushed to a hospital for attention.
Filed in: | Red and Black Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Alexander+Ovechkin, kneeing,
Comments
Ovechkin needs to be suspended.
the NHL double standard has to end.
2 Majors and Game Misconducts in a week?!
Seriously!?
I’m a die hard AO fan, but this is getting ridiculous.
Posted by Clippin Wings from OC on 11/30/09 at 08:00 PM ET
Suspension may be superfluous at this point - hockey karma may have caught up to him already.
Posted by Sara on 11/30/09 at 08:12 PM ET
It’s certainly reckless, but this is exactly why I have trouble placing intent with any knee-on-knee hit. It’s just as dangerous for the hitter as the hit-ee.
Posted by Nate A from Detroit-ish on 11/30/09 at 08:13 PM ET
the suspension should be added on to however long he is out with injury….the injury should have no bearing on the suspension
Posted by eerodynamic from Columbus OH on 11/30/09 at 08:15 PM ET
I agree with Nate, i never understood why a guy would intentionally do it, since there is the chance he gets it just as bad. that being said, it’s obviously a reckless and dangerous play that deserves a suspension despite the name on the jersey…
Posted by Greg on 11/30/09 at 08:18 PM ET
The boarding call the other day was weak. It was a bad call by the refs to give him 5+10GM for it and you can argue 2 wasn’t warranted. Totally illegitimate to use this to establish any sort of position against his play. Absolutely he was correct to ignore this call and keep playing “his game.”
On the other hand, I don’t have anything to say to defend Ovie on tonight’s play. Pretty plainly dirty, imo. At the very least, he needs to have learned from the play against Gonchar: if this was only him trying to adjust his path to make contact with Gleason, it’s still dangerous. He’ll be suspended; my guess is 2 games.
Posted by false_cause from DC on 11/30/09 at 08:29 PM ET
It was not intentional but he was out of control and reckless. He stuck his leg out against Gonchar but tonight he led with his shoulder, when Gleason moved he was too out of control to avoid him. Stupid on Alex’s part and it’s going to cost him big. Don’t care about the suspension. The injury will keep him out a lot longer.
Posted by eric from baltimore on 11/30/09 at 09:02 PM ET
I don’t think he’ll be suspended. It is exactly the same motion/ acion/ movement/ whatever as his knee on knee hit on Gonchar in last years playoffs. He wasn’t suspended then and won’t be now.
Posted by Gonch55 on 11/30/09 at 09:07 PM ET
live by the sword,,,
Posted by steve on 11/30/09 at 09:14 PM ET
Gonch: The suspension is automatic. As for living by the sword, he’s the best player in the league because of his combination of skill, speed and size. Asking him to tone it down physically makes him a lesser player. When you’re a wrecking machine occasionally you’re going to go over the line. Tonight was more about recklessness then being physical. He creates half his scoring chances thru intimidation and knocking defensemen off the puck. I don’t know what the heck he was thinking tonight.
Posted by eric from baltimore on 11/30/09 at 09:20 PM ET
Update: Caps will wait til tomorrow for an MRI. That means to me that the swelling needs to go down which usually means something is broken.
Posted by eric from baltimore on 11/30/09 at 09:21 PM ET
Hopefully it’s just a sprained ligament, not a torn one. At this point, we’ll probably be lucky to see him a month from now.
If nothing else, at least the knee twisting or bending didn’t look as brutal as, say, David Jones’ injury for the Avs the other night, which was an ACL tear.
Posted by nosferatu from oh on 11/30/09 at 09:34 PM ET
Caps Insider: As far possible disciplinary action, it’s unclear whether Colin Campbell will hand out a suspension or fine for Ovechkin’s knee-on-knee hit. But it appears, based on the rule book, that Ovechkin will avoid an automatic one-game suspension in connection with his hit on Buffalo’s Patrick Kaleta last Wednesday because boarding and kneeing fall in different categories.
Posted by Check TheRules on 11/30/09 at 09:40 PM ET
@Nate: it being “just as dangerous for the hitter as the hittee” is just another reason why the book should be thrown at the initiator of a hit like that. Sometimes rules exist to protect the stupid from themselves, and in the physical game, Ovechkin gets stupid.
Posted by JoshC from Charlottesville, VA on 11/30/09 at 09:45 PM ET
it being “just as dangerous for the hitter as the hittee” is just another reason why the book should be thrown at the initiator of a hit like that.
I don’t disagree with that. It’s a very reckless play and that crap needs to be kept in check. My comment was in response to the first comment in this thread and many similar comments in other incidents, such as with Gonchar last season or Kronwall this season. Intending to hit someone like that just doesn’t compute.
Posted by Nate A from Detroit-ish on 11/30/09 at 10:00 PM ET
Ovechkin is dirty. What is ridiculous is that people out there defend him at all. At some point his reputation for running at people and creating dangerous plays must supersede the “superstar” treatment and denial that Caps fans have for him. Does he have incredible skill? Yes, but he’s also one of the dirtiest players in the league. I confess, I’m not a fan of his, but even under the most objective point of view, the evidence is out there to support it—youtube his dirty hits, if you don’t believe it.
Posted by Andrew from Delaware on 11/30/09 at 10:51 PM ET
Andrew is right. I.e., the hit on Kaleta, Gonchar AND
LEST WE FORGET
The infamous dirty check to Danny Briere when he was with the Sabres.
Posted by Ripper from Vancouver, BC on 12/01/09 at 03:35 AM ET
All of you calling him dirty would also be cheering loudly for 99% of his hits if he was in your teams jersey.
Is he reckless? Yes…do the fans want to see big hits?...yes….he made a mistake..he has to live with the consequences.
Did any of you actually think he would never make a mistake moving at that speed?
Suspension is a mute point…He will probably be out 2-4 weeks anyway.
Posted by SA_Town on 12/01/09 at 08:27 AM ET
Mark my words, the league is waiting to see how bad his injury is. If he’s out for 4-8 weeks, they may drop a five-game suspension on him for this, as a weak attempt to shut up the critics who say that they don’t have the guts to suspend a superstar. Of course, since he’d be too injured to play those games anyway, it’s nothing lost, but you can already hear Gary Bettman in his next interview deflecting the criticism back on the asker when grilled about suspending an injured guy.
“You guys want an even suspension policy and that’s what you got. Laraque got five games just like Ovechkin, but somehow because Ovechkin was injured, it’s still not good enough for you?”
Double bonus to the league for suspending an injured guy: you don’t have to pay his salary during the suspension…
Posted by J.J. from Kansas on 12/01/09 at 08:55 AM ET
Everyone knows when Ovechkin is on the ice and they are skating out of the zone that he’s coming. This is the same exact thing that happened to Gonchar. They don’t pick their heads up to find teammates, they look for him first. On this play Gleason saw him coming and tried to avoid him with a quick move. At 225 pounds moving at full speed with is right leg already planted, there was no way to avoid this happening. Why would anyone risk a knee injury by purposely doing this? The hit looked so bad because Ovechkin always plays hard, and his physical style always leads to big hits. The boarding call the other night was weak, but by rule Ovechkin now must be suspended for a day. I know that people in Pittsburgh, New York and Philly are probably happy today and feel like he got what he deserved, however in this day and age of overplayed players collecting paychecks and not giving their best on a nightly basis, we need more guys like Ovechkin, not fewer. Speaking of going through the motions, that clearly defines the Canes right now. I’m sure many of you hope that Oveckin is out for a long, long time - but that’s not good for the sport.
Posted by Scott from Baltimore on 12/01/09 at 09:51 AM ET
I remember there was a lot of controversy about this. I like that Ovechkin just said that this is how he plays, and did not offer any apologies (makes him look less guilty!) That is part of the game, some guys want the puck more, Ovie is a big guy, and he moves fast, so accidents happen! Not going to comment on the double standard though, but yeah….the NHL want’s there stars playing
Posted by Hockey from Huntsville on 07/31/10 at 03:33 AM ET
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David Lee is a restaurant manager with an unused degree in political science. He can be found at Carolina Hurricanes games, Scrabble tournaments and indie-rock shows. Sometimes, all in the same day.
David has contributed to CBC.ca for their Stanley Cup playoff coverage in 2006 and to the New York Times Slapshot blog for theirs in 2008. Red and Black Hockey was founded in July of 2005.
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if that hit wasnt suspension worthy then no knee-on-knee hit is. that was the worst intentional knee shot ive seen since the 70’s
Posted by eerodynamic from Columbus OH on 11/30/09 at 07:53 PM ET