Ovechkin's hit on Gonchar

[uncle ovipositor 6]

You actually have to try to go knee-to-knee with someone, you're natural reaction, as Gonchar did, was try and get your knees out of the way, OV did not, therefore you can tell it was intentional. Plus you can tell he was prepared for it by him being 100% fine and not even going down. BTW, he absolutely DID widen his stance right before contact, another sign he "did it on purpose". Maybe not with malice, but intentional none-the-less.

So... it was an intentional attempt to hurt another player, but not with malice? It was like a mercy kneeing, because he could tell Gonchar wanted out of the series?

I'm curious if you've ever skated before. Ovi bent his right knee to lean into a hit and, if Gonchar moved, go into a turn. His skates don't get any farther apart, he just shifts weight at the knees - unlike walking or running, that's where you shift your center of gravity from when you're on skates. That might be what you're seeing as him "widening his stance". I would guess that he assumed Gonchar was going to lean into him to take the hit, and he leaned accordingly.

At that speed, to make the calculated move you're claiming he made would take superhuman reflexes. Both of them are making their play, not trying to respond the other.

On the plus side for the Pens, Ovi was pretty much out of it for the rest of the game. He just ended his friend's season, and I don't care who you are that will affect you. Even worse because it was an accident.

[jollymania 162]

Okay, therefore Kronwall should be disciplined for breaking a Duck's nose and Holmstrom should be disciplined for elbowing an already-hurt player in the face, and Downie should be disciplined for elbowing a goalie in the face (on purpose, too) and while we're at it, Franzen should be disciplined for running Hiller after his goal. All of these Red Wings could have easily injured (except for Downie) the opposing team for accidents, and it happened with Kronwall. If you say that Ovechkin deserves games so he doesn't play reckless, then you may as well discipline the whole league who are all about hitting and playing rough and tough. At any point in a hockey game, everyone on the ice is at risk of getting hurt due to an accident on the other team. It was an accident where Ovechkin didn't even have his knee out and Gonchar did. It was not his fault as he leaned in for the hit before Gonchar moved. Not to mentioned as he turned, his head was facing the puck along the boards, completely unaware of Gonchar going to poke the puck and turn away. He puts his head up at the last moment with Gonchar skating towards him, what do you think he's going to do? Obviously he would brace for the hit and and trying and put his shoulder in to Gonchar as he hits him. Unfortunately he didn't hit Ovechkin and tried to get around him. Not everything people on other teams do is on purpose.

ovechkin charges on nearly every hit, he plays far more recklessly than anyone you have mentioned here. And now Ovechkin has 2 season ending injuries on reckless plays just in this season.

[drfnr14 0]

tisk, tisk. Mr. AO not very good for your image, since ur playing against the NHL's golden boy! knock the bulls*** off and burry the puck in the net!

[Guest lnvincible]

HF is 50/50 it seems.

Ovie was just trying to hit him and Gonnie moved. Happens all the time, people think its a "dirty hit" when gonnie moved. It was not on purpose.

[KillerB14 2]

First off, make me. Secondly, there are unspoken rules in the game of hockey when it comes to mutual respect between players. Alexandria is FRIENDS with Gonchar, yet he intentionally injures him?

You've really got to be joking...your entire argument now centers on the fact that you are saying Ovie intentionally tried to injure Gonchar. Whether he really did or not, we will never know. It really makes the rest of your argument worthless. However, the rest of your argument is so funny it's worth a second look.

The fact that Gonchar is out for the rest of the playoffs tells me that if there was no intent, then the injury wouldn't be this severe.

I can't even imagine the thought process it took to reach this conclusion. Players have been hurt worse with less of a collision and players have been hurt less with a worse collision. The injury will NEVER tell the full extent of the impact, it's not an exact cause and effect.

Like the rules about headhunting, the same should apply to the wheelhouse of EVERY Hockey player. Whether you're Alexandria or not, you're done for a good period of time after threatening a man's career.

Again, based solely off your belief it was intentional. Erroneous.

Haha, replay of the hit on vs. right now. Shows Ovechkin never changes direction. Boom.

Tell me that Gonchar will be the same skater after this incident and that will paint you as the ignoramus that you are.

Gonchar will be the same skater after this incident.

Wait...ignoramus is a good thing right?

We talk about being a classy organization as players and fans, yet we give a "blind" pass to a knuckle dragger like Alexandria? BS

No truer words have ever been spoken. You've totally changed my perspective by simply stating your beliefs with no facts and complimenting me on being an ignoramus...still a good thing right?

[Guest Four]

First off, make me. Secondly, there are unspoken rules in the game of hockey when it comes to mutual respect between players. Alexandria is FRIENDS with Gonchar, yet he intentionally injures him? The fact that Gonchar is out for the rest of the playoffs tells me that if there was no intent, then the injury wouldn't be this severe. Like the rules about headhunting, the same should apply to the wheelhouse of EVERY Hockey player. Whether you're Alexandria or not, you're done for a good period of time after threatening a man's career. Tell me that Gonchar will be the same skater after this incident and that will paint you as the ignoramus that you are. We talk about being a classy organization as players and fans, yet we give a "blind" pass to a knuckle dragger like Alexandria? BS

Please, please, PLEASE provide proof of the fact he did this intentionally.

Your argument is based solely on your owned BIASED opinion of Ovechkin.

Your logic is flawed and presented in only three sentences, where you state that because of the severity, he meant to do it. There is no logic to this at all, people get injured all the time for long periods of time on accident, people even do it to themselves! The fact you base the intent on the severity only shows your ignorance and biased opinion as you feed bulls*** logic in to your post. I will agree with you however on the headhunting, but it's not always possible to avoid knee on knee, or a headshot. Sometimes when someone is already following through with a hit, the person tries a sharp turn, lowers their head and gets hit there - you can't magically stop on a dime and say, "wait, I cant hit you there, that was a close one!". No, they are playing a fast-paced game where it is sometimes unavoidable to make such mistakes as Ovechkin. Ovechkin got the penalty he deserved as in act, Gonchars leg was further extended than Ovechkin who turns and drives with his knee, which hits Gonchars as he tries to HIT him. Maybe those homer goggles blurred the upper body, where he clearly makes contact?

It was clearly an accident and unfortunate and I'm sure Gonchar of all people knows this.

[Konnan511 1,736]

So... it was an intentional attempt to hurt another player, but not with malice? It was like a mercy kneeing, because he could tell Gonchar wanted out of the series?

Never did I saw he tried to hurt him, so -1 on reading comprehension. I said he intentionally hit him knee-to-knee, but no where di i ever say he did it with an intent to injure, hence my minus malice part.

I'm curious if you've ever skated before. Ovi bent his right knee to lean into a hit and, if Gonchar moved, go into a turn. His skates don't get any farther apart, he just shifts weight at the knees - unlike walking or running, that's where you shift your center of gravity from when you're on skates. That might be what you're seeing as him "widening his stance". I would guess that he assumed Gonchar was going to lean into him to take the hit, and he leaned accordingly.

Nope never skated a day in my life. what is this hockey you speak of? But you completely agree that he hit him knee-to-knee intentionally because he misjudged his check intentionally, so he compensated by "widening his stance"/"shifting his wieght" to clip his knees to get a piece of him.

At that speed, to make the calculated move you're claiming he made would take superhuman reflexes. Both of them are making their play, not trying to respond the other.

It doesn't take super human reflexes to stick/shift a knee out at the last second to clip someone.

On the plus side for the Pens, Ovi was pretty much out of it for the rest of the game. He just ended his friend's season, and I don't care who you are that will affect you. Even worse because it was an accident.

After the game I bet he feels like the biggest A-Hole in the world, but he showed no remorse after the hit, so i don't think he feels that bad about it.

Edited May 10, 2009 by Konnan511

[Dabura 12,207]

Not dirty. Put down the Haterade.

[Theophany 110]

Not dirty. Put down the Haterade.

This.

Really the only thing Ovechkin does is actually take weight OFF of the leg that was going to impact with Gonchar. It was a complete accident, and in hindsight, Gonchar would have been better off taking the hit and recovering instead of trying to dodge it and taking a knee-to-knee hit.

The big thing is that it looks like Ovechkin's knee impacted above the joint in Gonchar's knee area, causing the leg to hyper-extend on top of the damage from the impact.

Not pretty by any means, but definitely not suspension-worthy.

[Doc Holiday 0]

Never did I saw he tried to hurt him, so -1 on reading comprehension. I said he intentionally hit him knee-to-knee, but no where di i ever say he did it with an intent to injure, hence my minus malice part.

Nope never skated a day in my life. what is this hockey you speak of? But you completely agree that he hit him knee-to-knee intentionally because he misjudged his check intentionally, so he compensated by "widening his stance"/"shifting his wieght" to clip his knees to get a piece of him.

It doesn't take super human reflexes to stick/shift a knee out at the last second to clip someone.

After the game I bet he feels like the biggest A-Hole in the world, but he showed no remorse after the hit, so i don't think he feels that bad about it.

Konnan, if you honestly think Ovechkin moved his knee when Gonchar tried to move out of the way then the rest of your argument isn't worth responding to.

That is like saying Holmstrom looked back before he elbowed Wiz in game 3.

[Pensfan 0]

I have defended Ovechkin up until seeing this video. It's a different angle and I will say without a doubt now, this is a dirty hit. This video clearly shows movement of the leg and intent of taking out Gonchar's leg.

3:00 mark

[skacore 2]

Ovechkin's time will come that's for sure, the way he flys around the ice and acts like he owns the NHL it's only a matter of time before he is completely laid out, no doubt about that, he's lucky Brashear's on his team

[TSM 0]

3:00 mark

Thanks for posting the new angle. That should shut up the defenders of Alexandria around here. To me, the fact that he makes his leg rigid at that point and flares it after says it all to me. There is plenty of man love around here for Ovie because he plays with Fedorov or something, but I see the rat for what he is: DIRTY! His day will come and I will laugh about it.

[Guest Four]

Thanks for posting the new angle. That should shut up the defenders of Alexandria around here. To me, the fact that he makes his leg rigid at that point and flares it after says it all to me. There is plenty of man love around here for Ovie because he plays with Fedorov or something, but I see the rat for what he is: DIRTY! His day will come and I will laugh about it.

Nope, looks even cleaner with that video, now you can see how he goes for the hit, but Mr. Stretched-out-trying-to-get-around-Gonchar leaves his knee out as he avoids to the hit. Just as much as there is "man love" there is biased hate, which you clearly have. As I stated before, if someone like Datsyuk accidently did this, you'd find every excuse in the book to defend him. Quit homering, just like the commentators are.

Edited May 10, 2009 by Four

[TSM 0]

Just as much as there is "man love" there is biased hate, which you clearly have. As I stated before, if someone like Datsyuk accidently did this, you'd find every excuse in the book to defend him. Quit homering, just like the commentators are.

You have a funny definition of clean. I'm not "homering" either. If Datsyuk did this sort of play, I'd call him on it as well. My objection to this suspect kind of hockey isn't a matter of relativism; it's more about principle. Alexandria did nothing to avoid that in any manner (he moves his right skate inside of Gonchar's right leg from that angle), hence my contempt for his indifference to the aftermath. Has he apologized to Gonchar? NOPE! I'm all about physical hockey; strong checking and the like. Fights where players actually man up as Kopecky did (minus the lefty surprise). But I never justify cheap shots, head hunting, or anything of the cowardice type. Ovechkin is gutless, and someone is going to expose his ineptitude in the guts arena. When that day happens, it will be both long overdue and justified.

[Guest Four]

You have a funny definition of clean. I'm not "homering" either. If Datsyuk did this sort of play, I'd call him on it as well. My objection to this suspect kind of hockey isn't a matter of relativism; it's more about principle. Alexandria did nothing to avoid that in any manner (he moves his right skate inside of Gonchar's right leg from that angle), hence my contempt for his indifference to the aftermath. Has he apologized to Gonchar? NOPE! I'm all about physical hockey; strong checking and the like. Fights where players actually man up as Kopecky did (minus the lefty surprise). But I never justify cheap shots, head hunting, or anything of the cowardice type. Ovechkin is gutless, and someone is going to expose his ineptitude in the guts arena. When that day happens, it will be both long overdue and justified.

I agree with the majority of this. We obviously have opposite views of Ovechkin so I'll leave it at that. The hit itself was dirty, but I believe it wasn't intentional, and I think the second video shows that it was in fact cleaner when you get all the angles and see how he tries to throw his shoulder in and all the other factors. It was an unfortunate accident I believe, and a 5 minute major would have been plenty.

[BlueMonk 102]

I don't see anything wrong with the hit. Ovechkin cruised in, didn't stick his leg out, etc. Gonchar spun around and put himself in a vulnerable position by wildy trying to play the puck and not realizing Ovechkin was coming until the last moment. Gonchar is th one that stuck his leg out and left it where he *was*, which was why it was what Ovechkin hit.

Gonchar probably would've been better off just taking the hit full-on instead of trying to sidestep out of the way.

This is the way I see it.

The polarization between the Ovechkin/Caps and Crosby/Pens camps is unmistakable. When two groups of people can witness the exact same incident and come to completely opposite conclusions, well... that's a good thing. The bottom line is that intense rivalries like this are really good for the NHL.

[jollymania 162]

Ovechkin's time will come that's for sure, the way he flys around the ice and acts like he owns the NHL it's only a matter of time before he is completely laid out, no doubt about that, he's lucky Brashear's on his team

this, if the nhl isnt gonna do anything about his recklessness than unfortuneately some player is gonna take it into his own hands, it could just be a nice clean hit,but i could also see a cheapshot form goddard coming his way at some point in the next year.

[Turretin 0]

So... it was an intentional attempt to hurt another player, but not with malice? It was like a mercy kneeing, because he could tell Gonchar wanted out of the series?

Funniest comment on this thread. Insightful observation as to the "logic" of a certain camp, yet still funny. Well done Ovipositor.

[uncle ovipositor 6]

Never did I saw he tried to hurt him, so -1 on reading comprehension. I said he intentionally hit him knee-to-knee, but no where di i ever say he did it with an intent to injure, hence my minus malice part.

So you're saying that it was an attempt to hit him in the knee at high speed, but without the intent to do any damage. Really? How does that work, exactly? Obviously you're just joking with me.

Nope never skated a day in my life. what is this hockey you speak of? But you completely agree that he hit him knee-to-knee intentionally because he misjudged his check intentionally, so he compensated by "widening his stance"/"shifting his wieght" to clip his knees to get a piece of him.

I'm going to assume that you've never skated or played hockey, then, or learned how to use sarcasm effectively. There are classes for all of the above.

"Intentionally" isn't what I said at all. He turned and tried to deliver a check. Gonchar moved and only partially got out of the way. Sucks all around, but there wasn't any intent to injure. A little bit of time on skates (or, you know, watching other people skate) would show you how that works.

You've seen people try to hit someone on the boards and miss. Is that because they were trying to miss? Or is it because they guessed what the other person was going to do and got it wrong? Or does Ovechkin simply have better reaction time than anybody else?

Ah, who am I kidding. You're going to see it your way, regardless, because you live in a world of attempt to injure without malice, where up is down and yes means no.

[Broken 16 381]

Gonchar shouldn't have stretched out. He would tell you the same thing. That's the kiss of death in a high speed hockey collision. Someone mentioned seeing AO's leg stiffen right before impact. Of course it did. It's called a reflex. I don't think AO would intentionally knee any other player, let alone a fellow Russian. That notion is hilarious.

[Guest Four]

So you're saying that it was an attempt to hit him in the knee at high speed, but without the intent to do any damage. Really? How does that work, exactly? Obviously you're just joking with me.

I'm going to assume that you've never skated or played hockey, then, or learned how to use sarcasm effectively. There are classes for all of the above.

"Intentionally" isn't what I said at all. He turned and tried to deliver a check. Gonchar moved and only partially got out of the way. Sucks all around, but there wasn't any intent to injure. A little bit of time on skates (or, you know, watching other people skate) would show you how that works.

You've seen people try to hit someone on the boards and miss. Is that because they were trying to miss? Or is it because they guessed what the other person was going to do and got it wrong? Or does Ovechkin simply have better reaction time than anybody else?

Ah, who am I kidding. You're going to see it your way, regardless, because you live in a world of attempt to injure without malice, where up is down and yes means no.

I trust this quote to Ovipositor, you should too.

[Electrophile 3,554]

Just curious, why are people calling him "Alexandria"? That's not his name.

[Broken 16 381]

Just curious, why are people calling him "Alexandria"? That's not his name.

The same reason people call Sidney Crosby "Cindy". Or why people call Perry a "Fairy". Or why people used to call Wendel Clark "Wendy".

[Dabura 12,207]

Not. Dirty.