Ovie Suspended

[Hockeytown_Ryan 119]

story via Yahoo

NEW YORK (AP)—Two-time MVP Alex Ovechkin(notes) was suspended Monday for the Washington Capitals’ next two games because of a reckless hit.

The forward drove Chicago’s Brian Campbell(notes) into the boards from behind in the first period Sunday and received a major penalty and a game misconduct. With the league’s leading scorer kicked out of the game, the Capitals later came back from a 3-0 third-period deficit to win 4-3 in overtime.

“There’s nothing I can do right now. He just fell and this happens,” Ovechkin said after the game.

Because he also was suspended for two games earlier this season, Ovechkin is now considered a repeat offender under the collective bargaining agreement. He’ll forfeit more than $232,000 in salary based on the number of games in the season instead of the number of days.

Ovechkin was suspended for two games Dec. 1 for a knee-to-knee hit on Carolina defenseman Tim Gleason(notes).

Ovechkin will miss games Tuesday at Florida and Thursday at Carolina. He can return Saturday at Tampa Bay.

Campbell stayed down for several minutes before he was able to leave the ice with a trainer at his side and then headed to the locker room. He did not return to the game.

The Capitals showed Sunday why they have the NHL’s best record and highest-scoring offense. They had three goals in the third period before Nicklas Backstrom(notes) scored unassisted in overtime for the win.

hmmm......

[seeinred 1,488]

Haha damn, 232 grand. That's waaaaay higher than most suspensions you see.

But I'm not gonna complain about the suspension. I love AO, and I really, really love his passion, but he deserves a suspension here.

[Rick Zombos Ghost 82]

ill bet everthing i own that if the Caps werent a lock for the playoffs and they were fighting for 8th like we are he wouldnt have gotten suspended.

[Guest Shoreline]

Damn, some ******* called it.

I'd say it's likely he will be suspended but probably a game or two.

The NHL is at least slightly predictable.

Edited March 15, 2010 by Shoreline

[Lidstrom for life 20]

Really sucks for Campbell, I read he may be done for the season. I wonder what impact that would have on Chicago possibly attempting to unload him in the offseason.

[Hockeytown_Ryan 119]

I don't know if this was posted but I thought this to be a interesting read.. the first half of the article is about AO....

Yahoo story about AO's game It goes into a pattern for him and at what point do we say he has a cheap game.

[brett 1,029]

cant believe he makes 232 grand in 2 games. thats more then most people make in 3 years.

[Octopus's Garden 147]

Good post from Chris Botta at Fanhouse on this topic ... because he basically says what all Red Wings fans (and possibly all NHL fans think): That Campbell needs to be fired.

Colin Campbell Must Go

[Guest Four]

I can see Ovechkin leaving to the KHL soon :/

Cooke will be the new face of the NHL

Edited March 15, 2010 by Four

[cjm502 165]

He deserved it. Careless dirty play. It shouldn't matter if he is a star or not, Campbell made the right call for once. Now lets review the Cooke hit again...

[LeftWinger 4,934]

Damn, some ******* called it.

The NHL is at least slightly predictable.

Yes....They are, and if it were Crosby or Malkin, the NHL would rescind the Game Misconduct so neither would have to be suspended at all...

[Drake_Marcus 890]

Damn, some ******* called it.

The NHL is at least slightly predictable.

If you throw enough darts you're bound to hit a bulls eye.

This suspension is laughable given that Cooke is given free reign to head-hunt.

And no-- I don't give a s*** that Cooke's hit didn't result in an on-ice penalty. The NHL's given suspensions for non-penalized stuff before.

[HadThomasVokounOnFortSt 878]

No shock here, good thing is the Caps play Panthers and Canes next.

[Vladifan 680]

I finally saw the hit today because espn deigned to talk about it on PTI.

As much as I want to see iffy hits reined in, Ovie's hit didn't look all that bad to me. He hit him on his side, not his back. Mebee it was because he was too close to the boards? Dunno, but I've seen lots worse. Any of us here could probably name ten hits that were worse than that that were barely reviewed. Again, I think this goes back to Burke's comment about consequences mostly based on what happens to the hitee. Still isn't the answer.

Yep, Campbell needs to go.

[StevieY9802 6]

Not surprised totally. Wouldn't have been surprised had he not been suspended either cause well it's Colin Campbell. I think the injury helped make this a suspension. Had Campbell come back during the game or the next game the major and the misconduct would have been it.

[Jersey Wing 1,521]

This is the same league that says you are automatically suspended for getting an instigator penalty in the last minutes of a game and yet there was Malkin playing in Game Six of the FInal

[Yzerfan1999 81]

repeat offender, and in light of Lapierre's suspesion, this is completely fair.

[Carman 387]

As much as I want to see iffy hits reined in, Ovie's hit didn't look all that bad to me. He hit him on his side, not his back.

About the Ovechkin suspension. Incoming wall of text.

I think it's fair. We all know if it was any other player he would have received more games. I understand and accept the fact that star players are more important to the game then 3rd-4th liners. I have no problems with Ovechkin only getting 2 games. Ovechkin is one of the greatest hockey talents ever, he needs to be on the ice scoring goals, not in the stands serving punishment for a borderline hit that ended someone's season. So from that aspect I see no problems on the severity, and I just hope Ovechkin can learn to focus his physical game and use better judgement in the future so he can avoid this. The NHL needs Ovechkin, but it cannot make specials rules it can only bend them.

The hit itself was bad, I don't think it was anything completely horrible, but it was quite apparent that Ovechkin had a lapse in judgment and if he happened to hit someone on the Red Wings there would be a lot less defense for him in this thread. I don't see how anyone can look at that hit and think that should be a acceptable part of the game. In a perfect world whether or not Brian Campbell was injured would not play a prominent role in the length and severity of the punishment, but that's not how life works. An incidental high stick still deserves 2 minutes, and even more if there is blood drawn, intention has little to do on the actually punishment. The outcome of the victim plays a role in the determination of punishment. Now if you want to debate that it shouldn't, it would be a whole different topic on how human society as a whole spanning from the court system, to everyday social situations(for a terrible and maybe sort of extreme example; we all pay more intention to a victim that was murdered, more then a victim that was just injured.)

Now about people that are complaining about consistency and Colin Campbell. Please take a step back and look at the situation from his shoes. What Cooke did certainly deserved a punishment, I think most sane people all agree on this notion. The sad truth of the matter is Campbell has no ground to suspend Cooke. What Cooke did, while absolutely malicious and dangerous, does not violate any rules that are currently instilled in the rule book. Everyone pointing to the "intent to injure" rule needs to understand that it's only enforced when the original play is actually illegal. That rule is not there to punish players for essentially hitting too hard. If that's how you want to interpret the rule you could look at Kronwall's hits, or almost every single one of Scott Steven's hits and attribute disciplinary action. The thing is unless the hit itself is written in the rule book as illegal you cannot enforce that particular "intent to injure" rule. Hopefully they can get the headshot/blindside hit defined and in the rule book as soon as possible, but you cannot just change the rule on the spot. It's not up to Campbell to make the rules. So for that I don't see how you can blame Campbell, when essentially he can only work with the rules he is given.

I hope I can actually get serious feedback from this post and not just "STFU CROSBYLVOER etc."

Edited March 16, 2010 by Carman

[Pens Guy 66]

This is the same league that says you are automatically suspended for getting an instigator penalty in the last minutes of a game and yet there was Malkin playing in Game Six of the FInal

The NHL is is totally inconsistent, yes. But I think the same thing would have been done for Datsyuk or Zetterberg. Don't forget about the line brawl at the end of the game during the Ducks Wings Series where no one was suspended. There is an obvious double standard. Lapierre got 4 games for a very, very similiar hit. I have a feeling things will be better next year when there are penalties for headshots and blindsides.

[KrazyGangsta 79]

Poor Ovechkin I feel really bad for him and his talent it's going to come to an end if he doesn't lower is aggressivaty. Player always remember and wait.

Flashback* Eric Lindros - Big - Strong - Fast ... I just hope for his sake he doesn't end up in the path of Lindros.

Edited March 16, 2010 by KrazyGangsta

[Guest Shoreline]

Yes....They are, and if it were Crosby or Malkin, the NHL would rescind the Game Misconduct so neither would have to be suspended at all...

Key word is "if". They haven't done anything like this. Ovi, as much as I like him as an exciting player, has done this numerous times now.

We have Godwin's Law to bring to the surface when Hitler is part of an argument, but what about Crosby? Think it's about time.

If you throw enough darts you're bound to hit a bulls eye.

This suspension is laughable given that Cooke is given free reign to head-hunt.

And no-- I don't give a s*** that Cooke's hit didn't result in an on-ice penalty. The NHL's given suspensions for non-penalized stuff before.

There was nothing illegal about that hit. It's like the Sean Avery rule. You can't penalize the guy for doing stupid crap when there's no rule. That's how it works in the NHL, that's how it works in every other facet of the world with technicalities. Consistency is how to be fair, and while the NHL has f***ed itself in the ass sideways with stupid rulings (Cup Finals with Malkin is a good example of that), these two are actually decent ones and the NHL was being consistent. Cooke's was dirty, but not against the rules. This isn't a gymnastics sport where people are judged by their quality of checks. Either it was clean or dirty, malicious or situational. That's it. If it isn't a penalty, it isn't a penalty. Cooke, while a dirty SOB and only a slightly-useful player, didn't commit an illegal hit (following through on Savard with a shoulder hit to the side), and that's a pretty simple and understandable rationale. I was wanting to hang his balls on the rafter at first since I like Savard and Cooke is known for being a dirty c***, but logic is supposed to prevail. At very least Cooke now gets to have a rule donned because of it. As the greatest President in US History would say, "mission accomplished". As for Ovie, he has a history of these hits, there was a nice screencap of Ovie's hit, it was right on the numbers, which is all one needs to see. A check from behind (no, not the side), into the boards. It's a dangerous play and now someone is missing at least the entire season because of it. Doesn't matter if it was Stevie Y doing this kind of a hit, that's a justified suspension, and one-to-two games was pretty predictable given Ovie didn't look like he did it on purpose, but it was the usual reckless nature of how he does stuff. It's a high risk maneuver, and he paid for it. But yeah it's a no win situation even bothering much with this topic given people are by in large arguing emotions over reasonableness -- case in point, articles like, from the Worcester, MA Telegram.. "Bruins need to give Cooke frontier justice", whatever the f*** that means.

[pockets 9]

idk why people are still saying Cooke needs to be punished. Why what rule did he break, even though it was a malicious hit and knowing Cookes history he probably did have intent to injure, you cant punish him.

It would be like you getting a speeding ticket on a road/highway with no speed limit. Like the Chewbaca defense it just doesnt make sense

[titanium2 867]

It would be like you getting a speeding ticket on a road/highway with no speed limit. Like the Chewbaca defense it just doesnt make sense

Props for the South Park reference.

[zettie85 106]

I sympathize with Campbell on this one. Being a defenceman myself those are dirty areas. If players are not able to hit a player on their back check I don't think forwards should be able to plaster defenceman going back to collect the puck in those positions. Riding a guy into the boards is fine but regardless if Campbell's skate caught a rut those are s***ty places where the D-man has no choice but to play the puck in a very dangerous area and forwards are free to take shots at them.

[cusimano_brothers 1,655]

I'm glad to see that the League's "Repeat Offender Policy" is working out so well. And, according to Toronto Star :

...

On the other hand, there are also those who believe two games is two games too many, that Ovechkin deserved no more than what he got immediately – a major and a game misconduct. There is compelling logic to this argument given that on Sunday afternoon Colin Campbell had no intention of suspending the Washington Capitals captain, and then, surprise surprise, on Monday morning there was a hearing.

Apparently somebody, perhaps somebody who'd been taking long distance phone calls from unhappy Blackhawks executives, convinced Campbell of the error of his thought process.

...