Let’s get to it: Ovechkin’s hit on Briere was dirty. I don’t like it, but it was not needed and Briere had gotten rid of the puck in plenty of time. Ovechkin deserved the penalty assessed to him, and if he gets suspended, you’ll hear no peep from me. [Update from OrderedChaos: Per TSN, Ovechkin will not be suspended.]
Unpleasant business. I hope the league deals with it as soon as possible. Buffalo coach Ruff had other problems with the officiating, apparently, but that would only be noteworthy if he didn’t. Some interesting parallels can be drawn as far as teammates sticking up for each other to the Atlanta game.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lnw3bou2NA
Lost in all this is the Caps’ excellent start on the best team in the East, and chasing one of the top three goalies in the Eastern Conference to get the win.
The Caps beat the Sabres at their own game — speed. The Caps can bring physicality with their speed while the Sabres have overwhelming skill. Fatigue clearly showed in the Buffalo team tonight, and the Caps did what good teams do in that situation — they jumped all over the Sabres early, and sent Buffalo’s all-star caliber goaltender to the showers early. Flukey goals, breakaways — the Caps took advantage of their chances.
Typically, I’d jump on the Caps for not nailing the game down, but Buffalo has offense to spare, and it wasn’t difficult to think that they’d bring it in close. True, Buffalo’s first goal was something that goaltender Kolzig would want back, but the Sabres have serious, serious firepower. The Caps had to batten down every hatch to get the win, including getting the least-predictable goal you’d think of: Erskine, off the boards, nothing but net.
Strange game. Obviously.
Anaheim next. At this point, the Caps shouldn’t be intimidated, though.
9 Comments
The video of AO’s hit on Briere is already on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lnw3bou2NA
I’ll add it to the knee-jerks.
jeeze the comments on youtube are pretty funny.
Yea OV’s hit was bad, but lets look at the facts. Briere played the rest of the game, if OV had realy hit him hard you think he would have been playing the rest of the game?
Briere should pay attention, just cause you going for a line change doesnt mean your off limits(even from hit from behind).
I think Briere embelished the hit a little. He was fine. I don’t think Ovie deserved the game misconduct but definitely the major.
Of note is that Breire played two minutes or so over his usual ice-time last night.
EM, if Ovie is suspended, I think there should be a peep from you. Maybe not a major protest, but I think a suspension is uncalled for because Briere apparently wasn’t injured–as opposed to Zednik, who was.
The use of the word “dirty” here in the blog is ill-advised. It’s a hockey clich√
I agree that Briere is partly to blame, but Ovechkin’s hit was definitely dangerous not only to Briere but to himself. As Buffalo’s coach said, imagine the Caps’ reaction if the same hit were done TO Ovi. Ovi has enough of a target on his back already; dishing out hits from behind will only make opponents target him even more. Clean, hard hits are good, but the last thing the Caps need is someone head-hunting Ovi for revenge.
That said, a suspension would be an excessive reaction by the league. Ovi has no history of dirty play, just high-energy play. Ovi made a bad split-second decision and the game misconduct is, IMO, sufficient punishment. Suspending him would be overkill.
Per TSN, it looks like Ovechkin will NOT be suspended.
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Alexander Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals can breathe a sigh of relief, as it appears the star forward will be not attend any hearings nor face a suspension for his hit on Buffalo’s Daniel Briere on Saturday night.
http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/news_story/?ID=187011&hubname=nhl
Just a quick point–in the replay, a total of 2 seconds elapsed in the slo-mo replay between the time Briere released the puck and Ovechkin hit him. In real time, that’s a split second decision that Ovy makes the absolutely wrong choice. It was a bad hit in the wrong place, and Ovechkin got what he deserved in the game. Also comparing this to what happened Atlanta (where Sutton left his feet, led with his elbow, and tried to take Green’s head off) is a bit of a stretch. I can understand the Sabres’ anger in this–boarding the captain in front of their bench? Smooth, Alex–but Ovechkin had no intent to injure.