I have to say I agree with the heart of what P&B stated in the opening essay, and it’s killing me to have to say it. As much as I love Ovie, I am torn about the trend in his style of play recently. I’m torn because as much as I admire his awesome skill and physical play, I don’t want his trend of “crossing the line” to become an entrenched habit.

The reason I’m most concerned is not because I think Ovie is or is becoming a dirty player. I don’t believe he has been malicious up to this point. I sure don’t know him personally, but I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and regard his transgressions as a result of making some poor decisions. Maybe he is feeling the pressure to win a Cup, maybe he is tired of the individual awards and has beoome obsesssed with keeping up with Crosby, I don’t know. That’s not what bothers me.

What bothers me is, Ovie is too valuable to his team to spend too much time in the penalty box or suspended. Fairly or unfairly, the NHL office has been grossly lax and inconsistent in their meting out punishments. We can argue and gripe all we want, but it is what it is. Ovie is the CAPTAIN of the Capitals, and one of the most difficult responsibilities for a team Captain is to lead by example. Maybe Ovie wants some of his teammates to get more engaged in the physical play, or else the pressure to win a Cup combined with his teammates looking to him to set the tone in games has influenced him to push the physical aspect of his game further than it should.

I’m not saying that I want Ovie to change his game so drastically that he becomes less intimidating or effective. He has the skill and physical gifts to impose his will on any player, any team, and he knows it. What I’m hoping for, what I expect, is for him to make the kind of decisions in game situations that will HELP and not hinder his team. The last thing I want to see is Ovie getting so reckless in the playoffs that he ends up getting suspended again, and his being out of the lineup costs the Caps a couple of close games, and ultimately a series.

Ovie is too great a player and too intelligent not to realize that sometimes his actions have consequences that while unintended, have bad results. I’m going to watch him very closely in the first few games after he returns from his suspension–especially the game against the Pens on Wednesday 3/24–to see what the trajectory of his game going into the playoffs is going to be.

I viewed the play through how I would have played in my beer league, which thinking about it more is a rather silly, as it’s not the same league and not even the same sport. delusions of grandeur I suppose.

However, that is precisely one of the huge problems we’re seeing; the gross inconsistency with league discipline. The suspensions and game misconducts are handed out capriciously. It depends not on what the player has done, but seemingly WHO they are. That goes against every assumption of fair play we have in our culture. I seem to recall a season or so ago, when Green did get hurt as the result of a very questionable hit and there was no discipline at that time either.

And the Cooke/Savard controversy is reprehensible. Now the commentators are speaking about Boston getting their own back on the ice and using phrases such as “Cooke better watch his back on Wednesday” etc. I get that this is hockey and both of my kids play (my daughter on a boys travel midget team), so I’m not a sissy by any means. But encouraging eye-for-an-eye behavior when there is a perfectly good code in place seems fairly backwards to me. It also seems as though the league leadership doesn’t quite know what it’s looking for.

Forgive me for bringing this up, but as I understand it, penalties and suspensions are not to be handed out based upon the injury sustained, but upon the action that is witnessed to have occurred by the offending player. That is, that discipline is not outcome based. It is based upon what the player did regardless of the outcome … and that is as it should be. Whether or not the “victim” of boarding gets hurt, the offender should be penalized if it is deemed to be an offense. Otherwise the rule is useless and may be used for purposes other than to aid in the forward movement of the game. As we are now seeing.

The same thing happened in a Bruins game on Versus just the other day. Again the player wasn’t injured, so play on, nothing to see here.

It’s not even a penalty, much less a suspension. The guy lost his balance in a bad position, and that’s the end of it.

And as for saying Ovechkin’s skate-path is littered with cow chips or whatever, then I would point to the fact that he throws 200-300 checks a season, the vast majority are clean and legal and the 1% that are not legal are not intentionally malicious. That’s the most important point to me. He’s not trying to break the laws or injure people. Hitting is not an exact science, the angles and speed are constantly shifting and expecting the outcome to be perfectly clean in every case is unrealistic. The intention is what matters.

He’s an enforcer for this club and we need him to hit people. It defines who we are as a team and who he is as a player. Hockey is a contact sport, body checks are part of that. The most ridiculous thing I’ve read about this whole farce was that OV didn’t *need* to push him. Does any player *need* to finish a check? Could we play hockey with only pokechecks allowed and make all *unnecessary* body contact illegal? Is that what they want? I think they want to make legal hits that result in injury illegal after the fact, and that’s completely ridiculous.

One of the most compelling things about hockey is the physical intimidation factor. Body checks in the corners, open ice hits, guys paying a physical price to go to the front of the crease and dig for rebounds, the little scrums after whistles; these are all a HUGE part of winning a game, as essential as any element of skill.

To suggest that OV didn’t need to push Campbell totally ignores the physical heart of this great game. Yes he did need to push him, just like he needs to throw his weight around in every game; because he wants to win and he understands his role in asserting the physical dominance of his club. It’s a shame the guy got hurt, a real shame, but it’s a man’s game, and I for one hope that bloggers and media personalities don’t end up helping to neuter it with pieces like this one.

This: “a cavalier disregard for the welfare of his opponent than anything characteristically filthy” is exactly correct.

He’s playing recklessly and not considering the consequences for the other guy’s well-being. Worse, his comments indicate he doesn’t see anything wrong with that, which is probably the fault of George McPhee and Ted Leonsis more than it is Ovechkin. Their bargaining and excuse-making is really counterproductive and can only make things worse.

“Wouldn’t we be screaming bloody murder?”
I’m still screaming bloody murder on the Torrie Mitchell/Kurtis Foster thing and I couldn’t care less about either of those teams.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxMJrQhGoSg

Regarding every other questionable hit of OV’s career, I think one can argue that they’re all hockey plays that went wrong, or had the potential to end badly. I’m not implying that he’s not mean, and nasty, and often times makes stupid decisions (see Campbell play), I just don’t think he necessarily intends to hurt the guy like he did to Briere. If it happens, so be it, and the suspensions that follow are part of the package. We Caps fans need to accept that, and embrace it, because it IS part of what makes him the player he is.

I think the true criticism however, lies with Boudreau. How is he not receiving more heat on this matter? Stop making excuses for OV, already. When he’s making plays like he did on Campbell, regardless if it’s legal or not, he is in no way helping his team. OV is above the law in that locker room, and Boudreau is unwilling to reel him in. Instead of whining about how Colin Campbell has unfairly punished OV this season, he should simply admit that it’s a byproduct of OV’s style of play. If he expects to be among the all-time greats, OV needs to accept this fact, and deal with it accordingly.

So to go back to my original point, OV is the same player he’s always been, it’s just that everyone is now realizing the ramifications of his otherworldly skills and unrivaled intensity. OV should’ve been suspended for the Briere hit 3 years ago. He should’ve also been suspended for the Dustin Brown hit last year, but again, wasn’t. And this year’s suspensions were probably deserved as well.

Hopefully OV continues to mature, and there was certainly much evidence to this extent since his first suspension, so everybody can finally get on with their lives. If he continues to make dumb plays like he did against Campbell, then we just need to accept it as Caps fans, finally throw some criticism Boudreau’s way, and say “That’s just OV being OV”…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14oUVVTY05s

Campbell chips it back and turns in to Ovechkin. Contact is initiated well above the redline, OV’s skates are 90 degrees to the end boards, Campbell is mid turn, and the hit is from the side, and was in no way premeditated.

Also all this “repeat offender” crap is silly. Either it’s an offense or not.

After watching that video check out Michael Ryder’s from two weeks ago http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRl5fxm_vBg

That hit was well below the redline, square in the numbers, right after a chip back behind the net, and was much less of a bang bang play. But not worth a suspension.

I call shenanigans.