Up to that moment of impact, I’d known quite well that AO was going to be a hockey player unlike any other we’d ever seen in D.C. But as opening acts go, Ovi’s was conspicuous in skill and ferocity. For the remainder of that Calder-winning rookie season the Gr8, as he almost instantly became known, carried forward both dynamic skill and an All-Pro linebacker’s mentality: he scored 50 goals and he crushed people, often dramatically, always cleanly.

By the completion of Ovechkin’s third season, in 2007-08, when he scored 65 goals and swept up virtually all available individual hardware (to recap: the Hart; the Richard, the Pearson, and the Art Ross trophies), savvy, knowledgeable folks in hockey were discussing Ovi in historic terms. He really did appear to be, in unrivaled fashion, a compelling hybrid hockey player: the type of performer who could beat you with his wrists on one shift and lay our your biggest blueliner the next.

The best part of his physicality was its brutality well within the confines of the league’s lawfulness. Even fans of the Capitals’ biggest rivals had to give Ovi his due, if they were serious hockey fans.

But from where I sit this morning, there appears to be something akin to a menacing spirit that’s infiltrated Ovechkin’s game, more a cavalier disregard for the welfare of his opponent than anything characteristically filthy, and it seems to me to have germinated in last spring’s playoffs, with Ovi’s knee-on-knee misfortune with Sergei Gonchar. Were that hit to have occurred in the regular season as opposed to the playoffs, Ovi may well have been suspended. Were it to have happened this week, in light of what’s transpired with him since, it surely would have been. But it was really with that hit, with so many people watching, that Ovechkin gave us hard evidence that something new, something unprecedented, and something potentially sinister was stirring within.

In relatively short order, the litany of Ovechkin’s misdeeds has piled up:

• A corner ploughing into of Jamie Heward that resulted in the Lightning rearguard departing the ice on a stretcher.

• A moderately questionable knee-on-knee collision with Sergei Gonchar. It looks worse in slow motion; in real time, the hit, while meriting a penalty, appears instinctive and reactive in its immediacy, rather than malevolent.

• A brutal boarding of Buffalo’s Patrick Kaleta that earned Ovi an ejection.

• Another knee-on-knee hit, far less questionable, on Carolina’s Tim Gleason, one that injured Ovi. When you watch the clip of it, notice how immediately the Hurricanes’ television announcer forecasts a penalty for the hit. The Kaleta and Gleason hits occurred within a week of one another.

• And this past Sunday’s collarbone-and ribs-cracking act of aggression against Chicago’s Brian Campbell, which may just end Campbell’s season. And Chicago’s hopes.

A few observations related to the totality of this litany. First, there can be no denying that Alexander Ovechkin plays with an edge that, when combined with his extraordinary — and extraordinarily strong — physique, renders him a unique, frankly unrivaled physical threat in the NHL. Anywhere in hockey, for that matter. And that’s part of his appeal.

It also seems fair and accurate to suggest that even in the totality of Ovechkin’s sanctionable hits there’s never been an instance when an observer could attribute, with any sense of reasonableness, any level of malice in Ovi’s play. But that doesn’t mean that what he’s been too commonly engaged in of late is right. Moreover, to state the obvious, to the extent that his style of play ushers in suspensions, he’s hurting his hockey team — the one he now captains.

What seems to have emerged in the last 12-15 months with his game is a peculiar and at least troubling lack of respect for his opponents. It’s a remorselessness. It was abundantly on display in video interviews of him in Sunday’s aftermath. At the very least, Ovi seems blissfully unaware of the novel physical advantage he enjoys in every matchup he’s engaged in. And he exploits it. There are other players in the league weighing 230 pounds; but there are none who skate like he does, nor possess the seeming genetic makeup to be a fast-moving armored tank on skates. He really is a physical freak. And that advantage has at times dire consequences.

I struggle with this basic question: why so much trouble for him of late, and why the comparatively placid power game of his first three seasons?

“He plays a reckless style,” Montreal’s Josh Gorges told TSN this week. “He’s going a hundred miles an hour, he’s hitting everything that moves, he’s going to the net, he’s burying guys . . . He plays that way, he plays with that reckless abandonment, and sometimes it’s right on the line.”

By 8:00 last night not only was the latest Ovechkin suspension the lead story on TSN’s home page but it was accompanied by damning video clips from the past and opinion pieces themed on whether or not Ovi was a dirty player.

“I want accountability for thoughtlessness,” Ray Ferraro wrote on TSN last night.

I do too. Sunday’s transgression was Ovechkin’s worst to date when measured by the barometer of thoughtlessness. It was simply a play that didn’t have to happen. Brian Campbell was without the puck, 195 feet from the Capitals’ cage. Ovechkin, his general manager claimed last night, was trying “to finish his check.” Notice that George McPhee didn’t claim that he was actually finishing his check — and we all know what that looks like — but rather trying to. Ovechkin in that moment had a judgment to make, and time to do it. He made a grievously, injuriously wrong one.

Josh Gorges aside, no one’s seriously claiming that Ovechkin is a reckless head-hunter. Not yet. But there’s an urgency to bringing Ovi back into the fold — back where he was with this organization during his first three seasons — on a night-in, night-out basis. Today Alexander Ovechkin is captain of his hockey team, and at the most crucial time perhaps in franchise history. There’s no guarantee of the Caps’ again being well distanced from the rest of their conference with the playoffs near, the team’s health outstanding, their Cup candidacy so vibrant and viable. Ovechkin’s franchise and its fans are tired of losing perennially in the postseason. He needs to be on the ice being his naturally brilliant and lawfully brutal self. Brilliant and brutal but fair. And respectful. We’ve seen that Ovechkin before, years’ worth. Hockey and the Caps are best served with his return to that form.

Photo by the Associated Press

It was one of the more improbable comebacks in Washington Capitals’ history. Down 3-0 entering the third period today to one of the best lineups in hockey, and with the world’s best player banished from their lineup early on, the Caps summoned 20 of the gutsiest minutes of their season in Sunday’s final frame, knotting the game at 3 thanks to a stirring three minutes of overwhelming dominance, going on to prevail 4-3 in overtime before a suddenly sullen United Center sellout and a national television audience.

With the victory the Capitals reached and passed 100 points on the season in just their 69th game. More importantly, they passed a high-profile gut-check with resounding success, overcoming an opening 40 minutes of lethargic and uninspired play with a third period for the ages. They outshot the Blackhawks 11-1 in the final 20 minutes. In overtime, they triumphed on an end-to-end strike from their super Swede, Nicklas Backstrom.

But much of what is discussed about Sunday’s game will focus on yet another Alexander Ovechkin act of aggression. Ovechkin was ejected little more than midway through Sunday’s matinee for a boarding penalty against Brian Campbell.

“I don’t think it was a real good check. He just kind of fell, and it was a dangerous moment,” the Capitals’ captin said. “It was not a hard hit. I just wanted to push him,” Ovi added.

“I didn’t hit him hard. I pushed him, but he fell bad. It probably looks bad. I thought it was going to be two minutes, but the linesman came to me and said ‘Game over.’”

Here’s where some amazing luck arrives. Sunday marked Ovechkin’s 41st game since his last boarding penalty, and per league rules, any player who goes half a season without a repeat offense has his offender’s slate wiped clean. So Ovechkin will at least avoid an automatic suspension. League enforcement czar Colin Campbell, however, could review the play and impose a subsequent suspension on the left wing.

But it was a comeback to remember, and the OFB team reflected upon it with a few early St. Patty’s celebration sodas:

pucksandbooks: Three key achievements now seem to suggest a potentially historic hockey season in D.C.:  the third period comeback from two goals down against the defending Stanley Cup Champion Penguins at Verizon Center on February 7; the team-best 14-game winning streak of mid-January into early February; and Sunday’s stunning three-goal, third period comeback in Chicago, against the Cup-contending Hawks.

It may be true that much of the national television viewing audience Sunday knew little of Nicklas Backstrom’s fast-rising standing as one of hockey’s most impressive talents. He became a good deal better known, however, based on his overtime heroics.

What was so notable about Backstrom’s game-winner was how close he came to earning game-goat status instead. He coughed up the puck near his own blueline at the end of his shift, and Troy Brouwer went in on Jose Theodore on a virtual breakaway. But Backstrom didn’t give up on the play, and his stick-check of Brouwer may have saved the game. That he gathered the puck in the far corner and proceeded to maneuver his way 200 feet around the through Hawks and scored unassisted made him Sunday’s first star.

Jason Chimera had I thought his best game as a Washington Capital. When the rest of his team seemed sheepish and shell-shocked at Ovechkin’s departure, Chimera skated his arse off, and made life difficult for Chicago’s defenders with regular bull-rushes from the outside. He showed me real leadership with Washington’s captain gone.

OrderedChaos: The Washington Post declared that Sunday’s matinee match-up “may be a preview of the Stanley Cup finals.” After the thrilling ending in Chicago today, NBC must be salivating at that prospect.

What a stunning comeback for the Washington Capitals — a team-defining victory on a national stage. The Caps managed to play just 20-something minutes of good hockey, yet came away with two points, passing the 100-point mark with 13 games remaining. Mind you, their opponent was no cellar-dweller either, but rather the class of the West.

Alex Ovechkin’s early ejection clearly rattled the team (the call, borderline in even Mike Milbury’s opinion, is what it is). Bruce Boudreau and his charges were slow to adapt, though to be fair, losing Ovi isn’t an easy mid-game adjustment. By the third period, though, the team had mustered an impressive momentum that seemed to shock the suddenly reeling ‘Hawks.

Nicklas Backstrom sealed the win by proving (again) that he’s among the best in the league. His initial fumble at the blueline he swiftly remedied with an impressive backcheck, then finally an end-to-end rush that yielded the game-winning goal. He quarterbacked the 3-on-2 break to perfection, calmly coordinating the rush while speeding up the ice. I’ve watched the sequence several times, and his finishing move at the end is one of the prettiest goals of the year. But the play taken as a whole? Even better.

Since the Olympic break, it’s safe to say that the Cardiac Caps are back. Sure, the team sometimes lets an advantage slip through its fingers, but at the same time no opponent’s lead is safe — and more often than not, it’s the Caps leaping in celebration at the end of each roller-coaster game.

Gary: These are not your father’s Caps. Heck, these aren’t even your Caps from just a couple years ago. There was a time when you would throw in the towel down two or three goals — like with pre-lockout NHL hockey. Not so any more. The Caps are seemingly especially dangerous falling behind by multiple goals deep into games. Even without the two-time MVP, this team is able to roll through three goals in under three minutes to tie a game and then put it away in OT. Once it puts its collective mind to it this team is dominant, with an exciting style and fast-paced tempo. These are the days you’ll tell your kids and grandkids about (while sounding like that crazy old man/woman).

DC Sports Chick: It’s too bad that today’s game will be overshadowed by all the outrage over Ovechkin’s hit on Campbell, because it truly was a contest for the ages.  I was in the car this afternoon and couldn’t see it, but I was able to get the Chicago feed of the game via satellite radio. It made me remember games from not so long ago when the Caps would have the lead and other teams would battle back to win it, on a seemingly regular basis. It’s encouraging that the Caps are now the ones to turn the game around in their favor; the win is even more of a statement that they can get it done without their star player.  Today’s game was a sign of positive growth for the team and tells the world that they’re heading in the right direction.

Alex: Chicago is an equal among top teams in the league, and their first two periods had me worrying about what might happen in a post-season matchup in June. But then I saw that teams as good as Chicago (and Washington) can struggle at any given time in a game. The Hawks’ stifling every Caps breakout attempt and puck possession in the first two periods were intimidating . . . as were the referees’ early calls, but Washington’s active defense and composed forwards in the third period and OT helped DC overcome the greatest of challenges, being down 0-3 going into the third period to a top-3 team in the NHL. Goaltending wasn’t too shabby, either.

The Capitals continue on the road this week with three games in the Southeast. Those games, much like the ones they faced against division foes at home last week, present potential problems with incentives almost as small as the crowds watching them will be. It was interesting for us this weekend to hear Mike Knuble point to meaningful games among the team’s final 14 in the schedule and point to showdowns with Chicago, Pittsburgh, and Boston while not mention any from the Southeast.

Knuble on playing out the string and developing urgency: “There is not much talk about the Presidents Trophy. It is more about your overall play, you are not going to worry so much about your record. The good thing is we are going to be made to rise to a challenge. We are going to see Pittsburgh twice, Chicago and Boston, who is trying to get into the playoffs. We are going to see five or six games where you have got to play playoff caliber hockey . . . or you will get run over. It is here, it is in the room, we are not grasping at air. We just have to come out and play stronger and [there has got to be] more urgency. We have to realize the playoffs are coming and you just don’t flip the switch once the playoffs come.”

Time and again we’ve listened patiently to the game’s critics of enforcement and fighting suggest that were the league merely to rigorously sanction instances of egregious violence, there’d be no need for skating predators and pain merchants. So what are we to do with the league’s blind eye toward Koci? Shrug and wait for the next skilled Capital crumpled upon the ice from thuggery, apparently. Or should we?

Here we’re going to lay out our individual vantages on the issue, and invite you to share yours. It’s an emotional and heated topic without a clear-cut, easy answer—all the more reason to hear all sides. And it’s indisputably salient and important for the league as a whole, and the Capitals in particular.

OrderedChaos

The Caps don’t need an Enforcer — they need a Destroyer. Donald Brashear-esque enforcers are like WWII Battleships: deadly, imposing, but of limited use. Whereas destroyers are more nimble, just as deadly in a quick-strike capacity, but useful in a wide range of situations (in hockey, not just for heavy-weight fights and bench-warming).

When you hear Destroyer, think Dale Hunter… Matt Cooke with even more edge… and yes, Chris Pronger; scary, slightly crazy, sometimes dirty players whom the opposition truly fear, because you just never know who they’ll target or what they’ll do next. And not a drop-the-gloves kind of targeting, more the “You did something we don’t like to our star — now your star is going to regret it.”

Mind you, this part of the game is unfortunate, and the NHL needs to fix it. The league needs to do so by suspending players, and even coaches like the Avs’ Joe Sacco, for intentionally encouraging such dangerous play perpetrated by talentless goons. Yet, as clearly evidenced by the league’s inexplicable excusing of talent-free Koci’s goonery, the NHL mindset change will be glacially slow to arrive.  The Capitals are built to win now. Expect more liberties to be taken with the Caps’ stars, particularly in the playoffs, until there’s a Destroyer draped in Capitals colors.

Alex

In the modern NHL, where the salary cap puts constraints on virtually every roster move, signing, and trade, why would any team want to waste even $1 million on lousy non-talent? So with last season’s departure of six-minute-per-game, $1.2 million Donald Brashear (whom I admire very much), came an era where skill can flourish on all four lines and light the lamp on a regular basis. One fighter, Matt Bradley, is having a career season, scoring one more goal already than he did all of last season. Why, you ask? Leaving enforcer types off the roster makes the faster, skilled players a lot better because there’s more room to operate. You think fights give energy boosts to teams? I think any Capitals’ goal at Verizon Center does the job, and the guys in red have scored every game this season at home.

Andrew

The question of whether the Caps need an enforcer is a moot point, because they already have one and his name is Alexander Ovechkin. Now he isn’t the typical enforcer in the traditional sense of the term, instead he enforces by putting the puck in the back of the net. When everything is said and done, sure it would be nice to get some physical retribution when teams run at Caps players, but isn’t a win so much sweeter? Why stoop to their level, instead take the high ground and just flat out embarrass them. In the end five minutes for fighting will feel good for a period, but two points and several goals by Ovie will feel so much better.

Gary

I don’t think that Washington needs an enforcer in the pure sense of the word. The Caps have no use for Danny Carcillo, David Koci, or Patrick Kaleta. One could argue that the Caps did just fine with dead weight on the roster in the form of Michael Nylander, so they could probably do fine with a thug taking a roster spot. The difference is, they would also take a spot on the game day roster. But it is clear that the status quo is not working as teams have been taking runs at Capitals, even after clean hits. While the Caps have countered with a lethal power play and taking the win, there is still the risk of serious injury. What if Green was out indefinitely with a concussion or another injury instead of probably playing tonight? Would the debate take a different tone?

Perhaps what this team needs is a little more grit. A little more toughness. A Dale Hunter type. Sure, Hunter racked up over 3,500 career penalty minutes. He also scored over 1,000 points. That’s not one dimensional. His playoff numbers? How’s 118 points in 186 games? Ask Philadelphia about his points.

One might say that these type of players have no place in today’s game. Perennial powerhouse Detroit begs to differ. Just this year they signed Brad May. Here’s what Dan Cleary had to say about May.

“Knowing what he does on the ice is a good, calming factor for everybody, knowing teams aren’t going to be able to take liberties on our good players and run around. It’s a great element that has helped us in the past with Mac (Darren McCarty) and Downs (Aaron Downey).”

Where is our Dale Hunter?

pucksandbooks

This is a longstanding and spectacularly spirited debate — I think it fairly brought down Twitter the other day — and the two sides are united by a keen interest in seeing the welfare of Washington’s players preserved and protected to the fullest extent possible. Bright and thoughtful people are seated on both sides of this issue. But what I find conspicuously missing across a wide cross-section of the anti- enforcers crowd is an acknowledgment of the since-the-game’s-inception role enforcement has played in our sport. If hockey — at the NHL level most particularly — has ever known a role for an enforcer on more or less every roster, and yet now all of a sudden has far less of a need for one, when precisely did the metamorphosis occur? And how? Salary caps suddenly altered the nature of our sport? Really?

For me this question is answered easily by the nature of our game. No other sport asks of its athletes what hockey does. Collide with one another, on every shift, at upwards of thirty miles per hour. Do so within the confines of unyielding dasher boards and increasingly inflexible plexiglass. Be built like NFL safeties and linebackers. And for good measure, carry a weapon in your hands. The nature of our game strongly suggests that nightly there will be violence; having one or two independent sets of eyes at ice level monitoring the drama is hardly deterrent; and decades’ worth of circumstantial evidence is highly suggestive that when a game’s violent tensions are addressed in culminating fashion by a slow dance involving heavyweights, most often order is restored. The cheap stuff comes to a screeching halt.

The cold hard reality is that non-sanctions like that for David Koci are par for the NHL course. This is a league that has ever wanted and nurtured ‘the buzz’ associated with toeing the line on socially unsanctioned, frontier-style retribution. It’s part of what distinguishes the NHL from all other sports. It isn’t going anywhere. And if you aren’t adequately prepared for engagement with it, you are vulnerable.

“Last night in the game Duco came off the bench and got the fight. He was penalized 7 minutes, 2 minute minor plus 5 minute major. While that PP is going on, Allen takes the elbowing penalty. So we have a 5 on 3. 

“Morrison scores 15 seconds into the 5 on 3, which was 1 minute 5 seconds into Duco’s first minor penalty.  Did the refs botch it there by letting Allen out of the box? Shouldnt we still have had a 5 on 3 and the remaning 55 seconds of Duco’s first penalty just been gone and 5 minutes remain on his penalty and therefore we should have had another 1 minute 45 seconds of 5 on 3?  I know its a meaningless question now and [Gabby] didnt seem to complain.  But I think this exact situation played out against us within the last two seasons. Thanks for any explanation you can provide on this.  Thanks.”

We’ve provided a few favorite/classic taunts below. I overhead my [Mike's] personal favorite about 6 years ago in Section 426, shouted in impressively loud fashion by a woman who was at least 70 years old if she was a day: “Hey ref — you must be pregnant, ’cause you’ve missed three periods!”
How do you let the refs know their job performance is sub-par? Or what’s one of your all-time favorites you’ve overheard? Omit the profanity (feel free to use the %*#$ing symbols if need be) and please no racist/homophobic/etc. insults . . . but even within those guidelines you still have plenty of room to share delightfully dastardly taunts with your fellow readers.
We’ll select two favorites among the submissions and award each winner with an OFB goody. Help us fill out the list to a Dirty Dozen. Submissions accepted until 5:00 PM Eastern on Monday, August 11 ‚Äî so taunt early, taunt often!

• If you had another eye you’d be a cyclops!
• Save a Deer: Shoot a Zebra
• Hey ref ‚Äî you must be pregnant, ’cause you’ve missed three periods!
• Have another doughnut! (courtesy of Jim Schoenfeld)
• BULLLLL-SH*T! (Hershey Giant Center version)
• Bend over and use your good eye!
• Hey ref, I thought only horses slept standing up!
• I hope you die in a fire! (overheard in Philly, of course)
• I’m blind, I’m deaf, I want to be a ref!
• Hey ref, I’m leaving with your wife — even she’s disgusted with you.
• ________ (add yours as a comment)

And if you don’t wish to rely on Lady Luck (or our fickle judging) for OFB loot, feel free to check out our store.

Orders by residents outside of PA, OH, WV, MD, NY, NJ, DE, VA and the District of Columbia will be canceled without notice and refunds given.

Leonsis remembers the reaction to his strategy in 2001, and the irony of the most vocal complainers doing the same thing seven years later:

We were raked over the coals in the Pittsburgh media for our efforts. Furthermore, a Department of Justice attorney called me. He hailed from Pittsburgh and threatened a lawsuit against us for discriminatory business practices. We, of course, heeded the warnings and stopped this practice. This is situational ethics at is finest.”

The tactic is not inherently bad — though a local-area “pre-sale” would be better than an outright restriction on out-of-town purchasers. But the Penguins’ front office using the same tactic that they gnashed their teeth about in 2001 . . . well, that smacks of hypocrisy. They complained and threaten legal action back then, and now take the very same objectionable approach when it suits them.
This situation is reminiscent of Penguins head coach Michel Therrien blaming poor officiating for his team’s 0-2 deficit. Therrien apparently does not not see the irony of accusing Detroit’s netminder Chris Osgood of diving while defending Sidney Crosby from the same accusations in prior rounds and the regular season. “Situational ethics” seem part and parcel of the Penguins’ plan of late, though it isn’t serving them particularly well on the ice.