The Hits Just Keep On Coming

Sheesh. You'd think Colin Campbell could get one day off.

But with the hockey world still in a state of alarm over the Matt Cooke-Marc Savard hit from last week, and with the Penguins and Bruins set to meet again this Thursday to possibly renew hostilities, Campbell had to shake his head Sunday when another tricky file landed on his desk.

This time, it featured the league's reigning Hart Trophy winner and current scoring leader Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals. Ovechkin was given a major and game suspension 12 minutes into the first period yesterday of a much-anticipated game with the Chicago Blackhawks for boarding Hawks blueliner Brian Campbell.

This wasn't NHL grunt versus grunt. This was two of the highest paid players clashing, with Ovechkin rudely shoving Campbell from behind into the end boards after Campbell had hustled back for a loose puck and transferred it to a nearby teammate. As he rolled into the boards, Campbell's neck and right shoulder took the brunt of the impact, leaving him gasping for breath on the ice for several minutes.

Ovechkin knew immediately he'd done something wrong, and seemed to wave towards Campbell as if to apologize. After first going to the penalty box, Ovechkin absorbed some trash talk from Hawks forward Troy Brouwer en route to the Washington bench and, ultimately the dressing room.

NBC analyst Pierre Maguire suggested that a double minor would have been appropriate, unaware, apparently, that no such penalty is in the rule book for boarding. It's either a deuce or a major.

While Ovechkin was tossed and NHL officials quickly reviewed the incident, he won't be suspended. Otherwise, he might have been in even hotter water after already being suspended once this season for two games for kneeing Carolina's Tim Gleason Nov. 30.

In between, Ovechkin decked Jaromir Jagr during the Olympics with what was a shoulder to the jaw at mid-ice, leaving some to suggest it was a head shot. He wasn't penalized or suspended.

As it stands, there will be continued suggestions that Ovechkin has become increasingly reckless in his play this season. Reports out of Chicago Sunday night suggested Campbell could miss the rest of the regular season with injuries sustained in the hit.

Meanwhile, the NHL in general seems in a state of amber alert over head shots and bodychecking in general, with every tough hit drawing calls for penalties, suspension or revenge.

Rather than reduce the furor, the league's plan to legislate against head shots starting next fall seems to have increased the controversy and made it even more difficult for officials to differentiate between legal hits and illegal ones. In the Leafs-Islanders game, Dion Phaneuf was cracked from behind by Islander goon Matt Martin with a hit far more dangerous than Ovechkin's, yet received only a minor.

It's a guessing game.

Still, the big story from a Washington perspective yesterday was how Ovechkin was tossed, the Caps fell behind and yet still managed to fight their way back to win 4-3 in overtime on Nicklas Backstrom's spectacular unassisted goal. In so doing, the Caps passed the 100-point mark for the sixth time, but the earliest in club history, while the performance of Antti Niemi did nothing to quiet speculation that a strong Chicago team may not have the goaltending to go deep into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Comments

[GPK]

I still can't find a difference between OV's hit and the one that got Lapierre 4 games. Uh, besides the fact that OV is the NHL's meal ticket.
Double standard???

[Phil S]

Damien,

Did you see the Downie cheapshot on Crosby. To me, that was by far the worst of the day. Downie CLEARLY was trying to injure him (if not end his career). He ought to be done for the rest of the season.

On Niemi - I actually thought he played fantastic. None of the goals were really his fault, excepting perhaps the OT one. And he made a ton of non routine saves otherwise.

[B. M.]

Getting so tired of every single body-check in the NHL being analyzed so heavily. Last night's Leaf game was a snore-fest - with zero physical play, no emotion & check's routinely not finished. The hit on Phaneuf was nothing. Matt Martin was gliding!

The future is clear - hockey will NOT retain it's physical character. What a shame we are ruining the one truly beautiful game.

[Don Hyslop]

NBC yesterday was more concerned with how his ejection would affect their ratings than anything else. Almost no difference that I could see between Ovechkin's hit and that of Lapierre except it appears that Campbell's injury is more serious.

[MacGregrrrr]

Personally, I don't like Ovechkin's style - he's a dirty little ship, and I'd like nothing more than to see him get sunk by a REAL cruiser ... a la "Battleship Kelly" ...

[Scratching My Head]

The NHL's approach to discipline continue to boggle the mind.

If they passed up the opportunity to discipline Matt Cooke with the statement, "We can't suspend Matt Cooke just because he's a repeat offender", Colin Campbell seems to be suffering from concussion syndrome, himself.

Here we have a real dilemma for the NHL "Braintrust"?; Ovechkin the offender, Crosby a victim of Steve Downie (another repeat offender) and Phaneuf a victim who plays on the edge. Will the NHL treat Ovechkin differently than Lapierre? Will the NHL treat this repeat offender differently than Matt Cooke? Will Phaneuf be treated differently because of his playing style?

Predictions anyone? I WOULDN'T DARE!

[Troy]

I like the part where they pointed out Pierre McGuire's stupidity. Can't stand that guy.

[JR Parks]

There was nothing wrong with Ovie's hit on Yammy in the Olympics, #68 was just skating around with his head down. Ovie couldn't help Jagr was in a crouched position when he showed up. The hit was perfectly fine.

[Dave]

On the Phaneuf hit - I read some locker room quotes from after the game and it sounded like the isles were head hunting phanuef all night for a previous hit on Okposo back in Calgary. Phanuef was refusing to fight so the players 'policed' it by themselves....

ahhh the NHL honor code where you police yourselves.

[other mark]

I find all this analysis paralysis quite laughable. There are rules in the book today about boarding, about hitting from behind & about intent to injure. It's simply a matter of enforcing them. The reality is, this comes down to money. When the league felt that the game was being held hostage by boring teams deploying the trap and that brand of hockey might mean a hit to the bottom line, they moved quickly to enforce obstruction rules. In this case, the league can't see a financial upside to enforcing the 'intent to injure' language already on the books. The tipping point comes when increased insurance premiums outpace the owners' perceived value in a blood and guts show. Apparantly, that day has not yet come. Maybe when someone is killed they will move a bit quicker.

[other mark]

Something to concider. Instead of trying to add to the rule book to stem the tide of players disrepecting other players maybe the NHL Board of Governors should re-consider the instigator and 3rd man in rules. Seems to me a lot of this stuff was a lot less frequent when the fear of reprisal was there. Cheap shot artists like Cooke would have no place to hide.

[Edward Palys]

Any hit from behind should be suspendable. Clean checking is far from the cheap shots we are seeing in hockey today. The game has changed mainly due to the equipment where players think that making more noise attracts more fans. Reminds me so much of the phony noises produced in the WWE, and hockey is becoming more of the same style. Take away the hard equipment and you'll see much less hitting and a resort to skills that we saw in the olden days.

[2senseworth]

If you really want to stop this kind of violence, take the aggressor out of action for the length of time it takes the victim to return.

[theoldrot]

As you can see from the comments here, the rules are inadequate and inconsistent, and the referees are inconsistent and incompetent. The NHL has a lot of work to do to fix this. The failure of the GM's deliberations on head shots shows that the NHL cannot do that work. Looks like we are stuck with stupidity and incompetence at all levels of the NHL.