Washington Capitals’ forward Alexander Ovechkin has been suspended two games after his knee-on-knee hit with Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Tim Gleason.
Ovechkin was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct on the play, which left both players sprawled on the ice.
“I regret that this has happened,” Ovechkin said in a statement. “I’m glad that Tim wasn’t injured because I never ever want to see anyone get hurt. I am disappointed to miss these games and I can’t wait to get back on the ice next week to help my team.” (Source: TSN)
Who didn’t know this day was coming? You can argue until you’re blue in the face as to whether or not Ovechkin intentionally knee checked Tim Gleason, or Sergei Gonchar in the playoffs last year for that matter, but the fact is that Ovechkin’s been running around taking every opportunity to hit guys as hard as possible, regardless of the potential consequences, for a couple years now.
I’m a fan of tough hockey as much as anyone is, and for the most part I’m a huge OV fan, but at some point the NHL is going to have to stop giving him free reign on the ice. We all know that there’s a different set of rules for star players, a little nudge-nudge, wink-wink type of arrangement where a guy of Ovechkin’s star power will be given a little extra rope to play with, as long as he keeps putting fans in the seats.
Here-in lies the big problem though….star players are supposed to use this extra rope to put pucks in the net, not to take liberties with other players careers. How can the NHL talk about getting tough on headshots, and charging, and all the other types of questionable hits that happen during a game, when one of their marquee player is just as guilty of these hits as anyone else?
In hockey, as in life in general, these things have a way of balancing out and it will be a tremendous loss for hockey when Ovechkin gets seriously injured, whether by a hit he delivers or receives, but it seems inevitable that it will happen.