“The National Hockey League has suspended Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin for two games for his hit on Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Brian Campbell on Sunday afternoon.
While the Capitals were not happy with the suspension, vice president and general manager George McPhee chose not to expand on his feelings.
“We have no problem with the way Alex tried to finish his check. Unfortunately, an injury resulted. We are disappointed with the suspension but do not want to comment further,” McPhee said in a statement Monday.” (Source:TSN)
This feels like Deja Vu to me, but as I stated in an earlier post when The Washington Capitals’ forward Alexander Ovechkin was suspended two games after his knee-on-knee hit with Carolina Hurricanes defenceman Tim Gleason, this is a trend that is going to continue as long as Ovechkin continues to abuse his “star status”.
I’ve watched the replay of this hit on Brian Campbell several times and I can’t even understand why Ovechkin delivered the hit in the first place. Campbell had already moved the puck, which is likely why he didn’t anticipate the hit coming a couple seconds after the fact, but in true Ovechkin style, he recklessly pushed Campbell into the boards to “finish his check”.
Like I said before, I’m a fan of OV’s game but he needs to figure out where the line is, when finishing a check does nothing to impact the play in a positive way for his team.
Judging by his comments, (his comments are detailed below in Mark’s post, along with video of the hit) he still doesn’t even see what was wrong with the play in the first place… That speaks to bigger problem, to say the least.