No, not dirty. But unnecessary and ill-advised.

I was “watching” the game via GDT in the first period. I have not yet watched the video of the hit, but if I read correctly, he was going after Gleason ‘cos Gleason ran Nicky. We’ve had this convo before…a) the elite skaters are not to be the players dishing out the justice, and b) the only way other teams can get at AO is by running his friends.

That being said, AO plays on his own terms, but I surely hope he finds a way to modify those terms that is more benefcial to the team as a whole and his own health in specific.

One of the ESPN guys, when discussing top players earlier this year, commented on the fact that Ovie’s style of play could result in a long-term career that didn’t ultimately live up to expectations (I’m sure someone else can find it faster than I could). There was alot of scoffing at the time. Unfortunately, that perspective may prove prescient. For a number of reasons, I’d be happy to see Ovie pull back just a little bit.

One more thought. I am unimpressed with the “walking and boarding the team bus with a slight limp and no brace or crutches” routine. Although I presume the trainers etc. signed off on it, it’s theater at best and he should have gone to the airport in somebody’s car.

Couldn’t agree more JP. The problem is AO’s recklessness is becoming a theme, not a blip on the radar. The guy goes hard (it’s the same argument I made when Tuomo Ruutu was suspended for his hit on Tucker) and there’s times when you can’t adjust. You don’t want to take that out of his game, but he needs to be more aware of what he’s doing.

Three games is fair, IMO.

In my mind, the problem with all of Ovechkin’s hits and suspensions is exactly intent. His intention appears to be to make a clean hit, not to hospitalize a player. The 5 minute major is a penalty that should be handed out not based on the severity of the collision, but the intention of the play – hence the “intent to injure”. The same knee on knee at a slower pace is (at most) a 2-minute infraction, incidental contact of the knees after a partially-dodged hit – it’s Ovechkin’s speed, power, or recklessness that make it such a brutal collision. On NHL On The Fly last night during the recap, there was a more clearly intentional knee-knee collision in another game that was only given a 2-minute minor by the officials. It seems pretty clear that this major was handed out at least in part because of the previous one (which I’m not even sure was a legitimate penalty, let alone a major) and the initial rolling around on the ice that Gleason did… which he magically recovered from in less than 2 minutes.

I can understand people wanting Ovechkin suspended to “send a message” to him, but I’m not sure about the message being sent… don’t try to make big hits? That is just part of his game. To me, you can’t suspend a player based on incident contact – especially when the player penalized on the play got the worst of the injuries – or even ill-advised attempts to hit people… you suspend them based on perceived intent – and I think this is why (at least up to now) Ovechkin hasn’t been suspended for any of his previous hits.

Frankly, I don’t see it making much difference (to Ovechkin) if he is suspended, other than to tone down the “superstar treatment” squawking – and for that matter alone, I’m fine with a few games where he sits. But if you think it’s going to change his game, I just don’t see that happening – Ovechkin knows as well as we do that he had no intent to harm the player he hit… so it’s not clear what behavior is supposedly being corrected. When he starts swinging or jabbing his stick at players’ heads or man-parts, mashing his skates into players, or making dirty punches to the heads (or man-parts) of people when the official isn’t looking, or any sort of behavior that indicates he’s doing something other than playing hockey then we can start labeling him as a “dirty” player, but for making a clean hit into a guy’s shoulder when they see him coming or attempting and missing a big open-ice hit with your shoulder and not getting your body out of the way fast enough… I don’t buy it.

Am I missing /snark here BP? I really don’t get this. Your Captain doesn’t have to be your superstar. In fact, its probably better if he isn’t. The one thing you can never say about Clark is that he doesn’t give his all for the team. What more can you ask for a Captain on a young team that needs leadership from experienced guys?

Sure, Clark may not finish his career here, hell, he may not even finish his contract here. As the Caps have become a better team over the last couple of years, his on ice contributions have been lessened by an influx of better and developing players (not to mention injury). That is just life. It’s not like he was the best player on the ice when he first came here on a terrible team either.

He may not be the best player on the ice, and isn’t the best Captain in the history of the franchise, but there is absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about for having Caption Cadaver wearing the C.

Seriously though, it’s nice to hear stories like this about Clark. Sometimes it’s tough for us fans to gauge the contributions of the captain, but that’s the kind of thing he needs to be doing.

Your sig is so win.

I knew you would change it to that.

You change your sig faster than Clark Kent changes clothes in a phone booth. Nice job.

In fairness to Flash (did I just say that?), Fehr’s numbers have come, for the most part, when he’s had increased ice time (i.e. recently), so while his overall production-per-minute is better, most of it has come when he’s gotten similar minutes to those in which Flash has produced his numbers.

Don’t get me wrong – I’d take Fehr over Flash every day of the week and twice on game day, and Fehr has earned the increased ice time by producing when it was given to him (unlike others), but it’s not like Fehr has scored every time he’s stepped on the ice.

Flash stepped up when AO was hurt the first time (still can’t believe I’m typing that), but faded the moment AO went back in the lineup. And Fejhr finally healed up his ribs and found another gear.

Can we stop pretending to be nice to those guys now?

“They” continue to say he’s on track for Thursday against Florida.

What I’m saying is that he wins face-offs, knows how to play/pass, and already counts against the cap.

1 of those is accurate.

Seriously though, his locker’s cleaned out. He’s skating on his own, away from the team. It’s a post-nuclear option, if that.

They’re already a good team sans AO, and Knuble will be back soon.

Same deal with the Gonchar hit, his victim tries to evade and gets his upper body moving, while AO tries to react and begins to cut in with his skate as if to turn and continue the hit. It’s just reckless. If you have to skate by him, you have to skate by him.

I think Ovie was just trying to make any kind of contact he could. Reckless, but not dirty as many have said.

You have time to take a screenshot but you have no avatar? Come on, you’re missing out on top fun and exciting prizes.

Schultz was on the ice when 8 hurt himself. Cant that kid do anything right?

Um, that’s pretty great news. When was that?

dare I say Brashear?

as long as you’re ready when F&B wakes up.

Maybe a tough guy who was willing to go out and hold people accountable.

So, not Brashear.

How many games did McPhee say a team could use an enforcer in a given season? Two or three? we could have used one in about six or seven so far.

What would Brash do? Yell from the bench?

Wasn’t it actually closer to knee-on-hip (Ovie-on-Gleason) anyways?

His knee was out in front of his body = he led with his knee.

Matty needs to learn how to do a little better acting job.

The lack of a call on Wallin when he charged Fehr late was also annoying.