NHL News - Ovechkin Being Reviewed For Hit On Campbell

As teams try to worm their way in to solid playoff seeds, the biggest news emerging from the NHL this past weekend came from Washington’s win over the Blackhawks at the United Center. That wasn’t the attention grabbing headline though. Alexander Ovechkin, the best player in the league alongside Sidney Crosby, threw Brian Campbell in to the boards and was ejected from the game.

Now Ovechkin could face a possible suspension for the hit, which is being reviewed by the league as we speak (or as you read this).

The timing’s pretty piss poor for Washington, which Is 5-2 SU in their past 7 games and in the midst of a road trip that will take them through Florida, Carolina and Tampa Bay for the remainder of the week. They have a more than comfortable 14-point lead in the Eastern Conference and boast the league’s best record at 46-14 SU. Ovechkin has been a huge part of that, leading the league with 96-points, a 41 plus-minus and ranking second in goals with 44 behind Crosby.

While we’re on the topic of stats, let’s also keep in mind that Ovechkin is ranked 49 th in the league with just 81 penalty minutes. By comparison, other high profile players like Ryan Getzlaf, Dion Phaneuf and Mike Richards have a similar number of minutes in the box. The point is that Ovechkin is not, and never has been, a dirty player.

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It’s absolutely deplorable for the league to retro-actively penalize Ovechkin for a boarding call just because Marc Savard had his head taken off a couple weeks ago. That hit on Savard may tragically cost him his career, and it has spurned major discussions around the league to reinforce rules that would better protect their players.

We’ve seen leagues do this in the past, most notably with the rules in the NFL that protect quarterbacks from even being breathed on. The NHL’s worst case scenario is being perceived as a barbaric sport that subjugates its star players and bench players to hard hits and dangerous injuries.

The aforementioned Sidney Crosby had a scare in the tilt against Tampa Bay when Steve Downie attempted a slew-foot against him, and instead nearly buckled Crosby’s knee to pieces. Why isn’t that getting reviewed?

Now if Ovechkin was the kind of player that physically intended to head hunt any player on an opposing team, I would be slamming him to the nines screaming for suspension and breaking a few keyboards in the process. We all know Ovechkin to a certain degree at this point, and he’s not one of those players. He simply doesn’t have the track record of dirty hits that other guys do.

This isn’t meant to defend Ovechkin just because he’s a prized commodity for the league, and a star player that practically half of the hockey betting world tunes in to watch. The NHL needs to calm things down a bit. The hit on Savard was brutal, and they definitely need to do what they can to make sure guys aren’t losing out on careers because of dirty hits.

But the more I see Ovechkin’s hit on Campbell, the more I believe it wasn’t “dirty” or with severe malice. It’s frustrating to watch a full-contact sport like hockey or football become a ballet of tip-toeing nannies that are scared to hurt each other. Sadly, that’s the direction it looks like we’re headed towards. Their sudden focus on Ovechkin has let Steve Downie off the hook for whatever reason. The problem is that the NHL isn’t picking the right battles all the time. If you’re going to spend your time with a hockey stick up your ass trying to re-write the rules every time a player gets hurt, then the NHL should at least worry about the right things.