Sunday, March 14, 2010

Alexander the Obliterator


First of all, that's a legal hit. That isn't a major, double-minor, or even minor penalty. Campbell is too far away for it to be boarding. AO absolutely crushed him, and in today's sissy NHL, players go down a little easier than a drunken senior-year sorority girl at last call. Man up and try to fight AO off, and there's no penalty and no injury.

The problem here, is the referee penalizing the RESULT instead of the ACTION. If Campbell doesn't fall, there's no foul - pretty hard to deny here. Pierre's disgusting love-fest for OV is a little unsettling, but he has a point. Ovechkin is strong. The NHL used to be a league of manly men with grizzly beards and jack-o-lantern grins, not this diving to draw a penalty crap.

The worst part about this, if my memory serves me right, is that's the great eight's third game misconduct. Automatic suspension under that rule, before the "supplementary discipline depending on whether I like you or not" from Colin Campbell comes thundering down from Mt Olympus. That sucks for AO, and the game of hockey. Let's hope this doesn't turn into an Evgeni Malkin incident from the playoffs...that might make this already deplorably-handled situation worse.

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