NHL Senior Executive VP of Hockey Operations Colin Campbell thought it was and promptly suspended Washington Captials star Alex Ovechkin for 2 games for his Boarding of Chicago Blackhawks Defenseman Brian Campbell on Sunday afternoon. The hit resulted in Campbell suffering a broken clavicle, and broken ribs. His status for the rest of the season is in serious doubt. Watching the play, The Beard's first reaction was that it was a clean play with just a bad luck result, and obviously his coach agreed. The Beard has never been much of a long time hockey expert however, and has found others who believe that the suspension wasn't long enough.
One issue that leads to denying Ovechkin the benefit of the doubt, is that this isn't the first time he's done something like this. Ovechkin is officially considered by the league to be a "repeat offender" with three game misconducts this season. He was kicked out of a game for Boarding in a November contest at Buffalo, and he's also been suspended for two games for a knee to the head of Carolina Hurricane Defenseman Tim Gleason.
The other tricky issue is that Ovechkin is one of the poster boys of the NHL, and is considered one of the most bankable faces in the game today. Does the league benefit long term by punishing one of it's biggest marketing pieces for being too aggressive, or does it draw the line in the sand with a stiff punishment for reckless play that endangers the careers of others? It's a fine line, no doubt about it. In this case the league decided to play it safe by splitting the difference suspension length-wise.
Still, it will be interesting to see how Ovechkin responds to this. His past history, is that he probably has no plans to ease up his play.
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