NHL's Kangaroo Court

Alex Ovechkin has just been issued another suspension for his "hit" on the Blackhawks' Brian Campbell.  As Bruce Boudreau has said, it was more of a push from the side than a check from behind.  OV didn't finish his "check" and send Campbell into the boards, Campbell fell awkwardly into the boards after catching his toe in the ice.

Now in no way am I defending Ovechkin's actions here, I feel he probably should have gotten a double minor for the hit;  it was an avoidable play in a dangerous part of the ice.  I also am not outraged by the league's decision to suspend him (he gets a little break before the playoffs and will return in enough time for me to see him play in Pittsburgh on April 6th).  What is frustrating is Colin Campbell's utter lack of consistency in his rulings.  On one hand he is trying to send a message to "repeat offenders", yet on the other he seems uncertain as to who those "repeat offenders" are.

Alex Ovechkin is an NHL superstar, 1st liner, and points leader who sometimes lets his physicality and intensity over-rule his better judgment.  Matt Cooke is a 3rd line scrub who has a history of headhunting in open ice (see his hit on Anisimov, it's vaguely similar to his latest hit on Savard).  They guy is a 30 point a year player, whose sole purpose on the pens is to throw his weight around.  Yet somehow Colin Campbell didn't feel it necessary to send a message to a guy who has repeatedly tried to take peoples' heads off.

Mike Richards, though more offensively gifted than Cooke, has made similar, repeat headhunting checks in the past (2006 on Pertovicky, obviously the booth hit, and a less extreme but also blindside hit in January on Mark Eaton).  Richards is closer to Ovechkin in terms of stats and both are their respective teams captains, yet Richards could easily be considered more of a "repeat offender" than Ovechkin.  Yet he has not faced a suspension for his hit on Booth.

Colin Campbell claims to be looking at punishing those "repeat offenders" and using precedents to make his rulings.  All he is really doing is creating a vast gray-area and forcing so much subjectivity into the NHL rulebook that neither players, coaches, nor referees have any idea what is or is not a dirty, illegal, or suspend-able hit.  No one would question his ability to make the right decision if he had suspended Cooke, Richards, and Ovechkin.  However, the fact that the two most severe and blatant cheapshots of the season went unpunished by Campbell while Ovechkin's "hit" on Brian Campbell got OV two games is mind-boggling.

Im not even going to get into the Steve Downie trip of Crosby.  The fact that a classless animal like Downie can attempt to injure Gary Bettman's Golden Boy and not get a suspension only further proves that Colin Campbell is lost in his own world of so-called "justice".

The idea of that the NHL might be more inclined to dish out suspension to the offender if the victim was seriously injured, in theory, should be helpful.  However, both Savard and Brian Campbell are out for the season and yet only one incident drew further punishment.  Questionably, it was the latter.  Using the severity of the injury to determine whether or not a player should be suspended for an illegal hit only adds more subjectivity to an already troublesome issue with the NHL.


Just for fun lets look at some of the aforementioned hits.

Matt Cooke:



Mike Richards:



Alex Ovechkin:




Here's a funny lil video I found... Does it look familiar?  It's a hit that happened only a month ago.  It drew no penalty (minor or major), no game misconduct, no ejection, no suspension, and no league wide debate:



I guess if you hit the NHL leader in points into the boards and he gets up, no call needed... I'll tell you what call IS needed..... the call for Colin Campbell's resignation.