No disrespect to you, but I highly doubt some badass in the AHL even has the skating skills to knock out Ovi or even hit him in a game, unless he wants to be banned from the league and hit him when his back is turned and the play is dead.

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That logic is fine but what happens when said player doesn't stop as is the case with Ovi? He has now shown a pattern and the suspensions obviously do nothing to change his play and he's even publicly that he won't change his style of play.

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"Every time I think you say the dumbest thing ever...you keep on talkin' " - Hank Hill
"Starting today, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win a Stanley Cup" - Terry Pegula

Messages are not just sent during the play but in between whistles as people have "discussions" along the boards. It also doesn't have to be an AHL guy...Georges LaRoque would do just fine.

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"Every time I think you say the dumbest thing ever...you keep on talkin' " - Hank Hill
"Starting today, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win a Stanley Cup" - Terry Pegula

If you think Ovechkin getting run with a dirty hit is the right idea of vigilante justice, your line of thinking is part of the problem. A player sticking up for his fallen comrade by dropping the gloves and kicking the shit out of Ovechkin (ala Briere getting boarded and Goose coming to his aide with bombs) is the kind of vigilante justice Ovechkin needs to set him straight, if anything ever will set him straight. Someone trying to injure him with a cheap hit is only going to exacerbate things.

Regardless of being 25 and not even being born when Larry Playfair was drafted with the sole purpose of playing bodyguard to the French Connection (which I did know, TYVM), I know enough about the history of this league to know that when players took care of their own, they did it by facing each other mano-a-mano and not by taking a run at someone.

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mechaphil

I don't mind Ovi's play, as anyone who plays with that much heart and grit will have questionable/bad/late hits throughout their career.

He shouldn't have to change his style of play, he just needs to learn to let up on the hits that could be bad like he did against Campbell. He should have never touched him but made a bad decision.

I'd much rather see more players playing Ovi's style and aggressive than being pussies and not even attempting to hit anyone.

All Ovi needs to do is think a bit better with his hits.

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If you want to send a message to OV, fight him, if he doesn't accept you have your team just take every time he is on the ice to just hit him in legal ways and try and get into his head the rest of the game.

Like Phil said, players should jump OV with a fight and not illegal hits. there was the reason for the tough guys, to make sure no one hit their star players because they knew he would go after them and will want to fight you.

I think the enforcer role still should be implemented now and it looks like it will be back soon if the league doesn't do something about headshots and cheapshots.

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I gotta disagree with you there, Aaron. The enforcer will probably never be back because of a little roadblock called the Instigator. Fucking cockamamied rule.

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mechaphil

I think the source of our disagreement is a perception of what you consider a "run" and what you consider "dirty". I never said I wanted yo see something dirty done to Ovi and when I say "take a run", what I'm talking about is exactly what you're describing when you say "mano e mano" but you may also want to read a little more on the history of what that "mano e mano" meant...there used to be some very questionable tactics (ie Billy Smith using the butt of his stick to keep guys from his crease).

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"Every time I think you say the dumbest thing ever...you keep on talkin' " - Hank Hill
"Starting today, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win a Stanley Cup" - Terry Pegula

Couldn't agree more. Nowadays people are so touchy feely that someone's hurt feelings led to the BS instigator rule. That crap needs to go,

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"Every time I think you say the dumbest thing ever...you keep on talkin' " - Hank Hill
"Starting today, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win a Stanley Cup" - Terry Pegula

Mano a mano means "hand to hand" in Spanish, literally hand to hand combat. As in, to use the example I provided, Paul Gaustad dropping his gloves and going in with fists flying to defend Briere.

But otherwise, yea we agree - a tough hombre (say, Byfuglien on Chicago) needs to step up and put Ovechkin in his place via a beating.

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mechaphil

Unfortunately, because I live in New Mexico, I know exactly what mano e mano means. I was referring to the non-literal sense in which our context put it in the NHL.

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"Every time I think you say the dumbest thing ever...you keep on talkin' " - Hank Hill
"Starting today, the Buffalo Sabres' reason for existence will be to win a Stanley Cup" - Terry Pegula

Right. Billy Smith sure is a good example, tho, given his proclivity for starting stuff with the skaters in front of him. Too bad he and Hextall never went at it - the two toughest goalies ever! (Did they? I need to research this)

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mechaphil

I think we are all on the same page with this actually. We all want to see some action taken against Ovi, but nothing dirty. We all want someone on the other team to fight Ovi when he does something questionable, and we all want the players to take a bit of jabbing at each other when these things happen.

I forgot about the instigator rule also Phil, very good point. As long as that rule is in place, we will keep seeing these bullshit hits and cheapshots without remorse.

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2 games.



Good Job, NHL Disciplinary officials. I think you made an amazing call in this case. 2 Games should be enough forfeited salary on Ovechkin's part to make him seriously think of what he has done here. I think he'll learn his lesson in these next couple days while Soupy lay in pretty much a full body cast, missing the rest of this season (If medical reports I’ve read thus far are correct at this point).

Go. Fuck. Yourself.

I'm so sick and tired of this useless pile of trash having his way with players on the ice and the league refuses to come down on him. Why? Oh we couldn't ever dream of doing that to the rock star power forward in today's game. That would be blasphemy! Not the Great Eight?!

I'm not calling for another goon to beat the living Jesus out of him with his stick (as much as I'd love to see it happen) because it won't send the right message in today's game to other players. This isn't a league where players can police themselves anymore and hasn't been for a while thanks to the instigator rule. I'm calling for the league to grow a fucking set of nads and slap a nice hefty fine/suspension on a player, regardless of how much money he makes and stick to their fucking word for once. That being, they want to get ride of the garbage game which the rats and now the, "Stars" seem to play on a level playing field. This fucker has been getting away with his dirty play since 2006 and has basically been slapped on the wrist. Send the right message for once, NHL.

This is such bullshit. But I guess its ok because it is Ovechkin, right?

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If it's a tight squeeze, spit on it! - NyI

He's a middling AHL player who had the good fortune of a drunk arbitrator. - The Squanto re: Tim Kennedy

Yeah good thing Ovechkin didn't do this down by Hextall. That man was hell on skates.

Ovechkin will never fight anyone, and if he did, it would look like Semin playing the bongos. Look how he reacted when Gaustad came at him. And kudos to Gaustad for ignoring Ovechkin's star status and going after a guy that deserves it.

Ovechkin won't pick on someone his own size. Briere, Campbell, Kaleta, all much smaller than him. I hope Lucic or someone big just absolutely umbergers him.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

If this is whats wrong with the NHL, then I know a huge proportion of the hockey population that wouldn't like YOUR nhl.

Ovechkin represents hardnosed, real hockey. The guy loves what he does and shows it every second of every play. If you can show me a few clips where he shows clear intention to injure someone then maybe i'll reconsider... But believe me I've looked.


Some of the people in this thread have turned hysterically hypocritical. Everyone heralds the umberger soup incident as one of the best hits in sabres history and yet that could have seriously hurt umberger, it WAS a hit to the head. I'd consider it dirty before this. Also, the people calling out ovie for not fighting are also the big kaleta fans and love how he just hits and doesn't throw the buckets often. Double standard?


Hockey without guys like Ovechkin would be boring as hell. He runs around like kaleta with the best offensive talent of the last 15 years

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When I was a boy I spoke as a boy, I understood as a boy, and I thought as a boy; when I became a man I took that boy outside and shot him.

Kaleta doesn't hit from behind, and Campbell hit Umberger in the chest.

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

I wouldn't consider any of these events "real" hockey.

1. Hit from behind on Daniel Briere
2. Blindside hit to the head of Dustin Brown
3. Slew-foot on Rich Peverley
4. Hit from behind on Patrick Kaleta
5. Hit from behind on Jamie Heward
6. Knee-to-Knee hit on Sergei Gonchar
7. Knee-to-Knee hit on Tim Gleason
8. Knee-to-Knee hit on Dennis Wideman
9. Hit from behind on Brian Campbell

Associated video proof here : http://www.kuklaskorner.com/index.php/t ... me_breath/ (Phil's link from earlier.)

Ovie is more than capable of playing his style of hockey WITHOUT all this thuggery. He chooses not to because the NHL doesn't punish him for it. All players need to be in full control of their sticks AND bodies at all times. Ovie should be no exception.

Ovie should have gotten 4 games at least. Its because the NHL think his shit dont stink and he is a draw for the fans.. Doesnt change the fact that he is just about as dirty as Chris Neil. Fuck Ovie..

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The Board Drunk.

It's funny how half of his hits are accidents. When he did the knee to knee hits, they were because he was going for the hits and they moved. Not his fault. The Briere and Brown one's were the only bad one, Brown was actually trying to fight OV a little bit as you see. The boarding hits and hits from behind were him trying to play aggressive not kill someone.

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"Counting all the assholes in the room, I'm definitely not alone!" ~ Michael Poulsen, Volbeat, Still Standing.