Ovechkin to be suspended?

[Fateless]

Absolutely no reason for this to warrant supplemental discipline. Ovechkin let up and practically bear hugged him when he realized Miller wasn't protecting himself - he mitigated the hit in every way possible. The only reason Miller was injured was because he did absolutely nothing to protect himself in a dangerous position and because Ovi is significantly heavier. 

 

I'm honestly getting sick of how this league enforces hits like this. That play is completely on Miller, he stood facing the boards for a long period of time without bracing for a check while he had the puck - what the hell does he expect to happen?

[RUPERTKBD]

45 minutes ago, Fateless said:

Absolutely no reason for this to warrant supplemental discipline. Ovechkin let up and practically bear hugged him when he realized Miller wasn't protecting himself - he mitigated the hit in every way possible. The only reason Miller was injured was because he did absolutely nothing to protect himself in a dangerous position and because Ovi is significantly heavier. 

 

I'm honestly getting sick of how this league enforces hits like this. That play is completely on Miller, he stood facing the boards for a long period of time without bracing for a check while he had the puck - what the hell does he expect to happen?

The bolded sentence is key. Miller turned his back because the puck hopped over his stick, forcing him to reverse course, but as you say, his back was turned for a long time. It naturally follows that there was plenty of time for Ovie to stop. A statement supported by the video.

 

 Miller had no reason to "brace for a check" because his back was to the play and he knows that hits from behind are illegal. I would assume that he would "expect" not to be hit between the numbers. Also, I see no evidence of Ovie "practically bear hugging" Miller. At the moment of contact bot of his hands are gripping his stick.

 

To be clear, I don't think the hit was egregious, but the attempt to shift the blame to Miller is completely off base. It should have been 5 and a game, but Ovechkin's superstar status kept him from being tossed. Yet another example of the double standard employed by the DoPS.
 

[Shift-4]

3 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

 

To be clear, I don't think the hit was egregious, but the attempt to shift the blame to Miller is completely off base. It should have been 5 and a game, but Ovechkin's superstar status kept him from being tossed. Yet another example of the double standard employed by the DoPS.
 

Too bad that didn't work for Bure in 94  

[Fateless]

26 minutes ago, RUPERTKBD said:

The bolded sentence is key. Miller turned his back because the puck hopped over his stick, forcing him to reverse course, but as you say, his back was turned for a long time. It naturally follows that there was plenty of time for Ovie to stop. A statement supported by the video.

 

 Miller had no reason to "brace for a check" because his back was to the play and he knows that hits from behind are illegal. I would assume that he would "expect" not to be hit between the numbers. Also, I see no evidence of Ovie "practically bear hugging" Miller. At the moment of contact bot of his hands are gripping his stick.

 

To be clear, I don't think the hit was egregious, but the attempt to shift the blame to Miller is completely off base. It should have been 5 and a game, but Ovechkin's superstar status kept him from being tossed. Yet another example of the double standard employed by the DoPS.
 

My point is that Ovi DID let up on the check. You can tell from the video that just before impact Ovi tries to slow and brace himself. When Ovi checks someone, he NAILS them - without exception. Here, Ovi slows up and changes his body position to lessen the impact. Ovi did everything that the DoPS asks players to do - try to stop the hit and mitigate the damage. 

 

The problem in this situation is that Miller screwed up while handling the puck and left himself in an extremely vulnerable position. There are some egregious boarding calls out there that deserve supplemental, but I don't even see this play as Ovi's fault. Five minute major is more than enough because yes, it was boarding - but beyond that its on Miller for contributing to the play by being careless. 

[Aircool]

I love how because Ovechkin had 0.5 seconds on a slow-motion video people think he had all this time and space to completely avoid the hit without injuring himself or Miller. He clearly lets up on the hit, which was probably the only thing he could have done. It's obvious he lets up on the hit as his upper body doesn't move towards contact and his legs are gliding, he isn't taking any strides before the hit. It's just not physically possible to safely avoid that hit. Miller screwed up and put himself in a really bad position, this sort of hit just isn't anybody's fault.

[Honey-Badger-Hansen]

2 hours ago, Fateless said:

I'm honestly getting sick of how this league enforces hits like this. That play is completely on Miller, he stood facing the boards for a long period of time without bracing for a check while he had the puck - what the hell does he expect to happen?

Yeah totally agree.. Hope the guy is okay but not once in the play does he look over his shoulder. As a kid learning contact hockey, the mantra is "keep your head on a swivel". He puts himself in a really vulnerable position about half a second before Ovi hits him by my count. Seeing this a lot these days and it's pretty scary to watch. The game is way to fast for the aggressor to lessen the hit in a lot of situations. Not all situations, but a lot of them.

[riffraff]

Well done ovie

[drsofthands]

On 3/7/2016 at 2:09 PM, poetica said:

Oh look, another hit where the Bruins are all up in arms when someone does it to them but just call it "hockey" when they do it to someone else.

and thats why they win games

[poetica]

15 hours ago, drsofthands said:

and thats why they win games

Because they're hypocritical whiners?

[Neko]

Ovie knew he had hurt him, he stood there trying to hold him up then stays there.  Not the first time he's done that when hurting someone.  Game misconduct probably should've been issued though but that's about it.