But they got Ovechkin, a guy who stands up for himself and requires no goon for backup

By Damien Cox, TheStar.com, March 15, 2010:

There is compelling logic to this argument given that on Sunday afternoon Colin Campbell had no intention of suspending the Washington Capitals captain, and then, surprise surprise, on Monday morning there was a hearing.

Apparently somebody, perhaps somebody who'd been taking long distance phone calls from unhappy Blackhawks executives, convinced Campbell of the error of his thought process.

Conducting the hearing without rolling his eyes in exasperation must have been one heck of a challenge.

Then there's the current environment of utter confusion. With the league still reverberating from Matt Cooke's completely unpunished cheap shot on Marc Savard, you now have a plainly illegal yet clearly less dastardly hockey crime dealt a game misconduct and two-game ban.

Another Cooke-like rat, Tampa's Steve Downie, tried to put a figure-four leglock on Sidney Crosby on the same day Ovechkin hit Campbell, and walked away scot-free. In another game, Islander tough guy Matt Martin drilled Dion Phaneuf face-first into the ledge along the boards from behind with no puck in sight after he and his teammates had vowed to get even with Phaneuf for an incident earlier in the season. Martin's punishment? A two-minute penalty.

But they got Ovechkin, a guy who stands up for himself and requires no goon for backup.

Well, they kinda got him.

See? In the end, nobody's happy. This sure isn't justice. It sure isn't deterrence and it can't possibly address the loss of Campbell to the Hawks. It's a two-game holiday for an overworked athlete who probably welcomes the time off with the playoffs just around the corner.

At the same time, it's punishing a big guy for overpowering a little guy, which in the NHL is what bigger guys are supposed to do.

``We have no problem with the way Alex tried to finish his check,'' said a defiant Washington GM George McPhee in a statement.

The business, meanwhile, of comparing one NHL incident to another is exhausting, and generally pointless. Blaming Colin Campbell, an honest man trying to do an honest job in impossible circumstances, is equally pointless. Even when he wants to take action, or is pushed into it, the sentences handed out are generally so mild as to have no impact. Just last week at the GMs meeting in Florida, Dallas GM Joe Nieuwendyk said ``one- and two-game suspensions don't cut it.''

If the league really didn't like Ovechkin's actions, if the Bettman administration really believes he's a reckless player who got off lightly earlier this year with a knee clip on Tim Gleason that saw him suspended for two games, then throw the book at him.

Give him 10 games. Or more. Otherwise, have the courage to say the referees made the correct call and play on.

But not the half-pregnant NHL. Let's try to give everybody a little of what they want.

The only significant impact of the suspension is that it could cost Ovechkin the Rocket Richard Trophy, and maybe the scoring title. Otherwise, a few writers might hold these suspensions against the Russian when it comes to Hart Trophy voting, but that's about it.

Of course, every borderline bodychecks will now have fans and teams screaming for suspensions knowing if they make enough noise and if the YouTube video gets enough hits they just might be successful. The picture is getting more and more distorted, with each incident exaggerated and twisted to suit individual points of view and partisanship.

It stinks, and a great sport suffers.

NHL on the fly tonight asked about the incident two players (Canadien's Josh Gorges and the Senators player, forgot his name, sorry) and the Red Wings Coach Mike Babcock, neither of them said the push on Campbell was dirty. Gorges said that Ovechkin is known for reckless play (that's why he is Ovechkin) and then "Was the hit dirty? Maybe." None of the three admitted the hit was dirty.

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