I just had to say something because I’ve become fed up about the hypocrisy and hand wringing over Ovie’s hit on Cambell and others. Some of the same people who once complained about how soft European players are compared to North American (CANADIAN) players are now in an uproar over Ovie’s style of play.

IMO the Canadians can’t stand the fact that Ovie has taken their physical game, combined with his incredible skill, and thrown it back in their faces. Canada can have vanilla Crosby; I’ll take the passionate and intense Ovie over him any day.

Well said. Thanks.

Just to keep this short and on point: I don’t want Ovie to change his game one iota. He plays with reckless abandon, yes, but no one can question his love of the game. His enthusiasm is infectious. The charges of being a dirty player are growing tiresome. I just want the league office and non-Caps fans to allow him be himself. He is a unique and very special player; there’s no other player with half his charisma combined with awesome talent and jaw-dropping skill.

If he makes a mistake, let him get penalized and be done with it. The constant harping and sniping are growing old by the minute. I don’t believe for a second that he intended to injure Campbell; he was suspended for the resulting injuries. I hope Ovie comes back even more determined and ferocious than ever, within the NHL rules of course. I hope his ultimate statement will be to lead the Caps charge through the playoffs, a Stanley Cup championship, plus the Conn Smythe trophy,

I apologize if this post is too long. I just wanted a place to vent. Thanks for the opportunity.

Well said. I have to sympathize a bit with the refs because they were in a crappy situation. There’s a ton of scrutiny on them, and there’s obviously some confusion in enforcement policy. As soon as it was clear that Campbell was severely injured, they probably felt obligated to give the boot. The refs aren’t free from blame (nor is Ovi, completely), but the problem definitely starts with the inconsistency at the very top of the league.

The NBC announcers even were surprised for Ovie’s ejection and commented on how the rules for hits are unclear. And since the powers that be are still working on coming up with what to do in each hit situation, it’s confusing the refs. So out of confusion and lack of any other instruction, the refs just boot the player of question. I don’t understand why there can’t be a better way to handle things while the rules are still being made as to how to handle hard hitting. And why is it taking so long to create a new set of rules?! It’s not like hard hitting is a new concept to hockey, anyways.