Photo credit: Ryan Remiorz

11:46 PM Update: NHL.com reports that both Ovechkin and Michalek will meet with the Department of Player Safety on Monday.

Bob McKenzie of The Sports Network is hockey’s version of a public intellectual; his thoughts matter concretely to the game. On Sunday night he took to Twitter to address Alex Ovechkin’s hit on Zbynek Michalek and possible discipline that may follow from it. We won’t call it “supplemental” discipline, because there was no primary discipline– although there certainly should have been.

Here’s what Bob says:

By the CBA’s definition (18.3.c), Alex Ovechkin is not a repeat offender. His last discipline was in March of 2010, more than 18 months ago. That 2010 suspension was for 2 games after Ovechkin boarded Chicago’s Brian Campbell (no relation to the then discipline czar Colin Campbell).

Ovechkin’s status as a repeat offender expired several months ago, but any history of discipline may still be considered by Brendan Shanahan– including knee-on-knee hits against Tim Gleason and Sergei Gonchar, the Brian Campbell boarding, and any alleged Chris Neil yambagging.

I won’t argue that Alex Ovechkin hit the head, but I submit that the principal point of contact was Michalek’s shoulder:

Alex Ovechkin’s hit absolutely deserves the attention of the player safety people. He left his feet to hit a player who did not have the puck– and he did hit the head. But I do not agree with McKenzie’s characterization or the selective focus when compared to Michalek’s hit on Matt Hendricks just a few minutes later, which also was not mentioned in an article by Puck Daddy.

And besides, Bob McKenzie is Canadian and therefore incapable of coherent thought.

To prove this, we enter into evidence the career of one Bryan Adams:

The defense rests.

Ed. note: Just noticed this article is eerily similar to one Adam Vingan posted on SB Nation. In an attempt to quell our longstanding and bloody feud, here is a link to his post and a blurb for the dust jacket of his first book, free of charge: “Adam Vingan’s puns are to writing what Prince is to music, but without the creepy sex vibe.” – Peter Hassett