The obvious starting point is Alex Ovechkin. Two games back when he took the five-and-game boarding call (which I thought was a little soft) I suggested that the league was beginning to take notice and his name was probably coming up in pre-game zebra discussions. While that may have had a ring of fanboy paranoia to it, there's no longer any doubt that he will be subject to an unpleasant degree of scrutiny for the rest of this season at least.
Obviously, OV did not engage Gleason with an intent to make knee to knee contact. Nor did he 'throw his out' in Gleason's path in an attempt to make some contact. Alex did what Alex does - he lined up a puck carrier in open ice and went straight at him. Gleason heard the freight train coming and did what you would expect him to do - get out of the way. (Although the Carolina coach called it a "good move" - trying to spin it like Gleason made a world-class deke and OV tried recover by throwing the knee.)
And there's the problem.
If a player reacting in a predictable manner to an attempted check is going to expose both of you to serious injury then you shouldn't be doing it. Alex has to find a way to make those open ice hits without that wide stance that leaves him exposed. I don't know how the league is going to frame up that discussion with him (I expect the word 'reckless' will come up) but there will be a conversation and I'm expecting a one or two game suspension.
Which may be a moot point - Alex went down like a bag of rocks and had the look of a man who knew he was in trouble. Capital Nation will hold its collective breath for the next 5 or 6 hours waiting to hear the results of a (presumed) MRI.
On Frozen Blog has his usual erudite discussion of the matter.
As an aside - Gleason acted pretty much like a dick the rest of the game and the Carolina defense took a lot of high cheap shots - especially along the boards - that went uncalled.
Fehr and Backstrom dominated this game up front - Fehr obviously can't get enough ice time with quality skaters and his emergence can only be a good thing for a team still somewhat lacking in grit and very much lacking in bodies. Backstrom is clearly out of his slump - welcome back.
Fleischmann, on the other hand, is now officially ice cold. The magic hands of November have turned to stone as he failed to convert at least three good scoring opportunities.
Lost, for the most part, in the OV story was a fabulous effort by Theo in goal. Anything short of the near perfect effort he produced and there's no way the Caps win the game as they were substantially outshot for the game and the first period in particular (by the worst offense in the league).
The special teams are collectively near dreadful. The always marginal penalty kill gave one up to the worst PP in the league and seems to have given up at least one a game (Sabres shutout notwithstanding) for some time now. The power play has gone cold over the last 5-6 games - partly due to limited opportunities.
As a final note - the Caps once again were unable to close out a two goal lead failing to score any third period goals and giving up a late one (0:15) with the goalie pulled.
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