I like Alexander Ovechkin. I know I just ranted and raved about Sidney Crosby and I’m now about to criticize Ovechkin, but I really do like Ovechkin. He’s the most fun player in the league to watch. His goals are ridiculous and he’s physical. Unfortunately, his physicality is beginning to cross the line in certain instances. This isn’t a Crosby vs. Ovechkin thing. It isn’t a Canada vs. Russia thing. This is something that I find extremely grating about one of the most exciting players in the league. It’s got to the point where I am slowly turning on Ovechkin and I don’t want that.

At this point I’m sure everyone has seen the clip of the Ovechkin-Downie near-fight. Ovechkin should be embarrassed by this.



I understand the rationale of Matt Bradley and the entire Capitals team for not allowing the fight to happen. It’s never a good thing when your best player is off the ice for five minutes and it is especially worse if that player becomes injured fighting. It's also never a good thing to have your best player goaded into a fight with a little rat, but Ovechkin dropped the gloves and at that moment the fight should be between those two players. The fight didn't happen because Ovechkin is the best player in the league and Washington can't lose him.

However, Alexander Ovechkin needs some sort of accountability. The majority of his hits are legal and this is a very valuable part of his game. It makes it much harder to play against Ovechkin when he takes as much pleasure in physically punishing opponents as he does lighting up goalies. But because he plays with so much exuberance and energy he periodically crosses the line and throws dirty hits. This was clear in last year’s knee-on-knee with Sergei Gonchar and again with this season’s knee-on-knee against Tim Gleason. These are not even isolated incidents. He has hit Briere from behind and slew footed Rich Peverley. His hits also border on charging numerous times. The way he runs around the ice unchallenged is wrong.