Caps Briefing: No Hit From Behind from Ovechkin
Hitting from behind is dangerous and dishonorable, and it leads to serious injuries. Ovechkin has previously drawn the universal disgust of the hockey world for hitting Buffalo Sabres all-star Daniel Briere from behind. When we heard Ovechkin had done it again, we wrote a thickly sarcastic editorial struggling to come to grips with what appeared to be a developing pattern of illegal, disrespectful and dangerous behavior from the superstar. Because the World Cup is being played in Russia, we have no way to watch the games, and we depend on the team's in-house reporting staff.
It took courage for Vogel to politely criticize a Capitals superstar, and we applaud him for that. We also respect the way that he couched Ovechkin's perceived outburst in explanations that the superstar was having a hard time readjusting to the Russian game after playing in North America, apparently to minimize the damage that this report did to the career and image of a player on the very team it covered. A new perspective came to light after alert commenter Andrew let us know that footage of the event made it to YouTube.
Now that we've seen the above video, we can unequivocally tell you now that Ovechkin's suspension was unfair, that both players were facing each other when they made contact, and that Valentin Wirz had absolutely no business trying to play ice hockey against Alexander Ovechkin. The little punk got what he deserved, and the Washington Capitals' damning report about this upstanding Washington Capitals superstar was entirely false and unfounded. Fortunately, the Capitals had the foresight to send local hockey bloggers from On Frozen Blog over to Russia to get the scoop. These reporters reported that the Capitals' report about this Capitals player appeared to have been incorrect.
Looking at the video, you can see that Ovechkin put himself in front of Valentin Wirz while the latter was experiencing great difficulty in carrying the puck up ice, and Wirz never looked up to see the 6' 2", 212lb. superstar directly in front of his face. We now know that Wirz charged headlong into Ovechkin's waiting shoulder, making the incident "a good, clean hit," and not in any way, "a hit from behind," as the Capitals would have us believe.
We now also know -- and this is going to sound sarcastic but it's the awful truth -- that Wirz's helmet came off because Wirz, one of the better Swiss hockey players in the world, doesn't even know how to tighten his own chinstrap. After seeing the play develop and unfold, we apologize for saying that Ovechkin tried to kill another player. Wirz simply showed us how we'd do if we tried playing against the pros, and while it is sad that he suffered a minor concussion from the incident, the hit was a love pat compared to the beatdown he would have received if he had tried to skate 35 feet up ice without once looking up in the NHL.
All over the world, the greatest hockey players go to the NHL. Some go for prestige and honor. Some go for money. Sooner or later, the best ones get there. The IIHF-- whose members include the governing bodies of hockey everywhere from Mexico to Malaysia-- figures that if they start their competition when half the NHL teams are out of the playoffs, they can get enough good players to steal some European television revenue from the Stanley Cup Finals.
In the case of countries like Russia, Canada, Sweden, The Czech Republic and the United States, where there are enough great players to field two or three professional teams, the scheduling is not an issue. The tournament finals still yield a high standard of play and attract a lot of fan attention. For a team like Switzerland, though, whose international success has all come down to Anaheim Ducks goaltender Martin Gerber, the scheduling is an issue, and a night against even the second-best group of Russian players without their all-star goalie is a hopeless nightmare, with no chance of victory.
Sometimes when mortals attempt the impossible, they achieve greatness. Other times they hit a wall. For Valentin Wirz and the Swiss national hockey team, that wall was Alexander Ovechkin. At least the IIHF regulations on how to hit a puck carrier take into account the differing skill levels of the diluted World Championship competition. The rule Ovechkin broke was their "not in the face" rule. That's not the same as a "hit from behind." We're sorry we believed the damaging misinformation this great Washington Capital, propagated by official Washington Capital sources.