Yesterday we picked up a false report from a usually reliable news source, and conveyed misinformation as facts. Washington Capitals team webmaster Mike Vogel ran a story on the official team website stating that Caps forward Alexander Ovechkin had been disciplined for a “hit from behind,” and we picked it up as fact. After all, there was a link to the story on the NHL.com homepage, so someone must have checked it out.
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.
