Because of suspension, forward not going to Ottawa One day after the NHL suspended him for three games, Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin said he will not participate in the league’s All-Star weekend in Ottawa.
The three-game suspension issued by Brendan Shanahan, NHL senior vice president of player safety, was in response to Ovechkin’s hit on Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman Zbynek Michalek in a game Sunday. But it left Ovechkin and Washington’s management frustrated and angry. Ovechkin insisted his “heart is not there” when asked whether skipping the All-Star Game was a stern message to the NHL.
“Actually it’s not about that,” Ovechkin said. “It’s all about the suspension, what I get. I don’t think I deserve to get three-game suspension for the hit what I did. Lots of guys make hits.”
Shanahan disagreed. His video explanation, posted on the NHL’s website Monday evening, made clear that Ovechkin’s previous history — two suspensions and two fines — and leaping off his skates and making principle contact with Michalek’s head were the reasons for the three games. It was too much, according to Caps general manager George McPhee.
“I was surprised and disappointed. I didn’t anticipate he’d be suspended for three games,” McPhee said. “We presented our case to the league yesterday, and I thought we did real well. But we didn’t get the result we wanted.”
And so McPhee and the organization supported Ovechkin when he decided he didn’t want to participate in the All-Star festivities, in which one media session after another would leave him “a distraction” to the other players involved. Ovechkin insisted he wanted to be in Ottawa and said he had friends and family who were already set to accompany him there.
“I love the game. It’s great event. I’d love to be there, but I’m suspended,” Ovechkin said. “I don’t want to be a target. I feel I’m not deserving to be there right now. If I suspended, I have to be suspended. That’s why I give up my roster [spot].”
The NHL classified Ovechkin as a repeat offender given his previous suspensions for hits on Chicago’s Brian Campbell (March 14, 2010) and Carolina’s Tim Gleason (Nov. ?30, 2009).
“We’ve had certainly some comprehensive and extensive meetings about it, trying to figure out how we address certain hits, and we’ve come to a place where we think it’s clear,” McPhee said of the league’s attempts to curtail hits to the head. “I think there was some gray in the past, and that’s why I was disappointed in the suspension because [Ovechkin is] considered a repeat offender and I don’t believe he should have been suspended in the past for at least one of those hits.”
