Alex Ovechkin injured himself on a knee to knee hit tonight and could face a suspension in addition to his injury
As you already know, the 2009-10 NHL season has been filled with countless injuries. It’s been estimated at times that up to 20% of the league’s players at the start of the season are out of action due to injury. Tonight, two more big names went down.
First and foremost, Alexander Ovechkin. He left the game against the Carolina Hurricanes during the first period after initiating a knee to knee hit on Tim Gleason. Ovechkin was given a 5 minute kneeing major on the play, as well as a 10 minute game misconduct. Knee to knee hits can be extremely dangerous, as we saw with Niklas Kronwall who is out 4-8 weeks after being on the receiving end of the dirty play. Ovechkin remained down on the ice for several minutes after the play, and eventually had to be helped off. The extent of the injury won’t be known until tomorrow, but it certainly doesn’t look good. Tim Gleason went down on the play as well, but looked to be okay as he came back out on the power-play afterwards. Ovechkin could be looking at a suspension for his hit, even though he took the worst of it. The NHL will be looking into it and may continue laying down penalties for stupid plays that don’t belong in the game. Video of the hit is here.
In Atlanta tonight, Florida Panthers goaltender Tomas Vokoun had to be taken off the ice on a stretcher after being struck in the head by the stick of frustrated teammate Keith Ballard. Ballard, who was disgusted after Ilya Kovalchuk scored his 15th of the season, attempted to swing his stick across the goal post but instead caught Vokoun in the head. Vokoun was cut on the play, and the extent of his injury is unknown. Ballard meanwhile, after realizing what he had done, was still pretty insistent on breaking that stick. He took another swing and successfully broke it before heading to the bench, leaving his goaltender laying on the ice writhing in pain. Video can be seen here.
