Kovalchuk Suspended 1 Game

Kovy was suspended for his hit against the Rangers last night. In case you didn’t see it, Kovy left his feet and received a Boarding Major and Game Misconduct. I thought it would be left at that but he got the suspension anyway. Personally, I love the fire Kovy brings to EVERY game and don‘t really have a problem with this hit. Anyone who has every played hockey, be it a NHL game or just a Beer League, knows that sometimes your emotions get the best of you and you do something out of character. What separates hockey from every other sport is that it truly is a game of passion. If his teammates could match his effort (not his talent, his effort) we would have no problem. God Bless our future Captain.

His suspension got me thinking about the most talked about “dirty” hits in the past several years. As a lifelong Caps fan, I’ll always have a special place in my heart for the hit Hunter put on Turgeon in the playoffs. I know it was wrong, but as a frustrated Caps fan it was a thing of beauty and well worth the 20+ game suspension! You also have the obvious ones like McSorley’s high stick against Brashear. What a sad way to end a pretty damn good NHL career… not sure what Marty was thinking. And, to me personally, the most despicable of all was the Todd Bertuzzi hit on Steve Moore. If you are new to the sport and don’t know what I’m talking about just google it. What REALLY gets me going is Bertuzzi is now saying his coach Marc Crawford ordered the hit. What a load of crap!! Sure Moore hit Naslund pretty good in a game earlier in the season, and Crawford said he must pay. There is nothing wrong with that. He made sure his players knew to hit Moore hard so that he wouldn’t do it again… that’s hockey. What Crawford did not say is for someone to go out there and break his neck with a horrible hit from behind. That IS NOT hockey. Bertuzzi can’t even accept responsibility for his own actions. What a disgrace to our sport! The sad part is that these dirty hits I just talked about is all the media will cover… when something bad happens… but that subject is another article all in itself!

In the spirit of dirty hits and “goons”, check out the Warren Zevon classic “Hit Somebody”. You might recognize the voice yelling in the song… sounds an awful lot like David Letterman!