Ovechkin and Dennis Seidenberg have really been going at it through two games of the Bruins-Capitals playoff series, exchanging big hits that have had the TD Garden crowd in a frenzy. When things go as such, you just get the sense that things could really come to a head, which happened during the second period of Saturday’s Game 2.
Ovechkin and Seidenberg had words after the whistle along the boards, which prompted Ovechkin to go at the Bruins defenseman. He appeared to go a bit high on Seidenberg, though, cross-checking him in the face, much to the dismay of those in attendance.
The star winger didn’t even receive a penalty, which had some Bruins — including Shawn Thornton — a bit confused and upset.
After the game, Seidenberg shrugged off the incident, saying it was no big deal to him and things like that happen. Bruins head coach Claude Julien was a bit more upset about the non-call.
“I’m not going to go with those kinds of details,” Julien said when asked about Ovechkin avoiding any penalty on the exchange with Seidenberg. “The one thing is, this is the second cross-check in two games. [David] Krejci got cut below the nose by the cross-check in Game 1, and now that one, and there’s absolutely nothing we can do about it except that there’s no call on it, on the play. Whether they missed it or not, it could be.”
“And then the league has a second opportunity to review it, and you’ve got to let them do their jobs,” Julien continued. “So, those to me are extremely dangerous things that we keep talking about wanting out of the game, and I’ve seen suspensions from that before. But we’ll the let the league take care of it, and we’ll focus on what we have to do to win the next game.”
It’s unlikely that Ovechkin will receive much in the way of a punishment, as it’s an incident that really should have been handled immediately. However, the NHL has a longstanding reputation of favoring its star players, so this will certainly do nothing to help that.
Check out the incident in the video. Then, leave your thoughts in the comments section below.
Should Alex Ovechkin have been disciplined for his cross-check to Dennis Seidenberg’s head?
