Thursday, December 3, 2009

Way to Go George McPhee

Caps GM George McPhee spoke on the radio this morning about Ovie's suspension and why he doesn't think it was deserved. So well-said. It's really nice that team officials are standing up for him.

"In my mind the player was trying to make a hit and it went wrong," McPhee said. "And that's ok. When you're trying to hurt someone, if you're trying to do something where a player is vulnerable or he doesn't see you coming--you hit him from behind, you hit him from the blindside--I want those hits punished. But in this instance, it was an open-ice check, and it was a good attempt at a hit that went wrong, and sometimes they're gonna go wrong.

"You have a player in Ovechkin who is one of the league leaders in hits, and they're not all gonna go right. But if it's an attempt at a legal hit and it goes wrong, it doesn't mean it's suspend-able. And in my mind, when there's no intent to injure, and there is no injury, you can't suspend the guy. And the league's concern is that Ovi's really been physical lately and he's going to hurt someone. I said, 'Well, if he hurts someone, suspend him.' But you can't suspend someone for something that might happen."

Awesome! To read more of McPhee's comments go here.

No comments: