Does Mattias Ohlund deserve his suspension?

Posted by Karl
Filed in Sports
November 18, 2007

The things that endear hockey to me the most are the speed, the grace and the aggression.

I love the fast paced action, I love the goals, I love the body checks and of course, the fights.

Vancouver's game against the Minnesota Wild last Friday saw a few of, with all due respect to Julie Andrews, my favorite things.

There were goals: the Canucks broke out and lit the lamp often in a 6-2 victory.

There was aggression: the third period was littered with penalties.

Two of the infractions in the latter stages of the game involved the Canucks' Mattias Ohlund and Wild C Mikko Koivu.

Koivu was entering the Vancouver zone and gave an elbow to Ohlund, who retaliated by giving the Minnesota player a vicious slash, which resulted in a broken bone for Koivu.

Koivu was assessed a 2 minutes for elbowing and Ohlund was given a 5-minute major for his hack.

Today Ohlund was suspended four games without pay for the deed.

Too little, too much, just right or is it just rock'em, sock'em hockey?

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"who retaliated by giving the Minnesota player a vicious slash, which resulted in a broken bone"

Haven't you just answered your own question? Of course he deserves the suspension.

(And is there any other sport in which there'd be even the shadow of a doubt?)

Posted by: Jon at November 19, 2007 2:44 AM | Quote Comment

What about intent to injure? Koivu's flying elbow could've done some damage too.

Posted by: karl at November 19, 2007 10:28 AM | Quote Comment

That doesn't excuse Ohli though. It just means there should have been some sort of punishment for Koivu.

Even Ohlund admitted that what he did was stupid. And, while he has not previous record for doing anything remotely like that, there's no place for that sort of thing in the game, and anything between 2-5 games was fair.

Posted by: Quinn at November 19, 2007 11:55 AM | Quote Comment

I hope Derek Boogaard doesn't do something stupid the next time the Wild and 'Nucks meet up.

Posted by: karl at November 19, 2007 4:00 PM | Quote Comment