Ruutu's hit on Kovalchuk
Thrashers forward Ilya Kovalchuk, who injured his knee on Wednesday night against Pittsburgh, is undergoing an MRI Thursday afternoon. But the Thrashers said it is more of a precautionary measure and that Kovalchuk likely won't miss substantial time.
"He's a lot better today," said general manager and coach Don Waddell.
Waddell ruled Kovalchuk out for the weekend, so the forward will miss Friday's game against Buffalo and Saturday's game in Washington. Assuming the MRI comes back negative, Kovalchuk will be re-evaluated at the beginning of next week by team doctors. There's no swelling in his knee and he was walking without a limp.
by James Mirtle @ 6:04 PM
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9 comments
9 Comments:
Looks like Kovalchuk made a bad decision to avoid the hit. He acted too late leaving only his right leg to absorb the energy of the hit, instead of his whole body.
When did they take "boarding" out of the NHL rulebook?
James - What did you think of the hit?
Refs got the right call - out-of-control kneeing penalty for Ruutu. But he certainly didn't "take a run" at Kovalchuk announcers alleged - you can't even see him take a stride on the replay.
It's hard to feel bad for Kovalchuk after his hits on Roszival, Martin, Kubina, etc...
I can see giving Ruutu five for kneeing, though it certainly wasn't the worst case of it I've seen this year. I'm still trying to figure out what he got the second major for. I didn't realize that being punched in the back of the head was now a penalty in the NHL.
I think reputation clearly played a role here - the refs seemed to see an agitator hit a star and freak out (which is probably what also lead to Ruutu getting 5 for fighting even though he didn't even throw a punch). I think it's a borderline kneeing call and the television guys here in Atlanta seemed to agree.
I'd agree that it's a borderline knee-ing call because Ruutu clearly didn't aim for his knee. If you checked the video again, he was aiming to him Kovalchuk's upper body, leaning his upper body towards the same direction Kovalchuk was escaping to. The hit was no accident, but I view the knee-on-knee more a result of Kovalchuk's movement than Ruutu's intentional, out-of-control kneeing. Having said that, Ruutu's job is to be a pest and he's doing it. As a Canucks fan, I lament the fact our current "role players" are not as good as Ruutu, both in terms of being a pest and being a forward.
The play was going to be offsides and ruutu took his free unessesary cheap shot.
"Going to be" offside? And we don't teach kids to play to the whistle anymore?
Geez, the only reason there was an offside was because Kovie chucked the puck when he saw the hit coming. The play wasn't interference - how was Ruutu supposed to pull up?
I also think the kneeing was kind of borderline.
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