More thoughts on the Steve Ott suspension

As I stated yesterday, the Ott suspension really isn't all that surprising. The league needs to have a formal review of the incident and they can't have Ott playing until that happens. It's just unfortunate that this happened on the first of back-to-back weekend games.

I also cannot find fault with any of the Ducks players. J.S. Giguere (who was penalized) was standing up for his captain. Travis Moen (who is rumored to be traded) turns and sees Steve Ott tangled up with his goalie and his captain and he did what he though necessary. Should Moen have been hit with an instigator or third-man in? Definitely.

What I thought the biggest issue last night was how the officials on the ice failed to handle the situation properly. The should never have let Moen and Ott lock up and start "fighting" and should have stepped in immediately. The game was over and Ott can't freaking fight because of his hand. If you watch the replay of the incident you see Moen freely swinging at Ott who is desperately holding on and trying to defend himself. Ott stated after the game he couldn't swing back because he didn't want to get suspended for hitting with a cast on his hand.

The scrum should never have gone as far as it did. The officials should never have allowed that many white jerseys to jump Ott. And not handing out the appropriate penalties afterwards is absurd.

I also want to make one final thing clear: Supposedly the match penalty was given to Ott for intentionally gouging Moen's eye when they were both on the ice. Ott says it was an accident but that's a very subjective point of view. Steve Ott does not have a history of intentionally hurting players (like stepping on their calf with a skate, Pronger) but if this is true, I cannot defend Ott over the suspension. If he intentionally gouged the eye of another player, then he deserves to get suspended. I don't care if he was jumped by five players at once, if you have a player pinned to the ice and poke them in their eye on purpose, you're going to get suspended.