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Ott Suspended Three Games For Douchery

Dallas Stars pest Steve Ott was suspended for three games for leaving his feet and illegally hitting Jordan Leopold on March 9th.  Leopold left the game and missed the Avs' game last night against the Thrashers while recovering from concussion symptoms.

UPDATE: This is a clip of the fight between Ott and Ruslan Salei, but it includes a replay of the hit on Leopold.  It's so ridiculously clear that Ott left his feet and hit Leoprone in the head that it's impossible to dispute it.

Ott wasn't called for a penalty on the play, which was obviously illegal to everyone watching except for the refs, who swallowed their whistles in typical "give the home team a break" fashion.  I have no numbers to back up this claim, but it seems like the officiating in the NHL has never been as biased or as inconsistent as it has been this year.  The Avs have gotten a ton of breaks they didn't deserve, and so have all the other teams across the league.

I assume the Dallas Morning News feels the same way, since they included this ridiculous paragraph in their article about Ott's suspension:

[NHL director of operations Colin] Campbell would only confirm the length of the suspension via e-mail. He did not elaborate on the hit or comment on whether he reviewed two separate incidents in which Colorado players injured Stars players Brenden Morrow and Mike Modano in Saturday's game in Denver.

Good god how pathetic.  Sure, the officiating has been rotten this year, but the hits on Morrow and Modano were clean.  Campbell didn't review them because there was no reason to review them.  Nobody left their feet, no elbows were high, and no rules were broken---well, except that Morrow didn't have the puck, which was the reason Jeff Finger got called for interference, just like he should have.  

Nice little dig by the DMN.  I'll file this in my "ironic journalism" folder for reference the next time bloggers get criticized for bias and lack of research.

Anyway, have fun during your suspension, Ott, you douche bag.

UPDATE 2: Dallas fans are crying their eyes out.  Hat tip to jd21 for pointing it out.  

UPDATE 3: This all reminds me of the Red Wings' apologists agonizing over Lidstrom's broken vagina a while back and calling for Lappy to get some kind of punishment.  Can you imagine if Avalanche fans called for suspensions or on-ice violence every time one of Colorado's players got hurt by a clean hit?  Holy god the whole league would be suspended.