I would have to agree with Big Red Machine. I don't think Ovechkin is a dirty player, he's a hard-hitting competitive goal scorer, no different than guys like Messier or Lemieux. Sabres fans are just pissed because Briere got hurt. And before anyone jumps on me, I also like Briere and that landing made me shudder. I also think that for someone who goes on to play 21 more minutes, it wasn't that bad.

If he is going to get fined it should be $1000 bucks which I am pretty sure is the max a player can be fined. $100 is ridiculous and makes the league look stupid. I don't think he should be suspended Briere had just gotten rid of the puck and then turned just as Ovechkin was about to hit him. It doesn't look like Briere saw him coming and turned the way a lot of guys do but it wasn't that dirty. Should be a boarding penalty.
As for the Biron thing good for Ovechkin. He was just going hard for the puck, he is a star player and could have avoided Biron but it's not like he went out of his way to hit him, he ran into him after going for the puck. In that situation goalies should be fair game anyway.

Kinda off topic, but they gotta do something about the goalies coming out and playing the puck and being untouchable. If they can hit a skater, make them fair game outside of the crease.

It is a penalty if you intentionally hit a goalie anywhere. Instead of making that area where the goalie can't play the puck they should have just made it legal to hit them. That would keep them in their crease for the most part.

I would have expected this kind of play from Brashear or maybe Sutherby, but I didn't expect AO to put that kind of hit on Briere. He's a very physical player, but his reputation is fairly clean. I don't think it was intentional because Washington had the lead at that point, but the caps have been in several incidents between the Thrashers this year, trailing late in those games. And that fine is just down right embarrassing. I don't know if his popularity had something to do with this slap on the wrist (if you can even call it that), but I'm slowly losing respect for this entire team. If they would spend less time taking stupid goon-like penalties and more time trying to put points on the boards and playing some defense to take some pressure off of Kolzig (whos played great this year, despite his dull numbers), maybe they wouldn't be in the cellar playing for next year.

I doubt Ovechkin thinks he is untouchable. If this had been some other player with a history of hits from behind they would have been given a stiffer peanlty. Since this is Ovechkin who plays tough and clean and this is his first (that I know of) questionable hit he doesn't get a huge suspension or fine. If he hits someone from behind next week I bet he gets a game or two.

The fine of $100 was a joke. It's making almost a million a season, and has to pay $100? It didn't look like the hit was intentional, but it it still happened, and there still should be a severe penalty. Briere could have seriously been injured. I do think that because AO's an upcoming "superstar" he got a slap on the wrist. I think what really pissed me off the most was when they showed A.O in the box mouthing "He fell, He fell" when it was obvious to everyone that Ovechkin boarded him. He shouldn't have made excuses and just took what he was given seeing as it wasnt much.

It was a gross-looking hit, but Briere wasn't injured. He didn't miss a shift that game. It would look really stupid if Ovechkin got suspended for injuring Briere, and meanwhile Briere scores a hat-trick the next game.

What I'm saying is that the hit does not deserve a suspension. But regarding the fine, $100 is pocket change, I think $1000 would have been suitable.