Do Not Mess With Alexander Ovechkin

In the third period of Tuesday night's game between the Washington Capitals and Boston Bruins, rookie defenseman Johnny Boychuck made the mistake of checking Alexander Ovechkin into the boards. It seems Ovie doesn't like to be hit:



Yes, for those counting at home, that was Ovechkin hitting Boychuck three times in less than a minute for getting knocked down by the rookie just once. Steinberg, of course, has incredible detail over at the Sports Bog, including this quote from Boychuck:

"He's very thick," Boychuk later says. "You can't always tell when you see on the ice sometimes because he's such a good goal-scorer, but he's very strong....I'm lucky I had my head up for every hit."

My favorite part of the video has to be the fact that Ovie circled back around, seemingly just to get a head of steam to hit Boychuck again...and again.

Ovechkin currently stands second in the league in points, third in goals, fifth in assists and first in plus-minus, but methinks he's proudest of this stat: he's on the first page of league leaders in hits.

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.