Ovechkin injures Carlo on a borderline hit

In the first period of today’s game, Alexander Ovechkin ran into Brandon Carlo from behind in the corner, injuring Carlo.

From Chris:

Huh.

Carlo left the ice, and still hasn’t returned as of the start of the second.

Interesting that on the intermission report, Keith Jones & Co. called the hit an unfortunate accident, not malicious, not Ovechkin’s fault, etc.

Ovechkin hooked Carlo all the way into the corner, which is probably why Carlo was losing his balance. He also was looking directly at the numbers the entire time, yet still followed through on the check.

I feel like if it was Carlo riding Ovechkin into the boards, and Ovechkin leaving the game injured, there’d be a lot more chatter about this hit.

Hopefully Carlo is OK.

What do you think? Dirty? Accidental?