Non uno.„ Sto dicendogli, ho comunicato con NHLers molto i due anni scorsi e non ho sentito mai un tipo con questa credibilità così spassionato picchettare così rigido una previsione. He’s still somewhat a Capitals’ outsider, but he’s been inside long enough to see what he’s surrounded by. And it impresses him mightily.

If Alexander Ovechkin earns a Hart Trophy this year, we’ll be able to point to some ungodly and perhaps vote-swaying performances by him against some of the league’s flagship franchises: versus Montreal on January 31, which featured the Ovechkin hat trick, and Monday night’s 5-point performance against another Original Six squad, on national television. The Caps travel to Chicago on March 19, where there’s a serious revival taking place, and where there’s an excellent chance of another set of 21,000-plus sets of eyes on him. The Hawks have had like six crowds of over 21,000 in their rink this season. The larger the challenge, the larger Ovechkin seems to perform, and sharing a sheet of ice that night with the revitalized Hawks and their young guns Kane and Toews ought to get his Russian Machine oil pumping.

I’m now of the opinion that when hockey greatness transpires at Verizon Center the two newspapers in town — all other things sports news otherwise being normal — will splash the news in impressive technicolor photojournalism, as we see this morning. That’s a marvelous media maturation directed at what was, say just three months ago, the afterthought sport in town.

And we know who’s leading the Revolution.

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Posted at 9:50 am. Filed under Alexander Ovechkin, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, NHL Network, Nate Ewell, Print, Schadenfreude, TV, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Times.
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16 Comments

  1. Gustafsson wrote:

    Former Cap Matt Pettinger roughed up Toews on Sunday.

    http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sports/hockey/blackhawks/cs-080303-chicago-blackhawks-crawford-goalie,1,1625621.story
    Tough Toews
    Rookie Jonathan Toews arrived at Monday’s practice following a trip to the dentist in time to watch his teammates complete their preparation for Tuesday’s game against the Wild in St. Paul.

    Toews said he will play against the Wild despite receiving 40 stitches in his mouth and chipping a tooth when he was checked by Vancouver’s Matt Pettinger, who got his stick up during the play and upset the Hawks.

    “Maybe it was a little late,” Toews said of the hit. “It might have been my own stick when I got it up to protect myself. I need to keep my head up a little bit and maybe see it coming. Be smarter and be ready for that sort of thing.”

    Toews will wear a full-caged mask to protect himself against the Wild. He said it was the first time he’s lost a tooth playing hockey.

    “I’ve been pretty lucky so far. I guess it’s part of the game.”

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 10:17 am | Permalink
  2. OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki) wrote:

    Given the precipitous drop in goal scoring in the past decade, Ovechkin’s 50 goals is all the more impressive.

    “Ovechkin became just the second player to reach 50 goals in fewer than 70 games in the eight seasons since Gretzky retired.”

    For more at the National Post:
    http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/postedsports/archive/2008/03/03/nhl-ovechkin-s-magnificent-milestone.aspx

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 10:22 am | Permalink
  3. Juan-John wrote:

    Guess I’ll be trying out some of Austin Grill’s Wings tonight… :-)

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 10:37 am | Permalink
  4. OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki) wrote:

    Their wings are pretty good — just get there early, or place your order by phone in advance. Last time I went to the one in Bethesda after a 6-goal game I got one of the last orders — they’d gone through over 300 pounds of Wings and were almost out.

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 10:47 am | Permalink
  5. Juan-John wrote:

    Good to know, thx. I’ll call the Alexandria one this afternoon.

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 10:56 am | Permalink
  6. SovSport wrote:

    Does anyone have a spare ticket stub?

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 11:12 am | Permalink
  7. Gustafsson wrote:

    I donated last night’s tickets for the Wilson High School Hockey fundraiser/auction.

    I picked a hella game to skip.

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 11:17 am | Permalink
  8. Juan-John wrote:

    Ya gotta love the first few grafs of the Boston Globe’s gamer:

    Bruins taken to the beltway
    Rolling team hits the skids in ugly Washington pileup

    By Fluto Shinzawa, Globe Staff | March 4, 2008

    WASHINGTON - Before last night’s 10-2 bloodbath, Bruins coach Claude Julien came up with a twist.

    Julien, concerned with the Bruins’ wretched record in home games that directly followed road matches (0-4-1), decided to have his players fly home immediately after last night’s meeting with Washington and stay at a downtown Boston hotel prior to tonight’s showdown with Florida at TD Banknorth Garden.

    Rumor has it, however, that the Bruins headed straight to Mass. General for ice packs, IVs, and transfusions to rid their bodies of last night’s ill affair.

    “Everything went wrong today,” said Marco Sturm.

    Washington is notorious for the stink of partisan politics. But last night, there was a particularly foul odor emanating from all things black and gold at the Verizon Center, the stage for a hockey game that turned into an embarrassment. The Capitals scored six first-period goals - the second-most a Bruins team ever has allowed in one period (Boston gave up seven to Detroit March 4, 1945).

    “Unfortunately we weren’t ready for it,” said Julien. “When you’re not ready for it, you can’t just turn on a switch and adjust. The damage was done in the first eight minutes.”…

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 11:21 am | Permalink
  9. Washington Post Live wrote:

    Greetings All,

    We’ve got Owner Ted on the show tonight at 5pm. Hoping to devote an entire segment (about 10 minutes) to emails from the informed.

    Tarik El-Bashir and Mike Wise from The Post will also be on the show.

    Looking forward to all your input.

    WPL

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 12:02 pm | Permalink
  10. steph wrote:

    Actually, Alexandria Austin Grill ran out of wings by lunch time the first time we got 6 . ..Last night I had visions of some corporate guy going “where do we find 10,000 lbs of wings by tomorrow?”

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 12:42 pm | Permalink
  11. TG wrote:

    Just remember that if you do go and get the wings, be a decent person about it. I had a server complain because people would show up, get the free wings and water, and not leave a tip (under the premise that since it was free, there’s nothing to tip for).

    Order other food and, please, tip your server generously (provided that the service was good).

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 12:59 pm | Permalink
  12. Drew wrote:

    Just had my lunchtime wings at Bethesda’s location. I finished 9 of 10. Quick math tells me that’s a better wing-completion ratio than Kolzig’s save percentage on the season.

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 1:51 pm | Permalink
  13. Juan-John wrote:

    WPL folks:

    Ask Tarik what he meant in his blog post when he wrote:

    “Ovechkin also mentioned something interesting: he said that during his slump, he was helped by his personal trainer. Not the team trainer, a trainer he flew in from Russia late last month.”

    Exactly what did this “trainer” do to help?

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 2:48 pm | Permalink
  14. pucksandbooks wrote:

    JJ -

    I met the trainer in question during his visit, and with Dmitry Chesnokov’s help, interviewed him. He helped Semin with his badly injured ankle. Many of the Russians in the NHL hire trainers from home (with whom they work in the offseason) to travel here in mid-season and give them a good working over. On its face it appears an indictment of North American hockey trainers, but it isn’t. It’s just that the training regimens vary greatly — both obviously produce great results, and the Russians like theirs.

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 3:16 pm | Permalink
  15. SovSport wrote:

    pucks,

    I would like to add if you don’t mind, that the training techniques offered by the Russian trainer in question have produced great results for Ovechkin, Malkin, Radulov, Kozlov and others. Nikolishin, for example, is lighting fires all over the place in the Russian Superleague. And he is not a young kid.
    An interview with the trainer will be available soon.

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 5:03 pm | Permalink
  16. Juan-John wrote:

    Ah, OK, gotcha. I guess I’ve been reading too many Bonds/Clemens stories. Sorry. Gotta stop that habit.

    Austin Grill in Alexandria hadn’t run outta wings when I got there. Yummy!

    Tuesday, March 4, 2008 at 9:12 pm | Permalink

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