Near 8:00 Monday night we saw Alexander Ovechkin guided off the ice in Carolina by a team trainer and teammate Nicklas Backstrom, his head lowered, his injured leg unable to make contact with the ice, his body language broadcasting in neon a brutal battering. Upon the game’s conclusion, local media responded in a way never before seen for a fallen hockey player in this city, leading off broadcasts in funereal tones and prioritizing the story in ways historically associated exclusively for punter competitions at Redskins’ mini-camps.
Approximately 15 hours later the Gr8 was out on the ice at Kettler Capitals, skating in sweats. His coach in Monday night’s postgame rushed to his accused player’s defense, claiming that Ovi’s hit on Tim Gleason was initiated with a shoulder, having reviewed the replay, he said, some 20 times. Some 15 hours later the head coach, meeting local media out at the team’s practice facility, termed Ovi’s banishing action Monday “reckless.”
See any incongruity anywhere?
The league also chimed in on Tuesday, suspending the left wing for two games, as Ovi had earned game misconducts in two of his past three outings. The way this controversy has emerged, it sets up perfectly for the league’s highest profile media loudmouth to wax rabid on television this coming Saturday night.
In literary circles this narrative might be termed a potboiler — a tale hastily conceived and executed with commercial profits foremost in mind. Earlier this fall Ovi signed on with the global champions of sports personality marketing, IMG. It’s a firm renowned for being visionary and aggressive in its strategic branding. When word of the deal broke, I wondered: how might Ovi be re-launched under IMG’s auspices? I was pretty sure the firm wasn’t going to simply allow the dynamic winger to merely pile up goals this hockey season and issue a press release come spring saying, “Ain’t that just dandy?”
One idea that might have occurred to IMG brass would be to exploit Ovi’s on-ice aggressor activity. He doesn’t just hit, he hits hard, and often, and often ferociously, pummeling plexiglass in the process and intimidating some of the league’s largest bodies. Additionally, it might have occurred to the firm that the league’s preferred poster boy, Sidney Crosby, rarely wades into trouble waters out on the ice, and so establishing a clear antagonist to #87, the protagonist, with a Russian bad-guy motif might just catch a few outside-of-hockey eyes.
But I don’t want to sound conspiratorial.
Maybe our hero just heals up really, really fast. Heal up while on suspension and then back at . . . who knows what? Russian machine, never really breaking down, never backing down. Did you catch Ovi’s dictate of defiance out at Kettler yesterday?
“Why I have [to] listen somebody to say I have to change [my] game, somebody going to kill you. Nobody can kill me. Just play my game.”
Prior to his affiliation with IMG, how often did you hear Ovi utter the word “kill” in the context of playing hockey — in the context of anything?
Quite seriously, if I’m taken quite literally here some readers will accuse me of attacking the integrity of hockey. I don’t want that. And quite seriously, I’d be the last blogger in the blogosphere to suggest that Ovi would exaggerate an injury and depart his team early in a rivalry game. (To the extent that games in the Southeast can be termed ‘rivalry’ ones.) It’s just that the circumstances of the past few NHL days as they relate to Ovi have been rather extraordinary, and then there’s that IMG thingy, which has to be birthed at some point, and then there’s the longstanding Sid vs. Ovi storyline which you gotta admit does lend a rather convenient subtext upon which to craft a fresh, compelling narrative. Ovi will be gaining a much broader profile under IMG management under some clever marketing scheme, soon.
Wait, didn’t Don Koharski officiate in this league for a couple of decades, and didn’t the Chapter 11 Pens will the Sidney sweepstakes? Lemme get back to you on that conspiracy theory.
If IMG reps are reading, I say have Ovi’s next PR firm devised branding strategy involve a jilted Russian ex-girlfriend attack his sportscar with a hockey stick in the middle of the night.
11 Comments
POOR OVIE Well its about time that his stlye of playing has gotten the better of HIM Looks Good . It seems the past few games his dirty digs and hard hitting BACKFIRED .
Too bad his style of playing floating up front waiting for a pass from his much superior fellow team mate Backstrom.
Look at Sid The Kid has much more talent to offer to his fellow team than the so called Russian Sniper
didnt take long for a pens fan to expose their ovie-envy. never miss a chance to try convince themselves that their boy is better than ovie…this time seems more pathetic than usual cause it’s under the circumstance of ovie being injured. floating up front waiting for a pass, yeah, that’s exactly what ovie was doing when he got hurt…
as for conspiracy theories and IMG. since when has ovie really cared about his image? he still has a missing tooth and still gets his hair cut in the mall. do you think in the moment he was laying on the ice he was thinkging, “well, if i stay down it will be better for my image.” at that point, he had no idea he was tossed from the game. also, look at the way his leg flopped after the hit…he was hurt for sure. and just because he skated yesterday doesnt mean he will be back anytime soon. nice try, but nothing to see here.
I watched the replay of that hit at least 20 times and it wasn’t a dirty hit, Gleason turned and that repositioned him and they hit legs/knees etc. Gleason then crumpled like he’d been hit by a train and oh woe is me was escorted off the ice. Surprise he was SO hurt that he was back out playing after what, two line changes? Give me a break! That hit would not have been called the way it was if he’d gotten up, anyone watches hockey on the regular knows that the Zebras tend to make the call more severe if the other guy doesn’t get up or if he’s bleeding. I say great acting on Gleason’s part.
As for Cindy, there is no comparing him and Ovie. He’s a fabricated NHL superstar. Is he a good hockey player yeah, but he isn’t great and he sure has no business being compared to Ovechkin!!
Ovechkin is passionate about hockey, about winning and about being the best player he can be. I don’t believe he’s a dirty hockey player by any means and I don’t believe for a second that he or the Caps as a whole are trying to pull the wool over anyone’s head to earn him more money with IMG. He’s determined to get back on the ice as quickly as possible, that is he’s goal to play. I’m not surprised one bit he was out there testing to see how his knee was, I know I wouldn’t want the job of telling him he can’t play!
What I think fuels so well the Sid-Ovi rivalry is their vastly different styles, coupled with (somewhat) the North American vs. European dynamic. Although admittedly the globalization of hockey the past two decades especially has mitigated that distinction a fair bit. I think it’s going to be fascinating now that Ovi is with IMG to see how their respective brands move forward as both enter the prime of their playing careers.
Ovechkin is the friend of yours that you are afraid to go to the bars with because he’s too insane (but you go anyway). Crosby is the friend you can’t go out with because he’s at home doing math problems on the kitchen table.
Get well soon Ovy.
If a person thinks a representation company has anything to do with Ovechkin’s on-ice play, that person is laughably mistaken and misguided. One should question such a person’s knowledge of and opinion on sports.
Jim is our reader who gave us the very clever Shark Week metaphor yesterday. Please don’t stop reading and especially commenting, Jim.
Incidentally, Crosby is also reputed to have babysitting duties over the Lemieux children at the owner’s home.
Yeah, I’m sure IMG wants him to go out and be more aggressive…that way he’ll get hurt easier and make them less money. Brilliant.
Dear satire-challenged chum: Hint: paragraph 11, sentence 3 — give it a fresh re-read. Then, during your holiday leisure, stop by your local public library (borrower’s cards are free) and check out Jonathon Swift’s A Modest Proposal. Lastly, read more, comment less.
I’m a faithful reader and will remain so. That said, I’m not sure I understand your proposed ’scheme’. This piece, like most of your stuff, is well written but I don’t smell the same rat that you perhaps are sniffing. In this case, where there is smoke, I’m not sure there is fire.
I seldom comment – but reserve the right to politely make a few remarks.
Thanks, though, for your great Montreal review and your pictures. Fabulous !!!
Don’t worry Dougeb — as Pucks pointed out above in the comments, it’s a satirical post.
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