Echoing fellow ESPN writer John Buccigross‘ opinion from last week, Scott Burnside comes down firmly on the side of Ovie for MVP:
The debate over whether Alexander Ovechkin should be awarded the Hart Trophy as the league’s most valuable player has been long and increasingly ponderous.
Every night, Ovechkin continues to distance himself from his competition. Even if his Washington Capitals don’t qualify for the playoffs (if they fall short, it will be by a point or two), Ovechkin is the game’s best player and most important to his team — by a long shot. Ovechkin has kept the Caps within three points of the final playoff berth in the Eastern Conference, he has a five-point gap over countryman Evgeni Malkin in the scoring race and is ahead of countryman Ilya Kovalchuk in the goal-scoring department by a country mile.
Case closed.
Read Burnside’s full article here.
The Capitals are expecting some prominent media coverage of the team’s winning ways next week. Alexander Ovechkin and the team will be the feature cover story for next week’s Hockey News. Also likely next week, a Michael Farber feature on AO and the team in Sports Illustrated.   
