Ovechkin slides into the corner & onto the golf course
Washington Capitals’ star Alexander Ovechkin has had a sub-par spring.
First, there was the disaster that was Russia’s performance in the 2010 Winter Olympics: an Ovechkin-led team of Russia’s best & brightest potted easy goals against crap opposition but vanished, big-time, when the going got tough. Ovechkin himself appeared frustrated and impotent in Vancouver…much as he looked in Washington, as his heavily favoured Caps lost their final 3 playoff games against Montreal Canadiens to flame out spectacularly and take an early seat in the golf-course bar, from where they’ll watch the remainder of the Stanley Cup playoffs.
Sean Gordon, writing in the Globe & Mail, says this: “And for all the plaudits the Washington Capitals winger has won for his alluring mix of power, skill and personality…he will now face serious questions as to his ability to marshal his team to victory. He’s also lost some ground to Pittsburgh Penguins centre Sidney Crosby
in the best-player-of-his-generation discussion.”
Well said, Sean. The “best player” should not allow his team to collapse against a much weaker opponent.
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Alex Ovechkin
"Who, me?" 2009-10 Art Ross Trophy winner Henrik Sedin
So…does winning the NHL scoring title qualify you for consideration as the league’s – or the world’s – best player?
Sorry, Henrik – nope. “Best” implies something more than just putting points on the board – although often, those who rack up the most points can legitimately be considered among the game’s very best, if not the best outright. Think Gretzky & Lemieux, who together had a stranglehold on the Art Ross during the 80s and 90s. Think Esposito; think Orr (!); think Ovechkin.
But don’t think Sedin. Henrik, while supremely talented as a deft & subtle playmaker with a quick release and an unearthly gift for knowing where his linemates are, simply doesn’t have the effect on a game that an Ovechkin or a Crosby does. Plus, Henrik’s got the advantage of having identical twin – and equally talented – linemate Daniel on the ice on every shift. Neither Ovechkin nor Crosby plays regularly with anyone remotely close to their own level.
No, it’s not just the points that makes you best. Bernie “Boom-Boom” Geoffrion was never the player that his teammate Rocket Richard was, despite winning two Art Ross trophies in the glory days of the Montreal Canadiens. (Richard himself, the most dominant and electrifying player of his era, never won a scoring championship himself. Neither did the brilliant Joe Sakic, or Mark Messier, often thought the most inspirational team leader and most complete player of hockey’s modern era.) Mike Bossy was never a better player than New York Islanders teammate Bryan Trottier, although he was arguably the best scorer of his own era.
But the poster boy for “more-points, less-impact” is former Edmonton Oilers winger Jari Kurri. You wouldn’t even notice Kurri had played till you looked at the scoresheet after the game and noticed he’d notched two or three points.
Jari Kurri: now you see him - but mostly you don't
So, kids – don’t go trading in those Crosby or Ovechkin jerseys for H. Sedin just yet.
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Alex Ovechkin,
Sidney Crosby
The New York Times Jeff Klein and Stu Hackel think that Alex Ovechkin is possibly not the best player in the world these days:
“It is almost mind-boggling to consider how far Alex Ovechkin’s stock has fallen since Feb. 24, when Canada eliminated Russia in the Olympic quarterfinals…Ovechkin went into the Olympics as the new captain of the Capitals, helping them surge to the top of the N.H.L. and eclipsing Crosby as the league’s brightest star, the only hockey player represented by IMG. Great things were expected as he led Russia in the Olympics, expectations that were being realized with his thunderous body check on the Czech Republic’s Jaromir Jagr…But after Russia’s 7-3 loss to Crosby’s Canada, it has been a rough road for Ovechkin…”
But I say that all Ovechkin really needs to do is win the Stanley Cup this spring with his Washington Capitals to be confirmed as the best player. You only have to watch him play to know that he is the best. He is better than Crosby. Don’t get me wrong – I love Crosby – but the truth is that Crosby has been surrounded by better players, played on better teams than Ovechkin.
Tagged as:
Alex Ovechkin
