“Is this the year for Alex Ovechkin?” That was the Puck Daddy headline when Ovi started the season on a torrid scoring pace: five goals in four games. Then Ovi’s shots and goals fell off and the Caps’ goaltending got holey, and now the conversation has shifted.
Last week, Jeff Marek asked PJ Stock what he thought of Ovechkin’s play. “I find his game very predictable,” Stock said. That’s a fine enough opinion and he’s entitled to it. Marek then turned to John Shannon, who compared Ovechkin’s attitude to that of Tampa’s Steven Stamkos:
“[Stamkos] talks about team first. It’s always, ‘we did this.’ …When Ovechkin talks, it’s ‘I did this.’”
Ovi is selfish. He values individual achievement over team success. He’s Eurotrash.
Cut to this morning at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. The Caps are attempting to end a four-game losing streak tonight just as Ovechkin is poised to overtake Peter Bondra for the franchise point record. CSN’s Chuck Gormley asks Alex Ovechkin about getting point 826:
“We have to win. [It’s] not about personal stats and all that.”
Huh. That’s odd. Alex Ovechkin’s quote isn’t anything like Shannon said it would be.
It’s almost as if media narrative about Alex Ovechkin is just feckless, vaguely xenophobic nonsense spread by bloviating, incurious sluggards.
