Ovy's Got a Girlfriend

by Jes

The moment Sidney Crosby ever gets spotted with a hot female companion, the Blogger servers will likely crash after the stampede of visitors to The Sidney Crosby Show causes the Earth to collapse upon itself.

In the meantime, we'll just have to gawk at the 'other' star in the NHL.

That's right, Alexander Ovechkin's got some new company, and she's pretty smokin'. Check out FanHouse for exclusive pictures.

Now, how many professional hockey players would you expect to be scouring the Internet for a love thing? I'm not talking about a one-night hookup, or some juicy pr0n, but some actual companionship?

Exactly!

Well, there is a first for everything, and it turns out Ovechkin did a little online shopping before making his purchase.

Who'd figure Alexander Ovechkin for the online dating type? But apparently they don't make 'em here like they do back home: The Capitals' strapping superstar met his new girlfriend, a Moscow college student, on the Internet.

There she was at Caps practice yesterday -- a 20-something named Katja, and described by one spy as "skinny, tan, blond, hot, Russian." Two weeks ago, she flew here for the first date, and they've been together ever since. Ovechkin, 22, declined to discuss the relationship -- but happily, Katja dished to a Russian newspaper.

According to her interview with SovSport, the two met online last fall after she clicked on his profile on Odnoklassniki, a Russian equivalent of Classmates.com or Facebook, on which they were linked by a mutual friend. Ovechkin saw that she had visited his profile and wrote to her -- but she refused to believe it was the real Ovechkin until he gave an interview to SovSport in which he said "hello to SPY," her online name.

It does make sense for a high-profile professional hockey player to use such a service. Instead of being surrounded by a bunch of greedy groupies with a one-track ($$$) mind, Internet sites allow the player to pick and choose his targets, and get to know them better before making first contact. If I am a player that values privacy and wants some actual substance from my girlfriend, I'd certainly consider the Internet to weed out the field.

Now, if any Hooters girls should be scouring this site, looking for a love connection, I'm sorry to say that I'm taken. Greg, however, could use some lovin'