Photo of the Day: Ovechkin, the Hero!

My girlfriend sent me this photo, and it gave me a good chuckle.

It basically looks like a religious situation, with the rest of the Caps worshipping their lord Ovechkin, and Ovechkin looking up to the skies in victory. All that is missing is the bright white light.



Well, all are worshipping Ovy, except for that one intense Cap behind him, who looks like he's trying to assassinate Jesus.

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'

You Can't Stop Ovechkin

by Jes

You can't even hope to contain him.

It's as if Alexander Ovechkin thought to himself, "Hmm, now that Crosby is injured, why don't I just yank the spotlight entirely for myself?".



Didya see the highlights from last night's Habs/Caps tilt, where Ovechkin tore the Habs a new one with a 4-goal, 1-assist performance in the Caps OT win? Did you see him knocking down Habs players like bowling pins? Was your mouth agape at the utter domination?

Now, it's normally hard to be impressed with Ovechkin, considering that he's quite often putting up highlight reel plays, piling up goals, and generally just kicking ass in Maddox-like fashion.

Lately? He's taken the Caps on his shoulders and turned them into a possible playoff-bound club. Hell, even the injury to Michael Nylander hasn't slowed him down.

With 43 goals in 52 games, Ovechkin is now on pace for 67(!) this season. The Rocket Richard trophy is pretty much in the bag. Kovalchuk is slumping and injured, and Iginla is over 10 goals behind.

January has seen Ovechkin put up 13 goals and 9 assists in 13 games. The Caps? They are 7-3 in their last 10 games, and just 3 behind Carolina (With 2 games in hand!) for top spot in the South(l)East Division.

Yeah, I'm totally having a fanboy moment.

Despite Ovechkin's defensive deficiencies, I'd still give him the MVP at this point of the season. Not only is he the dominant force in the game, but he has little help. Lecavalier and Alfredsson are great players, but look at their linemates? Ovechkin might as well be playing with the ghosts of Dane Jackson and Chris Tancill.

It's just too bad Crosby is injured, and we can't see them have a great MVP race to finish the season. :(

Alexander Ovechkin is Richkin, Bitchkin!

by Jes

So, the bomb has dropped and Alex "1d8" Ovechkin is now the proud signer of the most lucrative contract in NHL contract. $124mil over 13 seasons. Yes, 13!!! Alexei Yashin must be fuming in a jealous rage right about now.

Now, any time you start talking about a contract for 10+ years, you are pretty much going into insanity territory. Locking yourself to a player for that long of a period just has so many fricking risks, and we've seen how such contracts have blown up on the teams that signed them. Alexei Yashin, Rick DiPietro (it will), and Alex Rodriguez (who wiggled his way out to get more $..geezus).

Of course, Alexander Ovechkin is one of two rare talents that you could consider signing to such a deal and not be considered to be smoking BC's finest export plant. (If you can't figure out the other player, please put on a tinfoil hat so we know who you are)

When two parties sign a contract, both parties *should* assume half of the risk if the contract is truly a fair one.

In this case? The vast majority of the risk is with the Capitals.

"But Jes, Ovechkin could have earned like $15mil a season if he had waited"

That's valid, but Ovechkin, barring a Capitals bankrupcy, is guaranteed to make $124 million!! No matter what happens to him tomorrow, he'll be set for life. When you get those kind of numbers, what else do you have to worry about? Male-pattern baldness?

What if 1d8 gets injured himself next week, or gets paralyzed in a car accident next month and can't play again, or has to retire due to concussions some time down the road? No matter what, Ovechkin is going to make more than me, you, and all the visitors to this site combined for our entire lifetimes.

"But Jes, Ovechkin may be caught with a crappy team for the next 15 years, thanks to him eating up a mondo chunk of cap space"

The risk that the Caps could suck is valid, but I expect the Caps will eventually make a regime change and not suck the entire 13 seasons. Ovechkin obviously likes where he is, or he'd bolt the first chance he got. Forget all of these dumb rumours you hear about unhappy he is in Washington. It's obvious he's having a blast.

The fact is that the risk is really with the Capitals.

1. Look at Ovechkin's style of play. Doesn't he remind you of Pavel Bure? Bure was a dynamic goal scorer with an edge, and paid for it big time. Bure's knees are basically dust.

What happens if Ovechkin runs into a string of injury problems? Guys like Bure, Forsberg, Neely, and possibly Ovechkin, have shorter shelf lifes than the guys who hold back a bit on the physical play.

2. What happens when the North American economy collapses, and people can't afford to pay insane prices for tickets? What happens if overall NHL revenues tank? Then the Caps are stuck paying a very high salary no matter what happens.

3. 13 years is a fricking long time ... longer than most career. Ovechkin is already in his third season. If he finishes this contract, he'll have played 16 seasons. To perform at such a high level for such a long time is a rare feat, indeed. Bobby Orr couldn't do it, and Mario Lemieux certainly miss a lot of time during his trek.

Now, I understand perfectly why the Caps did what they did, and I don't think it's as god-awful as what the Isles did, but any such long deal certainly has more risk than reward. Look at what happened when the Caps signed Jaromir Jagr to a long-term expensive deal? I figured they'd be more careful after that.

Will We Have a 60-Goal Scorer This Season?

by Jes

With Alexander Ovechkin's 4-goal effort last night, we have two players in the NHL that are on pace to score 60 goals this season.

While we've had enough 50-goal scorers over the years, 60 seems to be a glass ceiling of sorts, as it's been 12 years (Mario Lemieux) since that mark was achieved.

I always want to score more goals," Ovechkin said, pausing as veteran center Michael Nylander walked into the locker room.

"Michael Nylander helps me a lot," he said with a chuckle. "He gives me lots of assists. But sometimes he doesn't give me the puck. Come on, Mikey!" Ovechkin turned serious again, adding, "Of course, I always want to keep going up" in goal totals each season.

Looking at the top goal scorers as of this morning ...

Ilya Kovalchuk - 32 goals in 39 games. On pace for 67.
Alex Ovechkin - 30 goals in 39 games. On pace for 63.
Jarome Iginla - 27 goals in 39 games. On pace for 56.

We'd expect one or more of these players to cool off, but both Ovechkin and Kovalchuk have been red-hot most of the season, and we might finally get a 60-goal scorer.

Selected Statistical Samplings

by Jes

A look around the NHL at a hodge podge of statistical odds and sods.

I don't believe in the "Great player on a crappy team" argument for awarding the Hart Trophy (MVP), but one can certainly see just how valuable Alexander Ovechkin is to the (mis)fortune of the Washington Capitals.

19% - The percentage of Washington shots have come off of the stick of Ovy.
27% - 24 of the 88 Capital goals have been scored by Ovechkin. No surprise.
44% - Add in his assists, and Ovechkin has had a hand in 39 of the 88 Capitals' goals. Almost half!
+4 - Yep, Alex has the best +/- figure on the team, and is just one of four players to be on the positive side of the ledger.

Cy Young Award Nominee: Brad Boyes, the talented young St. Louis Blues forward with 19 goals and 9 assists in 30 games. Even since being move to the wing, he's been more selfish (in a good way) and productive.

A real plus: Dany Heatley leads the NHL with a whopping +27, eight better than runner-up Nick Lidstrom.

Patrick Sharp-shooter: Patrick Sharp (who?), the Blackhawks forward, has been one of the NHL's unsung heroes this season with 25 points in 30 games. His career high prior to this season? 35 points. The most interesting thing is that Patrick Sharp has FIVE shorthanded goals so far this season, and is on pace to break double digits. Yowsa!

Speaking of shorties, only the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes have yet to score a shorthanded goal this season. While the Panthers' PK has been solid, the Hurricanes can add insult to that injury be also having the worst PK unit in the league, killing penalties at a putrid 75.3%.

What's the biggest +/- disparity on a single team? I look and see the Red Wings have one of 26 with Nick Lidstrom sitting at +18 and Dallas Drake sitting at -8. The St. Louis blues have one of 23, with Eric Brewer at +10 and Barret Jackman at -13. Of course, the above mentioned Dany Heatley and any Senator at -1 is a disparity of 28, but that feels like cheating.