|
-
Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin has a good reason for the gleam in his eyes: the 20-year-old is nearing 50 goals and 100 points, a feat accomplished by only one other rookie in NHL history. |
AP SPORTS WRITER
WASHINGTON--A few feet behind the Washington Capitals' bench, the NHL's hotshot rookie reaches into the stick rack and pulls out a present from the NHL's other hotshot rookie.
"To Sergei, all the best," reads the inscription on the blade. "Sidney Crosby, 87."
"It's for my friend," Alex Ovechkin says, cradling the shaft before placing it carefully back into the rack.
That makes two sticks Crosby has signed for Ovechkin this season. The first one was for Ovechkin himself, to go along with the ones he's collected from Mario Lemieux, Patrice Bergeron and others. They'll go nicely with Ovechkin's stash of hockey cards, about 1,000 or so he accumulated while growing up in Russia.
Yes, Ovechkin is a collector, but lately he has done more giving than receiving. Dozens of fans waited for him outside the team hotel when the Capitals traveled to New York to face the Rangers last month, and he obliged with autographs. Similar scenes have been repeated in the hockey-mad cities up north, especially in Canada.
On a recent road trip, Ovechkin was cheered in Montreal and Ottawa, where the fans usually boo anyone not wearing a home uniform. In Ottawa, a fan held a sign that read: "Best team: Senators. Best player: Ovechkin."
Move over, Crosby. The Pittsburgh Penguins' rookie might have come into the league with more fanfare, but Alexander the Great is not only closing in on the Calder Trophy, given to the league's top rookie, but he's having a season of historic proportions. The 20-year-old left wing created another buzz this week as he closed in on 50 goals and 100 points, a feat accomplished by only one other rookie--Teemu Selanne, who had a phenomenal 76 goals and 132 points for Winnipeg in 1992-93.
"He's exceeded my expectations in his maturity and his hockey sense and grasp of our strategy," said owner Ted Leonsis, whose Capitals drafted Ovechkin No. 1 overall months before the lockout began in 2004. "He has not exceeded my expectations with his athleticism and skills. We're blessed to have been bad and win the lottery in the year we could pick Alexander Ovechkin."
Ovechkin already has dibs on the most unbelievable goal of the year, the one in which he flicked his stick while rolling on the ice during a January game against the Phoenix Coyotes coached by Wayne Gretzky.
Ovechkin got the better of The Great One again during the Olympics, scoring the game-winning goal for Russia that knocked Canada out of the tournament. Afterward, Gretzky, the executive director of Team Canada, said of Ovechkin: "There's no question, he's the most exciting" player in the game.
And one of coolest. Upbeat and energetic, Ovechkin has immersed himself in the American way of life. He requested a North American roommate so that he could master English. He recently switched to a mirrored visor so goaltenders can't read his eyes as easily, but the fashion statement also suits his personality. After all, this is a player who feels enough at ease with himself to show up for practice wearing red pants, red shoes and a red shirt, much to the chagrin of his teammates.
"He's trying to implement some European fashion ideas here that just haven't seemed to hit home yet," said goaltender Olie Kolzig, a native of South Africa who has played for Germany in international competition. "We're trying to get him to tone it down a little bit."
To which Ovechkin responded: "Maybe they need to work on their clothes. I like my style. I'm a European guy. I like how I dress."
Ovechkin lives with his brother and can speak Russian with Lithuanian-born teammate Dainius Zubrus, but he wanted to learn English so that he could understand the coach's instructions and the jokes in the locker room. He's still coping with a few American laws: "When you go to bar, it's under 21," he said with a trace of befuddlement.
"Honestly, I've never seen a guy coming over, put in a situation like that where he's so much out of his comfort zone, where he tries so hard to be one of us," Zubrus said. "He is one of us. He loves being over here. He loves coming to the dressing room, practicing, playing. He loves USA. He loves the country. He loves how things are run here."
Ovechkin single-handedly has lifted the doldrums that hung over the Capitals after the team gutted its roster prior to the lockout. Washington won't come anywhere close to making the playoffs this season, but the team has played better than expected--enough to persuade Kolzig to sign a contract extension so that he can be a part of the rebuilding program centered on the talented rookie.
"He's kind of out of central casting," Leonsis said. "If you're going to write: 'We're going to rebuild our team post the lockout,' then out of the computer would come a description of Alexander Ovechkin. And the key thing is we're not going to let him down and not build the team around him. We have a personality again, we're a tough team to play against. We have a great player, and we're going to keep adding to that."
Ovechkin is on pace to capture every significant franchise rookie scoring record. He broke Selanne's NHL rookie record for shots on goal Wednesday night, and he has twice as many goals as any of his teammates. His amazing season has triggered bonuses in his entry-level contract, but he still could have made more money if he had stayed in Moscow to play in the top Russian league.
"If you have money, you're happy. But if you don't have money, you can be happy, too," Ovechkin said. "So I'm happy."
Ovechkin won't have to worry about money at the rate he's going, but his focus on winning and playing well comes from his parents. Mother Tatiana won two gold medals playing basketball for the Soviet Union, and father Mikhail is a former professional soccer player. They have visited their son during the season, with Mikhail keenly watching practices as well as games.
"He came to conquer America," Mikhail Ovechkin told washingtonpost.com through an interpreter during a visit early in the season. "With the help of the guys on the team, he will conquer the U.S."
