I apologize if I came off to strong in my last blog I apologize. It is just that Ovechkin may be the greatest athlete this town has ever seen, and to see him constantly compared to that princess of a hockey player is frustrating. The Princess is no doppleganger of The Great 8, Ovie just isn't comparable to anyone else in the league right now. I know it kills Canada to see a US team with the best player in the game who happens to be Russian, but they are going to have to deal with it. They don't root as hard against New York, but that is because they were one of the original 6. It really has to hurt to see an "expansion team" do so well.
Congratulations to the Caps for the clinching the Southeast tonight almost a week before St. Patrick's Day and without even playing. I thought they would clinch it at the phone booth tommorow, but that will give the crowd something else to celebrate before the game starts. They are the first franchise in NHL history to win the Southeast Division three years in a row, and are currently 14 points up on the nearest and far less talented runner-up at the moment. Maybe we should let off the gas for the next 8 games or so, and head back to full throttle for the last 7 heading into the playoffs. We have to win that first series in 5. Cup winners in the last decade or so all trend towards having a short first series. We can lose 7 straight and still be in first place; no one has that luxury, lets take it, and maybe the team gets 2 short breaks.
So if this team so good, maybe the Canadian press will praise either the captain or the Caps best player. It should be easy because he is the same guy. Look sometimes you don't realize that you are watching history until it is history. The press loves the negative, and that is what they focus on. They did not realize they were watching one of the greatest players in 100 years of baseball when they watched Babe Ruth, they said he was too fat. They did not realize they were watching a guy who is considered by many to be the greatest athlete of all-time when they watched Muhammad Ali, instead they were so threatened by him they tried to throw him in jail. The original LT revolutionized the linebacker position for over 25 years and counting, but the press was much more interested in his unfortunate coke habit. Finally, last time I checked the German press wasn't too positive about Jesse Owens in the 1936 Olympics, but it turned out he was pretty darned good.
Ovechkin does not have any of these things, so they focus on his play on the ice and call him "reckless" and "dangerous."But Matt Cooke is good to go. If the Bruins miss the playoffs I hope they hang the guy in effigy in Boston. Ovechkin is history in the making, and this town is blessed to have it unfold in front of us. So come on Canadian media, get off your darling princess and write about the guy who leads the league in points, goals, assists, plus/minus, and who captains the best team in the league who clinched at least a third seed 11 days into March. I dare you. Otherwise I'll just assume some of Goebbel's cousins escaped to Canada and they all write hockey.
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