Good night: Ovechkowned
The Lead
It takes a special player to clown out a guy like Evgeni Malkin. That’s why Alex Ovechkin is a special, special player.
While Malkin spent much of the run-up to the Pens/Caps game, which Washington handily won 6-3, braiding his best friends’ hair and wondering why Ovechkin didn’t like him, Ovie was apparently crafting an immaculate gameplan that allowed him to score two goals and add an assist on Tomas Fleischmann’s game-winner.
I really couldn’t believe Malkin’s quotes before the game. “Ovechkin is a great player, but every time he hits me, I don’t know why,” he said. Are you serious, Geno? You don’t know why Ovechkin hits you? Maybe it’s because Alex Ovechkin starts every game wondering how he can steamroll every single person on the opposing team and goes from there. Maybe it’s because Ovechkin is on a team that has a shot of winning a playoff round, or, indeed, a better-than-decent chance of even making it. MAAAAAAAYBE it’s because Ovechkin is just a bad dude.
Let’s just put this out there: the Penguins suck, and I refuse to believe that the addition of Sergei Gonchar instantly turns this team from the steaming pile of crap it’s been over the last couple months into a Cup contender. Gonchar is a lot of things, but the lynchpin that makes the whole system come together ain’t one of ‘em.
And things only got better for the Penguins as Sid Crosby left the game early with an injury… of some sort. Pittsburgh would offer no explanation as to the type of injury he had sustained, let alone the extent of it, but he was not made available to reporters after the game, so you gotta figure it’s more than a bump on the noggin. That’s fine, though. Not like the Pens are tenuously holding onto TENTH place in the Eastern Conference.
Elsewhere…
Ottawa 3, Atlanta 2
Must’ve been a humdinger of a game. So dire is the forward situation in Hotlanta that Ilya Kovalchuk’s linemates were, get this, Colby Armstrong (meh) and RICHARD PEVERLY, who has 20 career points. How do you think Kovy reacted when he saw that on the linecharts at morning skate? I imagine a string of Russian swear words preceded an equipment-throwing fit not seen since the Rangers won the Cup. Rich f’n Peverly. Dear christ.
Chicago 4, Buffalo 1
Go watch Chicago’s second goal tonight and explain to me what the hell happened. I’ve watched it like four times on On the Fly and I still don’t understand how Patrick Lalime allowed this event to take place. The announcers were equally befuddled. I just chalk it up to Buffalo being a genuinely bad team. That probably has a lot to do with it.
Detroit 4, Anaheim 3
I watched about a period and a half of this game and it didn’t have any of the meanness or ill will I went in hoping for. As a person who is indifferent-leaning-toward-dislike regarding the Wings, I would’ve loved to see Chris Pronger elbow Tomas Holmstrom square in the jaw. I hate Tomas Holmstrom almost as much as I hate Corey Perry, which is to say “quite a bit.” If Chris Pronger had elbowed both Holmstrom and Perry in the face, and then also injured his elbowing elbow, I’d have been infinitely tickled with this game regardless of outcome. But as a person who is hateful-leaning-toward-extremely-hateful regarding the Ducks, I was pleased that they lost this game.
January 15th, 2009 at 5:28 am
But Holmstrom is so likable!
Patrick Lalime has not aged well. Huh, oh wha? He’s only 34!? Poor Sabres.
January 15th, 2009 at 9:52 am
I watched that second goal on “On the Fly” about the same amount of times, maybe even more because I rewound the DVR because I still couldn’t figure out what happened. The best I can tell, it hit his arm, somehow popped straight up in the air behind him, then somehow just fell in the goal. I think. I’m still not sure. It’s like the hockey’s Zapruder Tape. Back, and to the left. Back…………..and to the left.
January 15th, 2009 at 12:15 pm
I think it got caught in the inside of his elbow briefly and when he starts to stand up it somehow goes between his body and his arm in to the goal?
Or it was the second shooter on the grassy knoll, either way.
January 15th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
My guess was that it dropped onto the back of his pad and when he stood up it flipped it in the air and into the net.
May 24th, 2009 at 12:28 am
So the pens aren’t a cup contender huh asshole? How are Ovy, Backstrom, and Jizz enjoying the golf course? Im sure they are getting great tee times being out of the playoffs so early and all.