Ambassador Ovie runs Washington

If you happened to catch the Leafs and Capitals game last Saturday night you would have witnessed one of the greatest phenomenons occurring in sports today.  Moscow born-and-bred Alexander Ovechkin is leading a red clad hockey revolution in the capital of the United States of America and the city is embracing the Russian and the game as one of their own.  Just before the season started, Capitals owner Ted Leonsis announced that the Capitals had sold out every home game of the 2009-2010 season.  Yes, hockey is the hot ticket in Obamaland, but that was not always the case.

A couple of years ago a friend of mine from my hometown moved back to Canada from Washington D.C.  He would tell me how he could hop a train down to the Capitals arena on game day and walk up to the ticket counter and buy a seat for $12.95.  The stadium was rarely full and they could sneak down to ice level if they felt like it.  One time on his way to the game, just outside the main gates, he was given free tickets by a charity who had more tickets than people who had shown up to see the game.  (This is how the Bettman era NHL has high attendance figures in non-traditional hockey markets.  They give the tickets to charities to paper the house and put bodies in the seats.)  This was back in 2000-2001 and not many people were interested in watching Jaromir Jagr sulking his way through another losing season.  But by 2005-2006 Ovechkin showed up and things began to radically change.

Ovechkin was born in Moscow on September 17, 1985.  Little Ovie was only 6 years old when the old U.S.S.R crumbled so he did not grow up in the repressive regime or toil in the hockey schools run by the old guard Red Army coaches who ran the program like boot camp.  The hockey players who came out of those communist curriculums were the stereotype of the Cold War Soviet: Stoic, cold, and unemotional robots who had the personality of an old worn shoe.  As we all know, that is not Ovechkin.

Ovie is the embodiment of the “New Russia” that was reborn after years of instability that followed the collapse.  He is outgoing, extroverted, gregarious, personally driven, confident, and highly skilled all wrapped in a neat package that comes with messy hair and a goofy smile.  Since he broke into the league he has won the Calder Trophy as the rookie of the year, 2 Rocket Richard trophies as the leagues top goal scorer, 1 Art Ross trophy as the leagues top scorer, 2 Hart Memorial Trophies as the MVP of the league and 2 Lester B Pearson Awards as the top player in the league as voted by the NHL Players Association.  In short, Ovie has personally collected more silverware in his professional career than most franchises have in their entire history and he is just getting started.  Gauging from how he has burst from the gates this year with 6 points in 2 games, Ovie is not planning to be resting on his laurels.  And the people of Washington D.C. and hockey fans everywhere are the beneficiaries. 

Sports fans in Washington have had to suffer through the losing efforts of the Washington Nationals in baseball (who even took the field this year in jerseys that spelled their name ‘Natinals’), the Washington Wizards of the NBA who play like some basketball hating warlock has placed a curse on them, and the Washington Redskins of the NFL look like they will be bottom feeders this year.  Washington’s sports teams could run against teams from Toronto as the most inept and poorly run franchises in pro sports.  The populace in the capital region are dying for a winner and Ovechkin and the Capitals are filling that desire.  The Russian government should name Ovie an ambassador to Washington because he has done more for East-West relations in his 5 years in the American capital than most diplomats have done in a lifetime of work.  He has the run of Washington.  Not bad for a kid out of Moscow.  Back in 1985, who would have imagined that kind of turn of events? 

Greener \m/