The Washington Capitals signed NHL MVP Alexander Ovechkin to hockey’s first hundred million dollar contract last season, so the Capitals once again boast the league’s leading scorer. Welcome back fast-skating, obscenely talented left winger Ovechkin, who likes to warm up for games by playing soccer in Crocs, falls to the ice with joy when he scores, and ignores jellyfish postings when he goes for a swim.
Even casual fans know by now that the league’s top dog is a former Russian Super League rookie of the year, RSL scoring leader, and RSL playoff scoring leader. Ovechkin played with Sergei Fedorov on the top line of the Russian team that won the World Championships in Canada this summer. The Caps picked him in the first round of a deep draft in 2004, when the team used its other two first-round picks to pick up Canadians Jeff Schultz and Mike Green.
Eight games into the 2008–09 season, the Caps’ stunner isn’t Ovechkin, but rather Alexander Semin, who leads both the Caps and the NHL with fourteen points. More shocking still, Great Eight has yet to record his first goal this year. Ovechkin has excelled instead on defense, physical play and passing, and let Semin take care of the team’s goal scoring needs.
Wherever Ovechkin goes, a young Pittsburgh Penguins center is sure to follow, so it comes as no surprise that the league’s second-place spot is reserved for . . . Evgeni Malkin? You read that right: With 14 points in nine games on 3 goals and 11 assists, Malkin’s good enough to trail Semin’s 7 goals and 7 assists for the lead. That other talented Penguins center, Sidney Crosby, should pick it up soon — just as Ovechkin will.
Last week, when the Caps faced the Penguins, Ovechkin proved his worth to the team on defense. Semin can’t hit as well as Ovechkin, and the latter set the place with five solid hits against Malkin. If Semin has rivaled Ovechkin’s talent behind the puck, 27-year-old rookie defenseman Tyler Sloan has matched his strength against the glass. Sloan is only filling in while Tom Poti is injured. But in three games he’s scored his first NHL goal, survived his first NHL fight, and delivered one NHL-strength body check.
Achieving well-deserved job security in the face of this novel competition, tough Caps blueliner John Erskine agreed to a two-year contract extension. Erskine, the team’s second-best fighter and one of their better penalty killers, had no reason to fret.
Video posted by Ovechkinator
