Alex Ovechkin's recent comments suggest the Capitals sniper has grown up this past off-season.
I was a guest with David Pratt and Don Taylor on Vancouver Radio the other day when they asked me about Alex Ovechkin’s recent comment about the 2014 Winter Games, and the possibility of NHL players being there.
Ovechkin’s stance has apparently mellowed from a year ago when he said he would be there, no matter what.
I babbled on that Ovechkin was a year older, and a year wiser and probably understood what a $100-million dollar contract means. Then I got thinking about why he toned down his thoughts and the answer is rather simple: the brash, hard-hitting best power forward in the game had a really bad year.
Forget last year’s stats. Instead, look at what happened to him in Vancouver in February. Remember, as Canada was basking in its Olympic glory, the Russians were pointing fingers at each other, and trying to figure out how they didn’t even get to the medal round.
Then look at what happened to him in April.
That Montreal fairy tale provided a great story in Quebec, but a nightmare in DC.
He and his teammates made heroes of Spacek, Gill and Gorges as well as some guy named Halak. And take the latest mark against the Great Eight.
My friend Damien Cox has just co-written a book about Ovechkin with Gare Joyce. And even though, it’s unauthorized, the team and the player did provide a great deal of cooperation to the authors.
Until recently, when there have been rumours that the family wanted the book shutdown, and Capitals owner Ted Leonsis took a shot at Cox for the book. (Memo to the Ovechkins and to Mr. Leonsis: Those are the types of things that actually help book sales, not hurt them).
Yes, Alex will probably look back at 2010 as a growing year. His guarded comments about the Sochi Games probably do reflect a more mature young man.
Maybe you do in fact learn more from losing, than winning.
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The recent announcement by the NHL and Home Box Office that the Penguins and Capitals will participate in four, one-hour shows called 24/7 could be a very positive one for the game, if handled properly.
There have been other attempts in this game that have come up well short. The last attempt was a six-part series in 1998 by the CBC. After getting full blessing from the NHL, the CBC show began with a bang in episode one, then they were censored beyond belief, to the point where episodes five and six really didn’t have enough content to fill an hour.
It really was embarrassing.
In creating the new show, the league knows that hockey fans will watch. That is a given. I love the idea and will be glued to the flat-screen. But will non-hockey fans watch? That is the real question.
In order to judge it as a success, viewers who don’t normally watch hockey or understand the game HAVE to been drawn into the program.
As the NHL moves to sign new TV deals in the United States, measuring growth beyond the core is vital to the future.
And now something that has become a tradition on this page…
An update on the Phoenix Coyotes. (Don’t laugh. It’s now to the point where my thoughts are now being posted on the Arizona Republic’s website.)
Many predicted that there would be some progress made with Matthew Hulsizer’s bid for the team.
With some assistance from some of the Ice Edge boys, it was hoped that the City of Glendale and Hulsizer would enter into a Memorandum of Understanding for a lease on the arena last Friday.
The MOU is a working document that is the first step in actually negotiating and signing a lease agreement for Jobing.com Arena. Unfortunately, that agreement did not get posted on Friday as the city sets an agenda for its Tuesday council meeting.
To many, this was a setback. Time is running out. Was it a major setback? Probably not. But in talking to one league official, I asked if he was still optimistic about the Hulsizer bid.
His answer was interesting.
"Optimistic is probably an overly strong word for anything related to Phoenix over the last two years," he said. "Hopeful is better."
That sounds like a downgrade to me.
Last week, I mentioned that the commissioner is still actively searching for owners for teams. In fact, there is an outside chance that a new owner could actually be a familiar old owner.
You see, in Dallas, it had been assumed that two Canadian groups would end up fighting it out over the Stars. Bill Gallacher from Calgary and Tom Gagliardi from Vancouver appeared to be the frontrunners. As of now, while Gagliardi is still in the mix, it appears that Gallacher is not interested in buying the Stars.
What has also happened, is that the league has asked a couple of local groups back to the table to investigate if they are still interested in the team. One of those groups is led by Tom Hicks, the former owner, who lost the clubs to the banks last year.
Finally, a quick thought about the pre-season.
As the NFL threatens to go an 18-game schedule, I’m reminded that the league and the players had serious talks about an 84-game schedule and a shorter pre-season.
It’s probably worth looking at it again…or at least in two years in the next CBA negotiations, where both sides will want it because it means more hockey related revenue…and games that really mean something.
