Booing? Ovechkin: "I love it. They push me hard all the time."

 Which reminds me one of the Sabres blogs: "A note to Sabres fans: please don't boo Alexander Ovechkin tonight. He doesn't need the extra motivation to score". Sabres fans figured it out long before Pens fans.

By Tarik El-Bashir, The Washington Post, Jan.15, 2009:

Alex Ovechkin was booed each time he touched the puck Wednesday night, and on a number of occasions, the Pittsburgh Penguins attempted to punish him physically.

It was, in other words, exactly the type of atmosphere in which the reigning MVP thrives.

Ovechkin broke out of a four-game goal drought by scoring twice and setting up another goal in a big third period at Mellon Arena, where the Washington Capitals snapped a season-long three-game losing streak with a 6-3 victory before a sellout crowd.

"When he gets in a slump and then he breaks the slump, he doesn't just break it just to break it," Coach Bruce Boudreau said of Ovechkin, who moved into a tie with Philadelphia's Jeff Carter with 29 goals for the league lead. "That's what Alex does. He's a real emotional guy and he plays on that passion and when he gets going he's pretty to stop."

"Today we play hard, better than last night," Ovechkin said, referring to Tuesday's 5-2 loss to Edmonton at home, an effort that drew the ire of Boudreau. "We worked hard, we crashed the net and hit the guy and we have lots of traffic. It was a very emotional game."

It was indeed emotional. But it was a night on which Ovechkin kept his emotions in check. He laid hits on rivals Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby, but he did so in the context of the game, unlike previous contests in which he appeared to go headhunting. In fact, Ovechkin drew a call on Malkin after the Penguins' star elbowed and cross-checked him in the first period.

Viktor Kozlov and Alexander Semin also scored for the Capitals in Semin's first face-to-face meeting with Crosby since his controversial comments regarding the Penguins' captain. Crosby notched a pair of assists, but suffered a leg injury in the first period after colliding with Kozlov and eventually left the game late in the third.

"I thought [Ovechkin and Semin] did a really good job of just going about their business and playing really hard," Boudreau said.

The teams exchanged the next three tallies and then Ovechkin decided it was time to take over.

"I love it," Ovechkin said of the incessant booing. "They push me hard all the time."

By Barry Svrluga, The Washington Post, Jan. 15, 2009 "A Juicy Melodrama Adds Subplots in Latest Chapter":

Thus, a regular season hockey game became something of a melodrama. Over the course of the Washington Capitals' 6-3 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins, Alex Ovechkin, the reigning MVP who scored twice, was booed virtually every time he touched the puck, because he apparently has a rift with Penguins sharpshooter Evgeni Malkin, who has more points than any player in the league. The squabble between roommates at the 2006 Olympics may or may not include a scuffle at a Moscow nightclub two years ago during which, according to Russian Internet reports, Ovechkin hit Malkin's agent, an accusation on which Ovechkin has never elaborated.

Alexander Semin, too, was booed when the puck came his way -- and especially when his second-period goal tied the game -- because the Capitals winger had degraded Pittsburgh's sacred son, Sidney Crosby, who won the MVP two seasons ago and beat out Ovechkin as rookie of the year four seasons ago.

Throw in the fact that Ovechkin does things like he did late in the second period, driving Crosby into the boards with a hard check, then having Pittsburgh's Matt Cooke get called for a retaliation penalty seconds later.

Twist all that together double helix-style, and it can't be sorted out, particularly when you throw in an incident just before the start of the third period in which Ovechkin appeared to jaw with either Crosby, Malkin or both near the Pittsburgh bench. Moments later, Ovechkin was leaping off the ice, celebrating his tiebreaking goal.

Neither Crosby nor Malkin addressed reporters afterward. Other Penguins, frustrated with what has been a disappointing and injury-filled season, brushed off any knowledge of Ovechkin-as-agitator.

"I didn't see it," winger Petr Sykora said, when asked about Ovechkin's words with the Pittsburgh bench. "I have no idea."

To untwist things, start with Semin on Crosby. "He just said in Russian his opinion," Capitals veteran and fellow Russian Sergei Fedorov said. "It just wasn't translated right, I can guarantee you that."

Crosby, though, said before the game, "I wasn't happy with it." And no one in the crowd seemed happy with any of Washington's main characters. Ovechkin, several times, traded hits with Penguins, running across Malkin now and again.

At one point, Malkin approached Ovechkin from behind. "I didn't see him," Ovechkin said. "It was kind of a cheap play. Hit me in the face."

That, though, might be the subplot left for the next meeting, Feb. 22 in Washington.

By Brian Compton - NHL.com, Jan. 15, 2009:

With some of the best players in the world sharing the same sheet of ice on Wednesday night, Alex Ovechkin let his play do the talking.

The Russian superstar scored twice in the third period and finished with a three-point night as the Washington Capitals won an intense 6-3 decision against the Pittsburgh Penguins at Mellon Arena.

The message boards math:
Ovechkin > Semin > Malkin > Crosby

Or simply put, the best player in visible Universe!