Larry Brooks: It's The Alex Ovechkin Show

 By Larry Brooks, NY Post, Apr. 26, 2009:

Bobby Orr is the most mesmerizing player I have ever seen. Well, he was. He was until The Alex Ovechkin Show hit the NHL.

Ovechkin's combination of ferocity, passion, talent and showmanship is unique in NHL history. He is a great player, already an all-time player after just four seasons in the league, who isn't afraid to let the world in and see the excitement he gets from performing, from excelling; from playing.

This is the athlete who would be worth the price of admission in even Yankee Stadium, and please, while we're at it, let's get the Caps into The Bronx for an outdoor game.

Can anything be sillier than what passes for debate among the shallow thinking screamers in Canada about whether Ovechkin is good for the game? About whether his showmanship somehow goes too far?

Please. It's good, all of it's good, from the (poorly) choreographed 50-goal celebration in Tampa, to the glass-thumping, skate-hopping merriment following essentially every goal his team scores with Ovechkin on the ice, to the hip-bump hop with Nicklas Backstrom following Washington victories.

It's rare indeed when a sport's greatest player is also its greatest personality. The NHL is blessed to have Ovechkin filling both those roles. He plays hard. He plays to win. He plays to the fans in the crowd who pay big money in order to be entertained.

You can't take your eyes off Ovechkin when he's on the ice. If you do, you risk missing something like the circus goal he scored on Friday in which he made would-be Ranger defenders Chris Drury and Derek Morris into unwitting human props for his latest act.

The ice is Ovechkin's stage. This is his time. The NHL has the greatest act on earth.

It's The Alex Ovechkin Show.

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