Ovechkin in Vancouver

Photograph by: Steve Bosch , Vancouver Sun

Corey Masisak, TWT, Dec. 18, 2009:

As for Ovechkin, he spent another day being swarmed by Canadian media after practice. He signed autographs for about 400 people at The Bay here in Vancouver last night. He was weearing a Team Russia jersey, but he also donned a Hudson's Bay coat that one Canadian writer, Mark Spector of Rogers SportNet, described as "an iconic piece of Canadian clothing that dates back to the beginning of [Canadian] time -- like apple pie or a Yankees hat in the United States."

Mark Spector, Sportsnet.ca, Dec. 18, 2009:

There was the best Russian hockey player in the world Thursday evening in Vancouver, bedecked in that iconic striped Hudson’s Bay coat and surrounded by a bunch of Canadian kids who thought they’d died and gone to heaven.

He wouldn’t put on a Team Canada uniform, but he wore "The Coat," which came from the white with multi-coloured stripes Hudson’s Bay blanket, perhaps the most tangible, recognizable piece of Canadianna you’ll ever throw across the back seat of a station wagon for a trip across the Prairies.

Emily:

I hope the Caps/NHL are providing enough security for him. And they better count noses before the plane leaves for Edmonton. Vancouver LOVES Ovechkin.

From the field, I'm Emily.

Back to you in the studio, TJ.

WASHINGTON CAPITALS POSTER SPX ALEXANDER OVECHKIN 4373


BY IAIN MACINTYRE, VANCOUVER SUN, DECEMBER 17, 2009:

Alex Ovechkin practices with his team, the Washington Capitals, at GM Place in Vancouver on Thursday afternoon December 17, 2009. The Capitals will take on the Vancouver Canucks Friday night.
Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, Vancouver Sun


VANCOUVER - In the middle of the Washington Capitals’ practice on Thursday, as he waited for his turn in a drill, Alex Ovechkin smiled at kids pressed up against the glass as if at an aquarium, then gently lobbed a puck into the first row as a souvenir someone will never forget.

The fleeting scene at GM Place was like something from the old days in the National Hockey League when players made less, seemed happier and were detached neither from fans nor reality.

Washington Capitals star Alexander Ovechkin with a local hockey team at a Bay Olympics hockey promotion in the downtown store in Vancouver, B.C., on December 17, 2009. Crowds of people lined up for his signature on items they had bought.
Photograph by: Steve Bosch , Vancouver Sun
more photos...

“Old school” is a gap-toothed, shaggy, 24-year-old Muscovite who arrived for work Thursday wearing the ugliest, most expensive shredded denim in human history? You’ve seen better dressed rodeo clowns.

To the relief of Vancouver defenceman Sami Salo, who may draw the assignment tonight of checking Ovechkin, the little boy who caught the Russian’s puck was not his son.

Six-year-old Oliver Salo is a huge Ovechkin fan.

“He’s the best player in the world, according to my son,” the senior Salo said. “He talks about Ovechkin. When we play our little hockey games, he always says: ‘Ovechkin scores!’”


“I love the enthusiasm he brings to the game,” Vigneault said. “The compete level. I don’t mind the fact he plays with an edge and has a little dirtiness in him. If I were his coach, I’d like all those aspects about him. He’s a great player who’s emotionally involved in every shift of every game, and that’s what you want from your players.”

And it’s this raw, infectious emotion in almost everything he does that sets Ovechkin apart from hockey’s other superstars.

From the day he showed up in the NHL for the 2004 entry draft and shooed away a Russian interpreter so he could engage reporters in halting English — mostly his — while a few feet away Evgeni Malkin was as stiff and loquacious in Russian as Lenin’s statue, Ovechkin has been able to connect with people.

The NHL didn’t have to mould Ovechkin into anything. It just had to let him be.

“It’s good stuff for me,” he said Thursday about giving away autographs and time. “People going to recognize me, going to shake my hand and have me sign stuff. It’s easy. I just concentrate on my game, not about being the face of the NHL and some cover guy. I love attention. I love doing what I’m doing. I love crazy stuff. But my job is to play hockey.”

Playing is his job. The rest he does for fun.

BY TIFFANY CRAWFORD, VANCOUVER SUNDECEMBER 17, 2009
Russian star Alex Ovechkin excites Canadian hockey fans.

Kids, teens and adults line up for chance at speedster’s (expensive) autographs

While only 400 lucky fans were allowed to get autographs, more than 1,000 people crammed the Olympic Superstore on Granville Street to catch a glimpse of Ovechkin, 24. As a DJ played loud, thumping music, the excitement among the admirers was palpable.

There was a catch to getting an autograph, however. The hockey fans had to buy a Signature Series item: a hockey poster, stick, Team Russia jersey or Ovechkin Team Russia matted photo — with prices starting at $98. A spokeswoman for The Bay, Neesha Hothi, said The Bay had sold more than 400 items.

Dressed in the iconic striped Bay woolen cardigan, the six-foot-two Ovechkin was welcomed by a crowd chanting “Ove, Ove,” as well as a minor league hockey team from North Vancouver.

For Sam Curleigh, 14, one of the minor league players, meeting his favourite player was a dream come true. Curleigh, playing hockey since he was four years old, was thrilled to greet the star as he came out. Ovechkin then took off his Bay jumper and his Russia team jersey and gave the jersey to a grinning Curleigh.

“It was a great experience. I’m wearing his Ovechkin Russian jersey,” said Curleigh, after the signing. “It was awesome, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

The young centre said Ovechkin was “a great guy” who asked him all about his team and where he played.

Vancouver Sun, Dec. 17, 2009:

“Ovechkin is obviously the best player in the league and we have to play him like we play all the other elite players ... take away time and space and finish checks on him when you can,” Bieksa said. “He’s a pretty complete player. He’ll finish his checks on you. He’ll shoot from all over the place and he’ll attack you one-on-one.

“He can beat you in different ways and that’s something we’re aware of.”


Canuck centre and former Maple Leaf Kyle Wellwood has seen the Capitals more often than most in the Vancouver dressing room thanks to his three seasons in Toronto. Wellwood, who almost certainly will return to the lineup tonight, notes that Washington can be neutralized by a tight-checking team.

“They like to really open up the game and spread the ice a lot,” Wellwood explained. “They don’t want to have the puck in the corners and that’s kind of what our game plan is, to make the game tighter and harder on those guys and don’t let them skate with the puck.”

The Canucks are 6-1-0 against the Eastern Conference this season, losing only to bottom-dwelling Carolina. They’ve handily dispatched the Habs, Leafs, Rangers, Devils, Flyers and Thrashers by a combined score of 26-7.

They’re a beast against the East.

“We’ve been able to beat the Eastern teams we’ve played so far because they try to open up the ice and make plays but we’re better checkers and we’re able to take their speed away and really slow down the game,” Wellwood added. “But when you play a team like Washington, which has a few superstars, it becomes a lot more challenging. If you do open it up against them, you could be in a lot of trouble.”

With Wellwood and Rome likely in tonight, Darcy Hordichuk and Mathieu Schneider would be the scratches.

TWEET:

 TWEET THIS: http://tinyurl.com/ovetjkin