Bäckström perfekt för Ovetjkin

By Mats Wennerholm, Feb. 8, 2009, Aftonbladet:

This was probably one of the best NHL games I've seen. The Star Wars at its very best. Alexander Ovetjkin vs. Sidney Crosby in the fierce duel of who is the biggest star in the hockey world right now. Yesterday Ovetjkin won. I think he is going to do it in the Olympics, too.

The palms of my hands were quite sweaty after the game that looked more like the 7th and decisive Stanley Cup final's game rather than a regular match of 82 games long NHL marathon. And just when you thought you figured out how the game would end, Ovetjkin had exploded, changing the score from 1-4 to 5-4.

A great show and a home crowd that stood up almost the entire third period and paid tribute to the Russian. And the question that I ask myself is, "Who is going to stop him in the Olympics?"

Nobody can win, of course, the entire game by himself, though in Ovetjkin case it was close, because he is a natural phenomenon.

I think I have never seen a player with such enormous power and will.


Bäckström perfekt för Ovetjkin


He throws himself into the plexi glass that keeps reverberating during his celebration and then he bursts into his toothless smile and is ready to take the whole world in his arms. I've never seen a player with such a fantastic game fun. He is a phenomenon.

I think Ovetjkin would have liked Nicklas Bäckström to be born in Russia rather than in Sweden because there is no doubt that Bäckström is the perfect center for Ovetjkin. I wonder who Russian coach Bykov will put in a center for Ovi at the Olympics. At the Olympics in Turin in 2006 he played with Alexei Yashin who was not selected for Vancouver. It's likely that Sergei Fedorov will center Ovetjkin and Semin since all three were playing on the same line during the World Championships in Quebec in 2008 when the Russians took the World Championship gold. This was the last championship in which Ovetjkin played for Russia.

At the same time Fedorov will be 40 years old in December and have not gotten any younger. Semin does not have quite the same heart as Ovetjkin. But I don't think Ovetjkin will have a better line in the Russian Olympic squad than the one he plays with in Washington.

It will be true, however, for Sidney Crosby. He was really disappointed and low-key after the game yesterday and it's easy to understand it, especially after he made a game score 1-0 and 2-0 for Pittsburgh and had a dream start for the game. He played on a line with Bill Guerin and Chris Kunitz and only on the power play with Evgeny Malkin.

In Vancouver Sidney Crosby may be on the line with the Columbus Rick Nash and either Jarome Iginla or Boston's Patrice Bergeron. There he will get some more help.

Undoubtedly the best in the world

I myself think that the game was decided at the end of the second period yesterday, when Washington actually went in to play physically against Crosby. I don't know how many hits he received in a single sequence. After that he almost disappeared from the game.

Is Alexander Ovetjkin the world's best hockey player right now? I have to answer undoubtedly yes to that question. There is no one who can be compared to him. The only question is how long he can have the same attitude in every game and emanate the same inexhaustible energy. He's a power forward and lives off his power and physical strength.

Right now... just enjoy it.

Reported live from Sweden by Emily.

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