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Saturday, March 27, 2010

Ovechkin: Of course you want to win the individualist trophies




By Michelle Scalise, March 26, 2010, CSNwashington.com "The Rocket Richard Trophy Race Is On":
A third player joins the party for the neck-to-neck race for the Maurice Rocket Richard Trophy. With a pair of goals against the Boston Bruins on Thursday, Tampa Bay Lightning’s Steve Stamkos suddenly finds himself up against a pair of Hart Trophy winners.

Stamkos scored his 44th and 45th goals of the year, tying Alex Ovechkin and Pittsburgh’s Sidney Crosby for the NHL goal scoring lead.

"It would be nice" to win the scoring title, Stamkos told the AP. "But if I win it and help this team win at the same time, that's (better). I just want to try and produce offense. That's my job, that's my role. I want to help this team win and see what happens at the end of the year."

Alex Ovechkin likes the competition and hopes the best man wins.

"I put pressure on myself, it's kind of pressure, because you want to win the individualist trophies, especially when you have a chance," Ovechkin said about the race. "They deserve it, Crosby deserves it, the Rocket Richard Trophy, and Stamkos deserves it and who is going to win is the guy who deserves it most."


Related:
Alex Ovechkin Needs a Slump Buster
Alex Ovechkin is in the midst of the worst goal-scoring slump of his NHL career.

It's certainly not time to panic given the circumstances surrounding this dry spell. And there's no reason to believe that Alex Ovechkin's game won't return to the level to which we've all grown accustomed when it matters. But it sure would be nice for the world to be reminded of who its greatest goal-scorer is, especially when it wakes up today to a three-way tie atop the League's leaderboard. And while individual accolades don't mean much to this team or the players on it any longer, the goals that do mean something will be awfully tough to achieve without their best players being their best players. For Alex Ovechkin, hopefully a March that came in like a sheep lamb will leave with the roar of a lion.





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at 6:04 PM

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6 comments:

BobbyG said...

It's strange to talk about someone who has scored 45 goals as being in a slump but the truth is, Ovie hasn't been his dominating formidable self since the Olympics meltdown. Is he still suffering the lingering effects of Russia's disappointing showing in Vancouver? The recent interview with his mother suggests he still has some dark moments and it could be a factor.

Or is Ovie experiencing a post-suspension funk? Is he subconsciously holding back his intensity because he doesn't want to get suspended again so close to the playoffs or, even worse, when the playoffs begin?

Or is Ovie feeling even more pressure as the Capitals Captain, with the Caps running away with the Eastern Conference and possibly taking the President's Trophy to win the BIG ONE--the Stanley Cup--as the playoffs get closer and closer?

Maybe it's all of the above, which is a tremendous burden to carry.

I hope that whatever the reason, Ovie snaps out of it in time to create momentum going into the playoffs, so that he and the team can ride the giant mo deep into the postseason, culminating in a Stanley Cup win.

Something tells me that the sooner Ovie is vindicated and exorcises his demons from the Olympics and last season's game 7 loss to the Penguins, the better it will be for his future productivity.

March 27, 2010 at 10:45 PM
Dan, Jr. said...

Ovie's gonna have to build a warehouse to store all the trophies he's aquiring in his brilliant career.

Slump? I'm not worried about slumps, and I doubt Alex loses sleep over it.

March 28, 2010 at 5:49 AM
tj said...

Yeah, but would be nice to win Maurice Richard again or at least beat Lady Cindy...

March 28, 2010 at 1:22 PM
BobbyG said...

Don't look now but Henrik Sedin has overtaken the lead in total points for the Art Ross trophy.

March 28, 2010 at 3:16 PM
Anonymous said...

Ovie's a great individual talent. When he's hot you can ride his coat tails. But he's not the go-to guy when the going gets tough. That's when he does his dissapperaring act. He can't dig deep when the team's in trouble. He's not going to turn things around for you. Great player, but if he was playing in the era of Gretzky or Lemieux we would'nt be talking about him.

March 31, 2010 at 5:11 PM
tj said...

You got it wrong, man... Disappearing act? What do you know about Ovechkin, do you follow him? How the longest slump in his career sounds for you? He carried this team on his shoulders for 4 years until they could do something. And in the most important games like the one before Olympics vs Pens he was the main factor in Caps victory. You can here with your Russian stereotypes, man, but it doesn't work for Ovie, you don't know a shit about Ovie. Tommy Salo had never recovered after that ugly loss to Belarus, the loss to Canada for Ovie was devastating, that's why we don't see normal Ovie.

But he'll be back.

March 31, 2010 at 10:24 PM

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