Ovechkin is tired, but he's not looking for vacation

DC Sports Bog, Apr. 27, 2010 "Leonsis, Ovechkin and D.C. sports celebrity"

Later in our conversation, I asked Leonsis about Ovechkin's' time in Vancouver, when he had the two unpleasant incidents with video cameras. Again, Leonsis had a personal story, this time about his most famous interaction with a fan.
"You know, I relate," Leonsis said. "I understand. A kid said something he shouldn't have said to me, and I grabbed him. I'll live to regret it forever. But some people say, well, [Leonsis] is out of control. You go, well no, how about the kids with brain tumors that I host every game and you don't see?"

Leonsis also told me about a post-Olympics conversation he had in his office with Ovechkin, in which he told his superstar that he wasn't smiling as much lately. Ovechkin admitted he was tired. Leonsis told Ovechkin that he needed to carve out more time for himself, needed to say no to more of the increasing demands on his time.

"You just have to be a little bit more selfish," Leonsis told his star. "I've been out every single night for the last 50, and tonight, I'm tired. I said, 'I don't know what [my assistant] had me scheduled for tonight, I'm going home at 5 o'clock, I'm having dinner with my daughter at 6, and I'm gonna watch a movie or something. I'm not doing anything. I can't. Because no one's gonna get the best of me if I'm burned out.' So I gave him that as an example. You need to recharge."

washcaps: Ovechkin speaks to the media about Game 7 tomorrow night in DC

OK, Ovi is tired, but he is not ready for a vacation:

Dan Rosen, Apr. 27, 2010, NHL.com:

"Well, it's not only for me, it's a test for everybody," Ovechkin said. "I think everybody knows how important of a game it is, and it's going to be a huge test for all of us."

Captains are looked at to lead, and some are looked to in the locker room for words of encouragement. Ovechkin doesn't seem like the kind of captain that will deliver a motivational speech.

"No, not really," he said when asked if he would say something to the team before the game. "Before every game we have lots of guys who can talk, and everybody knows what we have to do. I have to lead on the ice and in the locker room, but it's not only me. I'm not the only guy that plays hockey here."

He's the only one that bears the weight of the franchise on his shoulders, though.

If the Capitals fail to get out of the first round after rolling through the regular season like a tornado through open plains, Ovechkin's reputation will take a major hit. There will be some critics who start to call him a choker, and they'll try to present viable evidence, too.

He was supposed to lead Team Russia to some kind of medal in Vancouver in February, but instead left only with tattered strings of failure hanging around his neck and a controversy after he shoved a cameraperson.

And now, in the season where he's supposed to lead the Washington Capitals to the Stanley Cup, there is the potential for a first-round exit that seemed so unfathomable just a week ago. Heck, it was unfathomable just 24 hours ago.

"Tomorrow is a day one team is going to be going on vacation," Ovechkin said, "and I don't want to think about vacation right now."

Ovechkin has 5 goals and 4 assists in the series. He's been as good as advertised for most of the series, but just like he's the gap-toothed, smiling face of the happy-go-lucky franchise, he's also the face of the Capitals' struggles to beat Halak.

Ovechkin, though, smiled when Halak's performance was brought up Tuesday as if to indicate that he's ready for the challenge, ready to tackle the Slovak sensation head on.

"It's going to be a pretty interesting game, a pretty interesting battle," said Ovechkin, who was foiled by Halak on each of his eight shots Monday. "We can't think about Halak in the net and we have to do something different; we have to play the same way. We have had great chances; we just have to score goals."

Boudreau loves the attitude from his captain.

"I bet if you ask Alex, he still thinks he's going to score a goal," Boudreau said. "He thinks he's going to score every game."

He doesn't necessarily have to get one Wednesday, but Ovechkin has to do just about everything else to lead his team to a win.

That's what captain's do.

"He's been leading us all season and we expect nothing less from him," Capitals right wing Eric Fehr said. "He's a good player, a vocal leader and a leader on the ice. We expect a huge game from him."

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