Bobby Holik on Ovechkin

I've run into Bobby Holik's web site and not sure if it is the real person. But if not, this person is the greatest impersonator. :-)

He wrote a post "What's wrong with Ovechkin". I do not completely agree with the post, but it is close. Actually it is not really about what-is-wrong-with-ovechkin, but what can be done for Ovechkin to be Ovechkin in post-Ovechkin era. What do you think?

Here's a little excerpt:

I believe there were mistakes made off the ice as well. With early success the Caps had with Ovechkin, Ted Leonsis, George McPhee and Bruce Boudreau did not feel the need to interfere with Ovechkin’s personality. I’m not here to judge but I was never big fan of it. He draws too much attention away from the team and to Ovechkin. I love athletes with personalities. Yet there is a fine line where it gets in the way of your performance. I would have liked to seen the Capitals make a bigger effort to channel all that enthusiasm into making a Ovechkin better leader.

The game went through a pretty big change right after the lockout. The salary cap and new rules forced lot of veterans out. These guys would have been great mentors. Instead organizations handed the keys to greatly talented players but unproven as far as leaders go. Very few athletes and people are natural born leaders, most have to be taught and developed.

So far Ovechkin hasn’t figured it out yet.

Read more...

About Ilya Kovalchuk. First of all he is older than Ovi, Second, his scoring crisis started earlier as well and he had to figure out what he could do next. Basically he was forced to change. Now the same is happening to Ovi and this happening to virtually every prolific scorer once they get older (Yzerman,... blah, blah).

As of antics off the ice, Ovi is already changing. Just look at the picture with Maria. Where are those ripped jeans with more holes than the stars in the night sky or rock star t-shirts? They are already gone. Ovechkin's transformation has already started.

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