Your savory breakfast links:
- Alex Ovechkin is “week-to-week” with an “upper-body strain.” [Capitals]
- Vogs on “Life Without Ovi.” [Dump and Chase]
- J.P. on life without Ovi: Get busy living, or get busy dying.
- Other takes on the news of the day from The WaPo, The Times and Peerless.
- Slava Malamud spoke with AO on his injury (translated after the jump).
- Great work by the editors who ran headlines like “Capitals’ Ovechkin expected to miss one game” based upon Bruce Boudreau‘s assertion that “he’s more probable for the weekend than he is for Wednesday.” Psst… it’s called “the healing process” and the way it usually works is the more time off an injured player gets, the more likely he is to play again.
- In other AO news, he has become a “global icon” who apparently has “transcended the sport of hockey” and signed with IMG Worldwide “for exclusive worldwide management, sponsorship, licensing and marketing representation.” It’s probably all an elaborate ploy by IMG, though, to facilitate getting their mitts on Jeff Schultz. [Puck Daddy, D.C. Sports Bog, Washington Times, Washington Business Journal]
- He also was named the second star of the month for October. Jobbed. [Capitals]
- How clutch was Alex in October? There were none more clutch (tip o’ the lid to Nicklas Backstrom, Jose Theodore and Alexander Semin for their respective months of clutchosity as well… sorry, felt I needed to invent a word there). [USA Today]
- Michael Nylander appeared on HNIC Radio yesterday afternoon with Jeff Marek and Kelly Hrudey. Not much new, but he did mention that he’s heard that there may be “interest from a few teams.” [CBC.ca (audio)]
- If The Boss agrees “for the most part” with a post that claims that the Caps “lack backbone,” does that mean that he thinks the team’s soft? I doubt he’d say that. [Ted’s Take]
- Gabby on his book release in the latest edition of “Behind the Bench.” [Capitals]
- In the first round of weekly power rankings, the Caps are up a spot to third at the National Post, up three to third at The Sporting News, up three to fifth at ESPN and holding at fifth at TSN and CBC and fourth at Sportsnet.
- Nice piece on the Ovechkin/Mike Richards rivalry. [TSN via YouTube (video)]
- Despite the inconsistency, Mike Green‘s off to a pretty good start. [Puck Prospectus]
- The Caps are currently out-shooting their opponents by a slim per-game margin, but should they end up in the red in this area, take heart – some pretty darn good teams have been outshot by their opponents. [Behind The Net]
- Though he’s a long shot to make Team USA (heck, I didn’t even know he was eligible… maybe being born on the fourth of July earns you automatic citizenship), Mike Knuble must be put on the squad so we can see “Yankee Knuble Dandy” and, of course, “Knuble-eve in Miracles?!” headlines. [From The Rink]
- Are the Caps sending someone to Finland to scout Peter Forsberg? [The Fourth Period]
- Apparently, Rolling Stone doesn’t know that the Caps exist, which is somewhat ironic given how irrelevant the once-great mag has become. [D.C. Sports Bog]
- Capitals Singles Night at Bar Louie before the Wild game? This has to be the worst idea the team has come up with in years. I mean, do they really want Brooks Laich to be late to the game? [Capitals]
- Alexandre Giroux was named AHL Player of the Month for October. Hopefully he’s in a position to repeat in November, December… [John Walton Hockey]
- Bear Tracks and an Andrew Joudrey article. [LDN]
- Jason Bacashihua is currently 4-0-0/1.00/.962 for the Bears. [John Walton Hockey]
- The Vancouver Canucks have signed Matt Pettinger. Atta boy, Princess. [Canucks]
- In other Vancouver-related news, Glen Hanlon has stepped down as head coach of the Belarus national team. Rough couple of weeks for Hugs. [The Hockey News]
- And in other Olympic hockey news, someone named Tracee Hamilton chimes in on Sochi 2014. [Washington Post]
[In today’s edition of Sport-Express, Slava Malamud catches up with Alex Ovechkin to see if he can get some insight into his injury. There are no earth-shattering revelations, except that maybe the entire Russian Olympic team has been jinxed.]
Sounding the alarm isn’t really included among the duties of a sports reporter, but since we aren’t afraid to jinx things with praise, well…. basically, at the rate they are going Russia will need to send to Vancouver an Olympic team made up of some KHL clubs, a medical team from a medium-sized hospital and a shaman from the Republic of Sakha. (come on, I know you meant a Tuvan shaman, Slava- TH). I can only call the adversity inflicted upon the potential Olympians as nothing else but unprecedented.
It hasn’t even been a month since the start of the NHL regular season and injuries have already claimed Andrei Markov (torn tendon- out for several months), Sergei Gonchar (wrist- out at least until December), Ilya Kovalchuk (broken bone in foot, not expected to return before the end of November), and Evgeni Malkin (sprained shoulder- out two to three weeks). Such trifles as Alexander Semin‘s illness (exactly what it was they will not say, but it is well-known that the team did have a case of the swine flu), which caused him to sit out a couple of games, are not even worth mentioning.
And now, during a Sunday game in the U.S. Capital, that very thing which the Russians have had enough of happened again. It is difficult to say exactly when it happened. Perhaps at the beginning of the second period, when Ovechkin skated by Jason Chimera and the latter nudged the former with his shoulder. Apparently that was in retaliation for when the Russian boarded the Canadian forward during the first period. Ovechkin shoved Chimera with his hands, a scuffle ensued, during which Alexander was grabbed and dragged, and finally he went to the penalty box, lightly supporting his left arm. Coming out on the ice, he collided in the offensive zone with Raffi Torres, fell to the ice and grimaced in pain and immediately came off the ice and went to the locker room. He missed the rest of the game.
If you assess the situation solely on appearances, you could assume that Alexander injured his left arm or shoulder. After the game he talked a bit with the press and gave an interview to Sport Express.
Alexander, what happened? Were you injured by Chimera, Torres or somebody else?
“I can’t say. I can’t even discuss the exact moment in order to not divulge what exactly my injury is.”
Then can you at least give the official version-is it upper or lower body?
“Upper body.”
How serious does it feel?
“I don’t know, but I would say that it is “day-to-day”. I’m going in for some tests tomorrow and then everything will be clear.”
What’s happening to all the Olympic team players? You guys are just having some bad luck.
“I can’t understand it myself. Perhaps some girl has put a hex on us.”
Yesterday afternoon Moscow time Ovechkin underwent testing, after which he confirmed to your Sport Express reporter that his injury is not very serious.
“They’ll give a more exact diagnosis later” said Alexander “but the doctors said that there is no serious damage.”
Can you give some estimation of when you might return?
“It’s 100 percent that I’ll miss the next game, and then we’ll see.”