The Media's Hate Affair with Alex Ovechkin

Currently, I am fired up because all the media (mostly ESPN) is upset because Ovie is not talking to them at the Olympics.

http://espn.go.com/olympics/blog?name=winterolympics&id=4923645

Never mind the fact that the entire Russian team is not taking questions except for a few from their home country. I guess because Ovechkin is the biggest hockey star on the planet, it’s only fair that he take the brunt of the criticism. The guy that is usually so effervescent, animated, and quotable and has filled reporters’ notebooks for years has clammed up because that’s what he thinks it will take for him to win a gold medal. You’d have to be living under a rock not to understand how important these Olympic Games (or any Games) are to Ovechkin. BOTH his parents represented his country at a national level. He’s gone on record as saying he will bolt for a month in 2014 if the NHL does not break for the Olympics. If he believes in his mind that this is what he needs to do win then that’s what he’s got to do. And if that makes the media’s job a little more difficult - tough. I’m sick of the winey, cry baby media and their Napoleon complex when it comes to big stars. They are the story. Not you. Oh but you feel dissed in some way because an athlete did not want to talk to you after a game. So you feel the need to drag their names through the mud or keep them barred from the Hall of Fame for a few years (I’m looking at your Peter King). Yeah, that’ll show them who’s boss.

Also, Jim Kelley is back and can not write something complimentary without taking a dig at Ovechkin.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/2010/02/18/kelley_column_break/

"Best Player: Call it a cop-out if you like, but to me it's Alex Ovechkin AND Sidney Crosby and not just because they are tied with 42 goals. I like Ovechkin simply because he is the most exciting and dynamic player in the game today and when he's not doing a little head hunting or knee hunting (something he's reined in since being criticized and being named captain of the Capitals) he's been outrageously good."

Now saying that because Ovechkin hasn't injured anyone in a couple months, he has therefore changed his style of play is a fallacy. Kind of like this example:

Homer: Well, there's not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol is sure doing its job.
Lisa: That's specious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you, sweetie.
Lisa: Dad, what if I were to tell you that this rock keeps away tigers.
Homer: Uh-huh, and how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work. It's just a stupid rock.
Homer: I see.
Lisa: But you don't see any tigers around, do you?
Homer: Lisa, I'd like to buy your rock.

Ovie hasn’t changed his style. Did you not see him knock Jaromir Jagr back to 1992 on Sunday? I’m pretty sure he thought he was back in Pittsburgh after that hit. More likely, the freak incidents that occurred in the same week back in November that resulted in his suspension, were just that – isolated events and not indicative of kind of player Ovechkin has been though out his career.