to move up and down
Great shirt, or greatest shirt? Washington Capitals player Alex Ovechkin was sporting a funny shirt, when he met the media on Tuesday in Arlington, Va., which asked ‘Am I really the prettiest one here, again?’ (Photo: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/The Associated Press)
Friday morning was the first sign that things were different. Friday morning, it finally felt real.
On a day when training camps around the NHL were supposed to open with medical exams and fitness testing, hockey fans instead woke up to highlights of Alex Ovechkin and other locked-out players making their regular-season debuts in the KHL and other European leagues.
It was yet another reminder that the landscape is changing, that hockey might have to be consumed differently this season. If you want your fix, it can be had. You just might need a translator to understand.
Photo: Maxim Shemetov/Reuters
The thinnest of margins
Bruce Arthur: Towards the end of the second period, Boston’s Rich Peverley was being pushed around, and he turned at Washington goaltender Braden Holtby and started an angry two-handed slash that he stopped short of the Capitals netminder by a few inches, just enough. Holtby stood with his arms crossed, a statue. He might not even have blinked.
And Game 7 between Boston and Washington was about who would blink first, and who would follow through. It was the first playoff series in NHL history to have all seven games decided by a single goal; it was as close as a playoff series can possibly be, or has ever been. And the final goal of the series belonged to Washington, on a goal 2:25 into overtime, for a 2-1 victory. The margin, as it had been all series, was a skate blade, if that.
Photo: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters
Ovechkin ‘shocked’ by Boudreau firing
It was supposed to be a reporter’s dream. Coach gets fired? Go see the player he had a rift with. The reaction from Washington star Alex Ovechkin, though, to the release of head coach Bruce Boudreau was less than sizzling. Photo: Patrick McDermott/Getty Images
Uh oh
Which one is real? Russia’s Alex Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals, mimics his wax likeness in hockey gear during the unveiling at Madame Tussauds wax museum in Washington. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
