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PITTSBURGH - Does The Great 8 have A Great Hate for his No. 1 rival, Sidney Crosby?
Upon further review, “hate” might be too strong a word to describe Alex Ovechkin’s feelings in this case.
But if he did, who could blame him?
Ovechkin has the invigorating flair, the intoxicating smile, the scoring titles, the TV commercials.
Crosby has a Stanley Cup ring, an Olympic gold medal and a head-to-head playoff series victory over Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals last spring.
When it comes to championships, Crosby definitely has the advantage in the battle of the NHL’s two poster boys.
Maybe Sid the Kid isn’t as flamboyant or doesn’t carry himself with the same swagger as Alexander The Great.
In the end, none of that matters.
Only championships do.
And Ovechkin knows it.
Standing in one of the gloomy corridors of the crumbling Mellon Arena just days before the start of the 2010 playoffs, you can see the hunger in Ovechkin’s beady eyes when the subject of the 2010 Stanley Cup comes up.
A year ago, Ovechkin did not watch the finals. He did not see Crosby, his arch-rival, hoist hockey’s Holy Grail after coming out on top in a gruelling seven-game series with the Detroit Red Wings.
Nor did he want to.
“If I wasn’t playing in it, why would I care about it?” Ovechkin said, shrugging his shoulders.
Besides, Ovechkin and his Caps had every opportunity to spoil Crosby’s Stanley Cup run when the two superstars locked horns in the Eastern Conference semi-finals four weeks earlier.
With the entire hockey world focused on the NHL’s glamour twins, most pundits figured the crazed red-clad throng at the Verizon Center would help lead the Caps to victory in the seventh and deciding game. Someone forgot to tell that to Crosby and the Pens, who thumped the hosts 6-2 to advance.
Losing to Crosby under the spotlight he so covets must have left Ovechkin crushed.
As he probably was when Crosby went on to win the Cup.
And the Olympic gold medal in February.
And a share of the Rocket Richard Trophy earlier this week.
Capturing a share of the Richard along with Steven Stamkos of the Tampa Bay Lightning is the most recent example of a long line of guttings Crosby has inflicted on Ovechkin in the past 12 months.
Ovechkin entered the final day of the regular season Sunday leading the race for the Richard with 50 goals, one more than Crosby and Stamkos. Not for long. Crosby and Stamkos each scored twice, leapfrogging Ovechkin at the last possible moment for the award, which goes to the league’s top goal-scorer.
As had been the case on numerous occasions the past year, Crosby had bested The Great Eight.
Truth be told, revenge is not a source of motivation for Ovechkin. At least not a primary one. Not as much as getting the opportunity to sip from the Cup himself, a quest that will begin this week when his Capitals meet the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the 2010 Stanley Cup tournament.
In order to survive the eight-week playoff wars and win the title, Ovechkin understands there is a realistic possibility the Caps will have to go through Crosby and the Penguins at some point. If such a dream matchup does come around again, Ovechkin vows to be ready.
“Sid has shown how much of a leader he is,” Ovechkin said, flashing his toothy smile. “He is a great player.
“Pittsburgh is one of the top teams, like Buffalo and New Jersey, that I hope we play in the future. I don’t know how many games we would face them in — six, maybe seven — but I hope it would be four.
“That’s the key — being efficient early on. If we want to go deep into the playoffs we can’t be going seven games in the first round, We have to take care of business when we can.
“Every year, we’ve taken a little step forward. This year we want to take the final one.”
Two years ago, the Caps were ousted in Game 7 of the first round by the Philadelphia Flyers. Last spring, it was the Penguins.
Perhaps, should they meet again, things will be different. Perhaps this will be the spring when Ovechkin blooms in the post-season instead of Crosby.
There is evidence to support that theory. During the 2009-10 regular season, Ovechkin’s Caps owned Crosby’s Pens, sweeping the series 6-0.
“That means nothing,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said. “The Penguins are the defending champions. As such, they are the team to beat.”
Boudreau understands the Caps will go only as far as Alex Ovechkin takes them. The Alex Ovechkin who plays with an edge, that is.
When Ovechkin was suspended for shoving Chicago Blackhawks defenceman Brian Campbell into the United Center boards last month, he returned to the lineup a much more tentative, non-aggressive player.
Boudreau didn’t want that. Nor did he like it. So he pulled Ovechkin aside.
Boudreau’s message: Forget about the no-minds who are calling you dirty. Be enthusiastic. Go start crushing opponents again, within the rules, of course. Be the in-your-face player who can be a dominant force.
In the final week of the season, Ovechkin did exactly that.
Of course, there still are those who feel the Caps will flop in the post-season again, claiming Washington is far too one-dimensional to withstand the suffocating checking of playoff hockey.
Just ask Columbus forward R.J. Umberger.
“A good defensive team is going to beat them,” Umberger said recently. “If you eliminate your turnovers and keep them off the power play, they’re going to get frustrated because they’re in their zone a lot.”
Boudreau chuckled at the notion that his team can’t win this time of year because of their offence-first philosophy.
“I’ve heard all the stuff, that we play the wrong way,” Boudreau said.
“Well, if that’s the case, Pittsburgh won the Cup last year playing the wrong way, too.”
Boudreau has a point. It was, after all, coach Dan Bylsma’s offence-first philosophy that sparked the Pens on their Stanley Cup run a year ago.
Now Boudreau hopes a similar style will equal the same success for the Caps in 2010, with Ovechkin, of course, leading the charge.
If that means going through Crosby, so be it. If this is to be Ovechkin’s time, it will be a challenge he’ll relish.
And, in the process, finally have the opportunity to have the last laugh on Crosby.
mike.zeisberger@sunmedia.ca