Not to be overly melodramatic, but tonight’s game could be one of the most important of Alexander Ovechkin’s career.
He was nothing special at the Olympics – where rival Sidney Crosby scored the Golden Goal.
Ovechkin was a non-factor in Game 1 – while Sid had three assists in a losing cause to open the Ottawa-Pittsburgh series, then scored, drilled Jarkko Ruutu, saved a goal and set up the winner by mesmerizing Jason Spezza last night in Game 2.
Your move, Alex.
If he has any pride, Ovechkin will play his heart out against the Canadiens tonight.
Can your Montreal Canadiens contain him again?
Is there a danger that with a road W in the bag, the team will let up?
Before the series began, a friend who knows a thing or two about hockey predicted Bruce Boudreau would “coach Jacques Martin into the ice”.
That didn’t happen. Martin and Dmen coach Perry Pearn had their guys playing superb gap-control, getting up on Ovechkin and taking away his time and space before he could launch his patented sorties into the offensive zone.
In the chess match that is hockey, especially at this time of the season, that should have opened things up for other options. And maybe it will tonight.
But Martin’s best players played their best in Game 1. And Boudreau’s best – including Ovie, Mike Green and the winner of the Andrei Kostitsyn Play-alike Contest, Alexander Semin – were MIA.
Fearless prediction: Washington will come out smokin’.
And Jaro Halak, who is playing himself into a mega-contract, will face another first-period bombardment.
But if the Canadiens can score first, or at least keep it close …
Puck drops 7:05ish. Check back later for live game blogging.
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