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 Image Courtesy of Reuters
During this Olympic Break, we Washingtonians are going through a bit of withdrawal. Some of us are having a difficult time deciding who to root for in men's hockey...forced into choosing between our country and our favorite player. Either way you look at the Olympics, you want to see Alex Ovechkin perform to his best ability. He's playing on an international stage and has declared several times just how determined he is to deliver a gold medal to his homeland.
However, those of us watching the games from the Washington D.C. area are apparently not the only group that's missing Alex's gap-toothed grin. Apparently, he's become nearly nonexistent (along with the rest of his Olympic teammates) in Vancouver outside of practice sessions and games. Ovi has basically ignored interview requests from anyone outside of the Russian media, and is gaining a bit of a bad reputation among the rest of the international media. In our day and age, one of the biggest players on that stage is ESPN. The Worldwide Leader has treated hockey worse than bowling and poker over the last decade, but finds it necessary to complain when the sport's biggest star won't come out to shine whenever he is called upon.
Here we arrive at a piece posted by Scott Burnside this morning. Burnside waves a warning finger at Ovechkin for the media snubbing so far at the games, but in the process seems to miss the point of Ovi's behavior entirely. Now it's my turn to wave the finger at Burnside. Let's break this thing down.
Burnside: Now, it wouldn't be the Olympics if someone wasn't in a snit. And in the pantheon of snit-sters, the media rank far down the great "Who cares if they're ticked off?" list. Still, the NHL's best and brightest stars have been on the ground in Vancouver for at least three full days, and what do we know of the great Alex Ovechkin? Well, virtually nothing because the man has become a ghost. If only the Washington Capitals' crack PR staff had been assigned to Ovechkin and the Russian national team. We're pretty sure there wouldn't be any carping. But it isn't, and repeated requests for Ovechkin from the national media have fallen pretty much on deaf ears.
First of all, using words like 'snit' and 'carping' set the tone for this article to be chock full of sour grapes. Burnside is obviously unhappy that Ovechkin is not showing his quote-machine persona. That's any media outlet's worst nightmare when it comes to covering a big event like this. However, Alex Ovechkin isn't taking these two weeks to be an ambassador or a media darling. He's there to win Olympic gold. One of the biggest knocks on Ovi in the past has been that he's not a winner. He's a me-first kind of guy. It sounds to me like the guy is focused and doesn't feel like spending his off-days distracted by a media zoo. Even his comments to Russian media have been limited to this point.
Now, the Olympics are a tricky business, between rights holders and who gets to stand where and who has to talk to whom first in the mixed zones (the penned areas where the media are held like much livestock -- discuss amongst yourselves).
Read: I'm mad that I can't throw my ESPN weight around to get the access I would like.
But the Russians, or Ovechkin himself, have decided to behave in a manner that is decidedly un-Olympic, speaking almost exclusively to the Russian media (we get that) and generally ignoring the rest of us (which we don't).
In what way is this un-Olympic? The players are not there to speak into a microphone. They are there to compete against the best in the world. They are there to represent their country with pride in athletic competition, not in a media circus.
Now, we're not suggesting Ovechkin is Socrates on skates and we're all the poorer for not knowing how he feels about the lines at the Hudson's Bay Company or the ticket fiasco here or the food at the athletes' village. But it shouldn't be this big a hassle to get in front of a player who is arguably the best in the world playing in the world's biggest tournament … should it?
Considering the stink you and your MSM colleagues are making over this, you'd certainly think he is Socrates. At the very least, his behavior is apparently worthy enough for you to drop 500 words on him at around almost midnight (2:39 ET). Furthermore, you seemed to make it sound like it was a hassle to cover anything in Vancouver based upon their treatment of the media. Maybe the Olympic brass have good reason to keep you hogtied throughout the games.
 (Shaun Best/Reuters)
Ovechkin sent minor shock waves through the hockey world in September when he told ESPN.com if the NHL wasn't going to go to the Sochi Games in 2014, he'd take his pucks and go home for the tournament on his own. He clearly feels strongly about the Olympics and specifically about playing for his country on his home soil. We applaud that.
No you don't. You think he's only passionate about playing in Sochi because it's on his home turf. You don't even understand WHY he feels so strongly about the Olympics in general. Ovechkin's mother won two gold medals as a Soviet basketball player. His dad is a former member of the Soviet national soccer team. Ovi was born and bred in a household where international competition was put on the highest pedestal. Because Ovechkin made these statements, people seem to think he's belittling the Vancouver games. In reality it's quite the opposite. Ovi is ashamed of how his team performed at the 2006 games in Turino, and he's out to correct the mistakes that they made at this year's tournament. He has stated his regret over this several times in recent months. As a result, Ovechkin has tried to bring an stronger focus on the actual competition this season, and if that means he ignores the international media, so be it.
So, what gives here in Vancouver? Blowing off reporters in the mixed zone in general, as he did after Tuesday's 8-2 romp over Latvia, or tossing off a couple of half-hearted answers in the days leading up to the tournament and then declining to come to the main hockey venue Wednesday makes Ovechkin look like a child. It also makes his supposed passion for the Olympics in Sochi appear contrived and self-serving.
Maybe Ovechkin wasn't impressed with his two-goal performance on Tuesday. Maybe he understands that talking about a victory that his team was expected to deliver wasn't going to help him prepare for his next game. By refusing to talk to the media, Ovechkin didn't look like a child, he looked like an athlete focused on the end-goal of the competition...winning. But we all know that Ovi's a me-first, stat-hogging kind of player, right? With regards to the Sochi comment, has anyone asked Ovechkin what he would have done if players would have been barred from leaving their teams for these Olympic games? I would bet a lucky loonie that Ovi would have treated this competition with the same importance, and left the Capitals to compete for his country. Furthermore, isn't this whole article a little self-serving Scottie? Pot, meet kettle.
My snit is nearly over…
Oh, but there's still a cookie-cutter comment left for us...goodie.
We say this in closing, and with a high level of confidence: Sidney Crosby would never behave this way; nor would Peter Forsberg or Patrick Kane. Something to think about.
As for Sidney Crosby...you're probably right about this. As much as I can't stand the guy, Crosby is always ready to face the media, no matter the situation. Peter Forsberg? Really? I understand he's competing in these games, but let's try and use a little more current reference. Patrick Kane? I think you're right. He'd probably do a great job of talking to the media after he finishes beating the living tar out of some Vancouver cabbie.
Regardless, comparing Ovechkin's behavior to that of Crosby or any other Olympian is irrelevant. Different guys have different temperaments and mindsets when it comes to competition. Obviously Ovechkin feels the need to handle this tournament differently than he has in the past. He is obviously focused on winning. Anyone that fails to see that needs to take off their xenophobic glasses. Calling him a child for his behavior only discredits the argument against Ovi further, and makes the mainstream media look like infants themselves.
As a Caps fan, I'm certainly excited to see just how focused our star is this week. Over the course of this season, Ovechkin has grown up before our very eyes. He's shown to be far more committed on the defensive end of the ice. He's accepted the captaincy and the team has rallied around him. He repeatedly denies that his stats matter and reiterates his ultimate desire to bring a Stanley Cup to Washington D.C. The guy is 24. He's no longer a child. He is within his rights to offer the media as much (or as little) coverage as he chooses. He is the one that has to lace up and skate his heart out every other night for the next week, so he should be able to determine the best way to manage his time in-between games and practices. If Ovi believes that the international media provides too much of a distraction and he limits his access to a few Russian papers, that's entirely his call. To me, this is just another step on Ovechkin's journey toward an Olympic gold medal, and ultimately hoisting Lord Stanley's Cup.
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