The puck drops tonight!

[Exarecr]

Originally Posted by gunnut

Ducks vs. Stars tonight. That will be a good game.

What the hell happened? I expected the Ducks to at least try to hit and be mean. I mean really,4 zip. These guys are killing my pool. Dallas reminded me of the Flyer's of old.

[Exarecr]

Originally Posted by Mobbme

Ottawa got spanked Malkin to the rescue, I wonder when Crosby will show up I bet all the "injured" senators will be in the line up for game 2, guaranteed. I watched a bit of the avalanche game, and boy do they remind me of the old avalanche team. And guess who scores the O.T winner? Sakic, as usual.

Now I sit patiently, awaiting the arrival of Ovechkin

Oh yeah, if you look back I said Iginla was a powerhouse, and he's unstoppable; I think he proved my point last night

Washington's the game for me tonight(Ovey is in my pool). Ottawa is a right-off and I'm still pinch myself in happiness. Lets hope Crosby gets some points tonight because I'm tied with my son and my unemployed lazy brother in law. How about the Rangers and Devils. This ones a toss-up even though Jersey was smoked last game. Drury,s got to get his butt going.

[gunnut]

Originally Posted by Mobbme

heheh nice one

That oilers team had the hockey god's behind them. I think that was Pronger's best year ever.

P.S wasn't that his last year on contract aswell?

That was actually the first year of his 5 year contract.

[gunnut]

Originally Posted by Exarecr

What the hell happened? I expected the Ducks to at least try to hit and be mean. I mean really,4 zip. These guys are killing my pool. Dallas reminded me of the Flyer's of old.

It was a good game until the ref made a questionable call. Dallas scored on that powerplay and rattled the Ducks. Refs made more questionable calls later and Dallas really piled on. Hopefully this is a wake up call for the Ducks.

[ofelas]

Habs spank the Ruins like a red headed stepchild...them Bruins sure are good at losing

[Mobbme]

Originally Posted by gunnut

That was actually the first year of his 5 year contract.

You're right, dham. I didn't believe you for a second, so before I was about to get into a heavy discussion, I researched; he signed a 5 year contract but then wanted to leave after the season.

[Mobbme]

Originally Posted by Exarecr

Washington's the game for me tonight(Ovey is in my pool). Ottawa is a right-off and I'm still pinch myself in happiness. Lets hope Crosby gets some points tonight because I'm tied with my son and my unemployed lazy brother in law. How about the Rangers and Devils. This ones a toss-up even though Jersey was smoked last game. Drury,s got to get his butt going.

Oh man am I ready for this. I've been up since earling morning and I refuse to take a nap as-we-speak. I know i'll end up missing the beginning, and I don't intend to miss even 1 min of tonight's game! The whole world's been waiting for Alexander The Great to storm into the playoffs, and the time has come.

I don't think you got anything to worry about -with drury. He's Mr. Playoffs. He'll start performing very soon, just like that russian guy Ruslan Fedotenko; very quiet in the regular season, but turn into beasts in the playoffs.

[gunnut]

Originally Posted by Mobbme

You're right, dham. I didn't believe you for a second, so before I was about to get into a heavy discussion, I researched; he signed a 5 year contract but then wanted to leave after the season.

For that he's the most hated man in Edmonton since Peter Pocklington.

[Mobbme]

OMG!!! That was the most exciting game i've ever seen. Capitals were down 4-2, and BLAM! They've tied it at 4-4, and then what would be the sweetest game winning goal? Alexannder THe Great making a sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet move and scoring, mannnn i'm in awee

[Mobbme]

WOW, playoffs are turning quite interesting now. Who would've thought the Ducks would go down 0-2? I hope they don't get swept I still have faith in them, I believe they'll come back and win; hopefully they will.

Who saw Avery's shananigans in game 3? ROFL he was doing the chicken dance infront of Brodeur for a good 30 seconds

[gunnut]

I'm depressed.

I feel like a Leaf fan.

[Mobbme]

Originally Posted by gunnut

I'm depressed.

I feel like a Leaf fan.

You need to be-leaf in Niedermeyer. I think the best is yet to come. I can picture a hungry Pronger right now, can you?

[Mobbme]

The Russians aren't used to hearing good news coming out of Washington, D.C.

Back in the days of the Iron Curtain, the two countries were the world's two polar opposites, each skeptical about the intentions of the other.

But that's ancient history. After all, back then there were only a handful of European players in the NHL, and no Russians at all.

Today, the League is flooded with European-born players and Russians are among the biggest stars in the NHL. That shift is reflected in today's Moscow.

Now, Moscovites are up in the middle of the night – Moscow is eight hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone -- to watch one charismatic Russian young hockey player named Alexander Ovechkin create havoc in Washington.

It doesn't hurt that Ovechkin has help from Sergei Fedorov, Alexander Semin and Viktor Kozlov – three other Russians – in making the Caps the Cinderella story of the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoffs.

But, the charismatic Ovechkin is the great unifier that people in both Washington and Moscow love to love, even it means pulling an all-nighter in Moscow and going straight from watching the game to going to work

Alexey Shelestenko, a market research analyst at Google and based in Russia, is one of those fans whom Ovechkin has charmed. Originally a Ducks fan, Shelestenko is now keeping an eye on Ovechkin, the pride of Russian hockey.

Shelestenko and his fellow Russian hockey fans have one obvious problem trying to follow Ovie's success in the NHL: The games are played in the middle of the night in Moscow. A 7 p.m. game in Washington is a 3 a.m. game there.

Ovechkin-watching becomes even more of a challenge if you don't have cable TV.

"I've been an NHL fan since 1994 and I try to follow it every possible way. I read NHL.com, TSN and ESPN, I even followed the Ducks run to the Cup in 2003, but back then, it was impossible to watch the games at home, and the only place to see them was a fancy sports casino," Shelestenko says.

This year, the Ducks fan, like so many others, turned into an AO follower.

"About three weeks before the end of the regular season, I was just following the Caps, hoping they'd make it to the playoffs. When I couldn't see the game, I went to NHL.com and followed the game reports."

Ovechkin has forced Shelestenko to return to the sports casino a few times to get his fix.

"The hot Russian NHL team used to be the Detroit Red Wings, with (Igor) Larionov, (Sergei) Fedorov, (Slava) Fetisov and the rest, and they still have the biggest fan base here," Shelestenko says. "Now, everybody's watching Ovechkin.

"Russian players have been known to be the ones whose performance dips once the fat contract gets signed. Not Ovechkin. Russians as a people are also afraid of making a fool of themselves, and to act genuinely happy for your own success is almost looked down upon. Not Ovechkin."

The stereotype of the Russian player is that of the old Soviet style where the players would celebrate a goal or other success by patting each other on the helmets or the shin pads maybe twice, then skating to the bench without a smile. Ovechkin, through his exuberance, shows people that it doesn't have to be that way.

"Ilya Kovalchuk is the epitome of that (stoicism)," Shelestenko said. "He scores and is just cool about it. The passion that Ovechkin brings to the game gets everybody energized. He knows he's the best, but he's not afraid of falling. I think that's his charm."

Shelestenko's friend, Dmitry Possunko, became a Caps fan thanks to Ovechkin.

"He's young, and exciting to watch, not just because he scores a lot of goals, but because with him, anything can happen at any second. He can deliver a big check, dish out a nice pass, or score a goal," Possunko says.

Possunko first took notice of the young, flashy Ovechkin during the World Junior Championships. Then, he saw Ovechkin at the World Championships, saw the NHL Entry Draft online, and then stayed with Ovechkin all the way to the NHL.

This fall, Possunko was in Canada for six months and got to see a lot of Ovechkin highlight-reel material, but back home, it hasn't been as easy.

"I came back in January, and didn't have cable, so I missed some of the action, but followed him online," Possunko says.

But, when the going gets tough, the tough get going. And when the games get big, the Russian NHL fans go to sports bars that stay open well into the wee hours.

"If there was a big game against Carolina or something, I did go to a sports bar to see the game and then maybe go to work a little late," Possunko said. "If you can't go in late, and it's a really big game, you can watch it and go straight to work. "I've done that a few times."

As an adviser to the general manager of a large Russian company, Possunko advice to his boss comes out a little slower on days following a big NHL game and the ensuing sleepless night.

The third alternative is to have friends over to watch the games together. That's something Possunko hasn't done – yet.

"People do that, though, they gather to somebody's apartment to watch the games," he says.

Ovechkin fever is raging in Russia, but he's not the only hometown boy getting Russians excited about the NHL.

After all, Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin finished second in the scoring race, and Atlanta's Ilya Kovalchuk was runner-up for the Maurice Richard Trophy, behind Ovechkin. Veteran Alex Kovalev, meanwhile, is the offensive leader on a strong Montreal team.

"We're proud of these guys," says Possunko, already getting ready for the next Capitals game.

"I hope the Caps will win. The Flyers did a good job with Ovechkin last time (in Game 2), but that's the thing with Ovechkin. You can shut him down for 50 minutes, then he gets one chance and he scores," Possunko says.

Good night, Washington. Good morning, Moscow.

Thats a pretty nice article, worth a read

Just shows how far this kid Ovechkin has come, and i'm dham proud of him even though he's not Canadian.

[Mobbme]

Oh HOW SWEEET A SWEEEEEP CAN BE!!!

Ottawa's out, and my smile's back

Well, Anaheim finally woke up, they scored 4 goals before Richards could even win a face off lol

[Exarecr]

Hee....Hee... Hee...Ottawa is out and I do hope their fans are not suffering to greatly this morning.........NOT! Ti's a wonderful thing this eating of crow and it appears Ottawa has acquired a taste for the bird....so enjoy, and see ya all next season. However, those Flames are going to decrease my life expectancy if they don't start bearing down. A missed opportunity to go up 3-1 lost in part to players to absorbed studying their profiles on the safety- glass reflections as they launched an overwhelming attack which produced a whopping 12 shots on goal.Not only was it the manner in which Calgary gave up the ship with 7 seconds left that will probably be remembered as the point the Sharks took over the series. It was also the flick of the switch wake up call for Thornton that was missing all those play-off years ago....which unfortunately for Calgary,chose these play-offs to finally emerge. Thornton's actions have reminded me with stunning audio clarity that hormone ravaged teenage boys do not take defeat well. Looking forward to their next game though,cause baby,if they don't show up for this one...it's all over. Ovey looked horrible in Philly(as did the whole team)and I think they need a season or two before they can contend. Still think it,s going to be Rangers vs the Ducks(who finally woke up)in the final(Im sure the Pens have other plans me thinks). Well, time to put the stats up in our hockey pool,cheers.