NHL Playoffs: In a Star’s Downfall, a Hero is Born

April 29th, 2010 by ike h Leave a reply »
Let's go back to 2004. The NHL was reeling. Hockey, as a spectator sport, had lost all legitimacy. It was the year of the lockout, the most egregious display of greed and mismanagement professional sports has ever seen. But fast forward to the following year. New hope, new teams, new rules, new intrigue. Sidney Crosby, tauted by "the Great One" himself as the future heir to his very own records, is set to debut. Hockey fans, albeit not a very large number of them, were excited. And then lightening was caught in a bottle, and a star fell to Earth.

The previous years' first overall pick who, because of the glitz and glamor surrounding Crosby, had become nothing more than an afterthought, if even that. But Alex Ovechkin would not be denied his due attention. The rookie phenom dominated, and ran away with the Calder Trophy. Since then, no one has dominated like he has, and no one has done more to galvanize and electrify the NHL and the sport of hockey.

In the last two seasons, Ovechkin has turned his Washington Capitals into a legitimate contender. The hype surrounding the playoffs was sky high. But last night the Capitals were dealt a death blow by th ...

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