Washington Capitals' defenseman Mike Green is on Twitter. Who isn't, really? And not only does he feel the need to tell the world that he has a passion for coffee but he wants to know if you - yes, random you - prefer coffee or tea. We assume he cares for the answers he's receiving from adoring fans. If you're not on Twitter, you can presumably send him a postcard with your answer to Verizon Center, C/O: Green Life, 601 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20004.


Aren't you glad we patrol Twitter for you?

Photo credit: Flickr/dan4th

I don't know if the manufactured furor over Alexander Ovechkin's celebration of his 50th goal (youtube video of it here) is a league-wide phenomenon, or if it's just here in Toronto that it's been kept alive in print and TV and sports talk radio for far too long, but it's hard to disagree what Bruce Boudreau said to a scrum of reporters the other day.

"It's 10 friggin days since it happened," said Boudreau "We have talked to Tampa's coaches, we have said our speech. The people that are bringing the crap up are you guys. Nobody cares about it anymore. You guys want to bring it up because you want to see a riot, then you want to talk about retribution. It's the dumbest thing in the world. You gotta have better stuff to talk about.

"You guys coming from Toronto to find out an answer on retribution where there should be no retribution at all," he continued. "He scored his 50th goal in a zero-zero game. It wasn't 8-0 where he made a mockery. If Tampa scores a couple of goals and wants to do a celebration, go for it. We have talked to everybody we can talk about. It's a done deal as far as I'm concerned."

This story is over, and I'm not only surprised people are still bugging Boudreau and Ovechkin about it, I'm surprised it caused such a stir in the first place.

The arguments I've heard most about Ovechkin doing his choreographed goal celebration are three-fold. First is that it sets a bad example for hockey playing kids who now might do their own big goal celebrations and show poor sportsmanship. Second is the Don Cherry argument that he's become nothing more than a clown, that people are laughing at him, not with him. Third is that he's embarrassed the Tampa Bay Lightning and made them feel bad.

My take on it is this: Alex Ovechkin is 23 years old. If showing a little youthful exuberance at accomplishing something great, something that no one else in the league is likely going to accomplish this season (Jeff Carter and Zach Parise are tied for second in goals with 41 each, both with just nine games left to play), is wrong, I don't want to be right. If you're a kid playing minor hockey and you score a big goal, go ahead and celebrate it, just do it in the same spirit as Ovechkin: do it because you're having great fun playing a game you love to play.

Ovechkin has plenty of time to become the robotic player who does a simple fist pump then hi-fives his teammates player that Don Cherry and many hockey traditionalists who can't remember what it's like to be 23 years old and doing something you love to do well anymore want him to be. And Don Cherry is not a man who should accuse anyone else of being a clown, not while wearing the various costumes he's worn over the years.

And if the Lightning feel bad about Ovechkin celebrating on them...do something about it. There's nothing wrong with Tampa Bay wanting to show up Ovechkin the next time they play the Capitals by blowing them out, or catching him with a legal check, or keeping him from scoring another one. In fact, that's a good thing. One of the most common complaints about the game today is that there aren't enough rivalries. Well, these are the kind of things that create rivalries. If the Lightning player's self-esteem is so poor that they get depressed because of what Ovechkin did, they need to grow some thicker skin.

Image Source: Flickr / clydeorama

Former NHL coach Pat Burns is a regular contributor to CKAC, a Montréal-based all-sports radio station. When asked to comment on the threatment that some of the thousands of Habs fans got at the Boston Garden when making the road trip for game 3 and 4 of the Canadiens-Bruins series, Burns declared something along the lines of: "If you go to a party in Iraq and start singing God Bless America, you're in trouble."

He then followed up saying that Boston fans are pretty tame and that's nothing compared to what would happen if fans were to show in drove in Habs gear in Philadelphia or Washington. "Washington has one of the worst murder rate in the US."

Good Old Pat needs to have a closer look at the crowd in DC and he'll notice that fans cheering for the opposition, wearing their jersey, are often there in large numbers. To the point that Caps owner Ted Leonsis and the marketing department devised ways to try to make it harder for rival fans to get tickets.

One thing is for sure, Pat will always be colorful.

Image Source: Flickr / cerebusfangirl

After a 2-1 loss in Boston, Washington Caps' owner Ted Leonsis posted two entries on his blog criticizing the referees. The first one had a relatively mild comment about the refs. Leonsis' second entry though, simply entitled "A Perfect Blog Post", only said "Says it all" and linked to a third-party blog post entitled "Inbred Referees 2 / Caps 1" which had as only content the following YouTube clip:

Chances are that if Leonsis had made a comment to the media along the lines of that blog post, the NHL would fine him. Probably the same if he had posted that clip on his blog. One wonders if only linking - and obviously publicly agreeing - to a third-party blog with that clip and title will also trigger a fine from the NHL.

USA Today's Lifestyle section takes a peek at the Washington DC suburb house of Ted Leonsis, majority owner of the Capitals. The feature includes a little tour with 7 pictures. According to the Washington Post, the property was purchased in 1999 for $4.2M plus $565k for the house next door which was demolished instead of turned into a dog house. Poor Coco, she can’t get no respect.

For someone who has a reported net worth somewhere between $5.78 and $1B, depending on the source, when it was written, and the state of the stock market, it really isn't a big deal. Most of the days anyway. Although, with the upcoming recession, maybe - just maybe - he's starting to be afraid of the repo man?

1999 is also the year he purchased the Caps for $85M.

The 22,000 square-foot house on 5.5 acres is described by Leonsis as "...a nice house, but not ostentatious."

Let's check dictionary.com:

Ostentatious: ...characterized by or given to pretentious or conspicuous show in an attempt to impress others.

It has housed 500 guests for cocktails and is featured in a national paper but it's not ostentatious. OK. If he says so. Oh, who's calling? Bruce Cassidy! No, no, no, they already have a pool boy.

"Ovechkin's mom is special, she comes across as a real typical Russian. I don't want to be racist but she has this look," said Stéphane Fiset of Newport Sports Management when interviewed by Montréal-based CKAC Sports radio station after Alex Ovechkin signed the richest contract in overall dollar terms in NHL history with the Washington Capitals ($US124-million for 13 years).

Whatever he meant by "typical Russian."

Fiset was commenting on Ovechkin's new contract and the fact that he dumped Newport Sports Management in late 2006 to have his mom Tatiana, a former basketball player, negotiate his contract. At the time, his mom apparently explained that they didn't need an agent and could get the maximum allowed by the CBA themselves.

Fiset, a former NHL goalie for Québec, Colorado, Los Angeles and Montréal, added that Ovechkin himself is a nice guy who likes to have fun. The grudge appears to be against the mom-turned-agent.

Who wouldn't hold a little grudge at someone who dumped you and took away a 3%-5% commission on $124M?

September 2006, a few months before firing agent: Alex, girlfriend, dad, Caps' owner Ted Leonsis, Mom, brother. (Picture Source)