Wednesday, January 04, 2006

Wednesday Roundup/Gamenight: Sens @ Caps

[Gameday Preview]

It's a matchup of nations' capitals as Ottawa brings their high-powered offense to D.C. tonight. Even without a couple of big guns (Daniel Alfredsson and Martin Havlat are out, Jason Spezza and Dominik Hasek are questionable), the Sens have more than enough talent to give the Caps fits, especially since the Caps will play without their top defensive forward, Jeff Halpern. Then again, on any given Wednesday night...

Be sure to read Dave Fay's piece in today's WTimes on Alex Ovechkin's willingness to go the extra mile to make fans happy by signing autographs. As a point of favorable comparison, Fay relates a story about the Great One:
Twenty-one years ago, another young star went through something similar. Nearly an hour after a playoff game in old Chicago Stadium, Wayne Gretzky sat in his stall, in full uniform except for his skates and helmet, signing autograph after autograph and chatting with dozens of children in the visiting dressing room.

"Gretz, you're holding up the plane. The bus is leaving in five minutes," yelled a frustrated John Muckler, then an Edmonton assistant coach and now the Ottawa Senators' general manager.

"OK," the star center replied. "See ya at home."
Elsewhere around the NHL:
  • Tuesday night featured five shutouts (and one goalie who lose his in overtime). What's up with that?
Daily Awards

1 comment:

JP said...

Got a better candidate?