Saturday, June 14, 2008

Ovechkin Welcomed Home In Style

On a sweltering Friday afternoon in our nation's capital, Alexander Ovechkin was given a royal welcome upon returning to D.C. from Toronto a conquering hero, holding four major awards.

After receiving the key to the city in an afternoon ceremony downtown, Ovechkin was feted at a celebration at the posh K Street eatery Teatro Goldoni. There was plenty of, um, talent on hand, and Japers' Rink was lucky enough to be there as well, joined by fellow bloggers Puck Daddy and Ordered Chaos from OFB.

I'll let those fellas tell you more about the event (as I think they may have stayed sober longer got the audio of the conversation the three of us had with Ovie), but needless to say, with Caps royalty like Rod Langway and Peter Bondra on hand (pictured), it was one heck of a celebration.

Photos: Japers' Rink

Update: Here's Puck Daddy's post and here's OFB's.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad you had a good time. I know OrderedChaos got home around 2:30 am this morning.

We'll have a review up as soon as our hosting company releases the block they put on us because one IP (The Planet) flooded our server causing said company to unceremoniously lock us out for too long. Customer service is not their forte.

Sigh.

JP said...

I hope some of the, um, candid shots he took make it into the post.

Anonymous said...

I was wondering what happened to the fine folks at OFB. Looking forward to those pics.

Apropos of nothing, here's a question to ponder. Should the Caps take Green to arbitration as the Pens have with MAF?

JP said...

Maruk -

Greenie's not arbitration-eligible. Even if he was, you can only take a guy to arb once, and the result is a one-year deal, so it's not always desirable.

Anonymous said...

Man I'm jealous. I'm sure that was a good time.

Anonymous said...

does anyone know where i can find some good, large pictures of ovie with his awards? thanks

Anonymous said...

does anyone know where i can find some good, large pictures of ovie with his awards? thanks

Anonymous said...

hmm, did i do that?

Anonymous said...

JP - What do you think about Tarik saying that Green wants to go to July 1. I will admit that I'll be disappointed if guys like Hossa and Malkin take pay cuts to keep the Pens together but guys like Green and Huet are all about the $$$ and get as much as possible. Honestly, Green is great and I would love to keep him, but I just don't see how 1 season bumps you up to 5-6 mil/year range. To me, he's still got to prove himself. Build in bonuses for reaching certain performance levels (goals, GWG's, playoffs, etc). Too many players have 1 great season, earn a big pay raise, and then regress to the mean. I guess i just expect a little more from these guys to have winning and the Cup as their goal rather than fat contracts. I understand they want the money they earn, but i think it's incredibly selfish to go to July 1 to milk it for all it's worth.

Anonymous said...

couldnt agree more with you scott

Whiter Mage said...

I think that picture with Langway, Ovechkin, and Bondra might be my new favorite. It became my desktop background instantly. I'm going to try really hard not to worry a TON about the free agents we have, because I don't need to get my heart rate up. We should be ok.

JP said...

Thanks, Ogre. It was really cool to see the three of them there together.

@ Scott - I think I'll put my thoughts on Green into a post soon, but will note now that the only players eligible to receive any sort of bonus under the current CBA are players on their entry level deals and guys on one-year deals who are over 35. Green is obviously neither.

Personally, I'm not too worried... yet.

Anonymous said...

" JP said...

I hope some of the, um, candid shots he took make it into the post. 6/14/2008 9:49 AM",


JP, I think, is referring to photo number 6.

Enjoy!
http://www.onfrozenblog.com/2008/06/15/aint-no-party-like-a-vechkin-party/