Thursday, February 21, 2008

Romovechkin?

The Madden Curse. The Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx. The Curse of the Bambino. The Tiki Curse (no, not that Tiki, but the Vincent Price version). All examples of supposed supernatural forces negatively affecting athletic performance.

This past December, thanks to Dallas quarterback Tony Romo's very public canoodling with Jessica Simpson, football fans added another hex to the list - The Girlfriend Curse. Simpson's pink presence at a late season game was seen by some as the reason the Cowboy QB had the worst outing of his career in a 10-6 home loss to the woeful Philadelphia Eagles.

Now the question is raised locally - do Caps fans have reason to fear a Girlfriend Curse of their own?

The other day, the Alex Ovetjkin blog shared a Sovetsky Sport interview with Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin's new girlfriend Katja, which FanHouse followed up with the darling picture below (and others), and video evidence of which Agent Steinz brought us.


Awww.

But since Katja first arrived in D.C. - February 7, according to the interview - Alex's on-ice game has cooled off as his off-ice life has heated up. Four times in six games since the two met in person Ovechkin has been held off the scoresheet (after having been held pointless in four of his previous 22 games) and he has had a minus rating in each of those whitewashes (after having been on the wrong side of zero in that stat only four times since December 15). As a result of his first three-game scoreless drought of the season, AO has been caught and passed in the NHL scoring race by Evgeni Malkin and the Hart Trophy front-runner's Caps have won just twice in the six games after having won 10 of their prior 14 games.

One of sport's all-time wise men, Burgess Meredith's Mickey Goldmill, famously warned his prized pupil to quit chasing tail, as "[w]omen weaken legs." Casey Stengel, another of athletics' great thinkers, took a slightly different point of view when he noted that "[b]eing with a woman all night never hurt no professional [athlete]. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in" - and scientists seem to agree.

So while Ovechkin's new-found love and this little bump in the road in his otherwise phenomenal season may have curiously coincidental timing, and given the wisdom of the The Old Professor and actual science, I'm not ready to attribute the latter to the former - there is no Girlfriend Curse plaguing Number Eight (after all, Ovie has already proven impervious to such superstitious triflings). But if we see Katja sporting one of these with her man's name and number at some point in the near future, I may be forced to reconsider and side with ol' Mick.

19 comments:

Anonymous said...

cheesy line in 3...2...1...

Now we'll know who stole Ovie's Hart Trophy

Yeah, i said it.

Hooks Orpik said...

Wasn't Ovechkin said to be getting over the effects of the flu?

Although JP you have inspired me, perhaps I should take a page out of the NFL fan's playbook and start a website that allows people to print out Katja's face on a stick and fans can pack the arenas holding it up to distract him ;)

Anonymous said...

A golf clap for hooks, but don't do it. Caps fans could respond in kind for Sidney with pictures of...Mario?

JP said...

@ Hooks: Sure, but how'd he get the flu? Hmmmm?

Anonymous said...

Someone get Malkin a girlfriend. Fast.

Anonymous said...

Yoko Ovechkin....and I dont think Helen Keller would go out with that fucking Shrek body double

Anonymous said...

Funny, he doesn't look fluish.

Anonymous said...

Get off AO's back and leave his squeeze out of it.

He's been carrying the team all year. I'm thinking he senses there'll be no playoff for the Caps again this year. His play has declined since signing the extension.

Carolina is about to run away with the division anyways.

Anonymous said...

Hopefully two things:
- 1 - That sweet little (little?) Katja will bring a comb to the match. Someone's gott try to clean him up.
and
- 2 - That Big Mama Tatiana
has done her due diligence on this one and cleared her.

And hey, they met on the Russian equivalent of Facebook!?? Jez. Clearly you in-person American girls aren't trying hard enough.

Drew said...

My headline for the photo - "Orge saves Princess"

The kid is great with the stick - but this is the US media - get him cleaned up for gods sake (shave, haircut, A NEW TOOTH...).

The contrast is harsh - and photos like this is what get play in the mainstream media and online - everyone loves celebrity gossip.

Alex man gotta sharpen up your look. Or else keep importing your ladies...

Anonymous said...

Great catch Ovechkin! She's very cute, I wish you both the best! ;-)

If he truly is in love, or smitten, or infatuated, or maybe all of the above, then I will attest that yes, this will somehow impact his game.

But I don't care, because he is allowed to have a social life.

On top of that, I'd imagine he'll settle in if she sticks around but get love sick if she leaves. Chew on that!

FS said...

You realize this girl has been around for a few weeks, right? Before his 4 goal/5 point game against Mtl and his surge to the top of the points chart right?

The picture in your article was taken more than two weeks ago. I know because I was standing right to the left of Ovechkin when it was taken. If anything she inspired his play to the top, and now he's running out of gas.

Anonymous said...

FS, according to the interview, they met on Feb7, which is way after the Montreal game.

Anonymous said...

"My headline for the photo - "Orge saves Princess"

LOL! Excellent. hahahaha

Jack Hazard said...

How can a man blame Ovechkin's lack of on ice production on such a saucy lass? Wowzer.

CD said...

If WJFK's Junkies are to be believed (and when have they ever lied to us), citing "an inside source in the organization," AO changes women more often than he apparently does razor blades. They covered this when the Post Style section ran the story earlier. If that's the case, this too shall pass. However, if he's simply a skirt chaser (and what young 20s, multi-millionaire isn't), the ladies certainly haven't slowed him down before.

Whiter Mage said...

I saved NO Princesses, sir.

Anonymous said...

i'd hit it

Anonymous said...

let a playa' play......my god..........legs feed the wolf.......

it would be absolutely worthless for him to have signed a $124 million contract if it didn't get him a relationship.

let the man be happy.......his game will be fine!