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Capitals hockey is saved. Bring out the bubbly inside the Beltway.
Yes, something good finally happened to hockey in the nation's capital. It didn't happen on the ice, but in the NHL's New York offices. The reward for the Capitals' next-to-last regular-season record came last Tuesday with the draft lottery victory.
(Why, just as we are getting into the Stanley Cup playoffs, would this space be used to talk about the draft and the future and some Russian hockey savior named Alexander Ovechkin? Because when people talk about the future of hockey, they do it in funereal tones. Because this is the bright spot beyond that pitch black. Ticketmaster. There are veteran players who might not come back after a lockout, but Ovechkin is coming, not going. He is a reason for fans to come back to the NHL and watch.)
The Capitals came up the big winners in the lottery, and they won the No. 1
pick -- Ovechkin, a winger. There's no doubt Capitals general manager George
McPhee will get calls from competing G.M.s looking to pry that pick loose. Don't
do it, George. The lottery balls have spoken. You are the winner -- and with
the rising of the lottery balls, the Penguins lost one final time in a seriously
sad season.
The Penguins had the best chance -- 25 percent -- of winning the lottery because they finished dead last in the regular season. But it turns out the odds really aren't with the favorite. The last-place team hasn't won the draft lottery since 1997, when the Bruins finished last, won the lottery and drafted Joe Thornton.
Most years, lottery day is very uneventful. This is not the NBA, where a superstar appears most seasons, everyone knows who the No. 1 selection will be, and he is expected to turn around a team quickly. The NHL draft is a crapshoot. Top 10 guys fail, and gems are found below. Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, taken 20th, is considered the best goaltender in the game, and he's the only goalie in the playoffs not being chased by questions. Avalanche center Peter Forsberg wasn't taken first, but sixth. When he's healthy, Forsberg has been the game's best all-around player in recent years.
Last year, there were a few players who could have been taken first, depending on the team with the pick and its need. Each was praised for what he brought to the table and his ability to help an NHL team this season (which each of them -- Marc-Andre Fleury, Eric Staal and Nathan Horton -- did at some point). But no matter how good those players become, they were not immediately game-changers, team saviors.
This year, everything is different. The future was riding on winning this draft lottery. People around the NHL talk about Ovechkin like Mario Lemieux -- as in, he is a guy who can save a franchise. He can turn a team into a winner. He can bring in the fans. In the days before there was a lottery, the Devils and Penguins both wanted to finish last to get Lemieux in 1984. The Penguins won by losing that time. This time, they lost. And they needed Ovechkin. Then again, so do the Caps.
So, here they are -- after a fire sale that acknowledged an embarrassing string of overpriced mistakes, the Capitals get this season's prize that is second only to the Stanley Cup. As they had no shot at the Cup, that's not bad.
And exactly how good is Ovechkin? Should Washingtonians line up for opening night tickets -- whenever opening night might be?
"Ovechkin is a 100 percent complete package," Goran Stubb, European director for the NHL's Central Scouting, said in an e-mail from Europe. "He can skate, pass, score, hit, check. (He's) a two-way player but also a real power forward. He has an excellent attitude. Everything is 10 out of 10 points. He has all the tools needed to be a superstar, even in the NHL in the near future."
With the second pick, the Penguins likely will take Russian center Evgeni Malkin. ("Good, but not close to Ovechkin," Stubb says.)
Ovechkin played in the world junior championships, having what he considered a subpar performance -- seven points (five goals and two assists) in six games. He's expected to play in the world championships in May, when he can show what he has against NHLers. It'll be a way to compare, but, according to Stubb, people shouldn't try to make comparisons.
"You cannot compare Ovechkin to anyone," Stubb says. "He is in his own class."
He is the Class
of 2004. Congratulations, Capitals.