AO in SI

Sports Illustrated came out with an article about Ovechkin this week. Some notable passages:

Although viscerally proud of his country -- early in the season he wrote russia in Cyrillic on a dressing-room grease board before every game -- he declined the security blanket of rooming on the road with Russian-speaking Lithuanian forward Dainius Zubrus in favor of a North American, right wing Brian Willsie, who was born in London, Ont. "I want to be in the team," Ovechkin says. "I want to understand coach and teammates. I not want to speak Russian and somebody translate for me." In addition to hurrying along Ovechkin's English and scouting out Starbucks, Willsie is vice president in charge of keeping Ovechkin informed of meeting times, bus departures and appropriate NHL dress, "although," as Willsie notes, "that leaves a little bit to be desired."

Ovechkin is Dolce & Gabbana one day, Dolce & Cabana Boy the next. He arrived for one practice wearing a red Washington Nationals cap, a red T-shirt from his NHL draft, red pants and red sneakers. The Caps laid his outfit on the dressing-room floor as a friendly rebuke. Still, Laddie in Red played better than his indefensible fashion faux pas of Daisy Duke jean shorts, which teammate Steve Eminger was obliged to confiscate.

"Considering he's come from a different culture and language -- and with all the pressure and expectations -- it would be normal at his age to sit in the corner and take everything in, hang around with Zubrus all the time and not interact with the team," says Kolzig, 35, a free agent in 2006 who is leaning toward re-signing because of Ovechkin and the team chemistry. "He's the exact opposite. He dives right in. Asking to room with a North American. Playing Texas hold 'em on the plane. When your superstar is like that, it has an effect on the rest of the team.

"The guy never gets rattled," the goaltender adds. "Actually, once he got rattled, in Buffalo, when 10 of us went out to dinner and he lost the credit-card game and had to pay. A thousand bucks. He doesn't realize that by the end of his career he'll be able to buy that restaurant."

As my sister would say, "loves it." It's fabulous that Ovey owns and wears a Nats hat. Woo!

And props to Virginia Tech- a school I'm not overly fond of normally- but they stuck to their guns. I'm impressed that they actually kicked Marcus Vick off the team! You know that would never happen at Colorado.