How Alexander Ovechkin went from being awesome to being a douche, without really changing

The summer of 2011 was rightfully seen by many as the most tragic time in hockey's history.

Unfortunately, from about August 2011 onwards, it has been shaping up to be the most embarassing.

I've already said what I needed to say on the ludicrous tinkering proposed by the research and development camp, on the flavour-of-the-month coverage of concussions and head trauma, and most recently on Tim Thomas: Objectivist Asshole.

Some may say I'm intentionally baiting objectivists. Please don't accuse me of that until after you've read my upcoming post "Ayn Rand: Has the World Ever Seen a Bigger Fucking Cunt?" 

But the insanity that is this year in hockey isn't coming from Gary Bettman, or the media, or even a tea bagging partying goalie.

It's coming from a Russian - Alexander Ovechkin.



Ok, two Russians if you count Ilya Bryzgalov, who I'm convinced is pulling an "Exit Through the Gift Shop" long-con over on the general public.

But Bryzgalov is all kinds of awesome.

Ovechkin isn't.

And it's only recently that he hasn't been all kinds of awesome.
In my eyes, at least, Ovechkin used to have that "he's allowed to be a bad boy because he's so good at what he does" thing going for him.

When he dropped it (his stick) like it's hot after his 50th goal back in 2009 it was ok, because he was (at the time) the most exciting player in the NHL.

When he admitted to trying to piss off John Tortorella by sitting-in on a Rangers warm up a few months later, he was working off some fat-aggression build up caused by his "trying to do too much." (seriously, do the CBC Sports Staff regret accusing him of trying to do too much now?)

And come on, how can you hate this:

Or this:

Or especially this:

But Ovi hasn't really changed since those days, and youthful exuberance can only take you so far.
Just ask Tara Reid.

His "haha, it's endearing" arrogance turned into "what an entitled son of a bitch" arrogance around the time he laughed at Phil Kessel being picked last in the 2011 All Star draft.

With that asshole move, it suddenly wasn't so easy to forgive Ovechkin. He went from being the Jeff Spicolli of the NHL to the Stan Gable.

And that's when everything fell apart.

He was no longer playfully referred to as "cocky", instead he was "dirty."

His confidence on the ice suddenly looked like complacency, as accusations of him not playing to his full potential became more and more common.

And then the flood gates opened, as his poor performance led to rap videos which led to dirtier play which led to a 3 game suspension which led to Ovechkin dropping out of the 2012 All Star game.

Apparently it's because he doesn't want to be a distraction.

But come on, he's been trying to be a distraction his entire career. I'd argue that it's because, for the first time, he's worried no one is paying attention.