On its surface, honoring a player for an achievement is a nice and classy thing to do, but something the Penguins did on Saturday night at PPG Paints Arena.
During a stop in the action, during the first period, the Penguins displayed a graphic congratulating Capitals player Alex Ovechkin on moving into second place, passing Gordie Howe for the NHL’s all-time goal scoring list.
Ovechkin accomplished the feat back in December during a game at home against the Winnipeg Jets.
Saturday was the first visit to Pittsburgh for Ovi and the Caps since he passed Howe.
Ovechkin passed Howe when he scored goal 802. He’s now at 822, 72 behind current leader, Wayne Gretzky.
During Cook & Joe on Monday, Starkey and Bob Pompeani talked about the odd decision by the Penguins to celebrate Ovi.
Starkey said he doesn’t understand why they would celebrate someone going into second place.
To their credit, the was a decent number of fans who politely applauded Ovi, while he gave a thumbs up and a peace sign.
Starkey pointed out the injuries that Ovechkin has tried to and has inflicted over the years including:
Taking out Sergei Gonchar of the 2009 playoff series (knee on knee)
Swinging a stick at Kris Letang’s skate in Feb. 2015 sent him into the boards
Slash on Sidney Crosby’s hands during 2016
Taking a run at Evgeni Malkin in 2007
“I’m not honoring him in Pittsburgh and if I’m a fan, I’m not cheering him,” said Starkey. “If you want to cheer go ahead, if I’m a fan, I’m not cheering him, I’m not cheering Ray Lewis, I’m not cheering Tom Brady.”
But, the fans seem to be over it, politely applauding on Saturday and Malkin hosting Ovechkin along with fellow Caps Evgeny Kuznetsov, Alexander Alexzeyev and Aliaksei Protas for dinner at his house on Friday night.