Alex Ovechkin has goals in three straight games now, something we’ve been waiting to see all season, and while it may be too little, too late to have monster numbers come April, it’s an important run to see that the greatest players in Caps franchise history still has it at age 38.
And if you ask John Feinstein, as the Junkies did Friday, it’s never too late for a guy who would be on the Mount Rushmore of DC athletes.
“I don't think it's ever a fluke when a great player starts to play better. He’s got 11 goals now and I think he's gonna play better,” John said. “Is he gonna be the Ovi who scored 50-plus goals all those years? I doubt it, he’s 38 and on a mediocre team so I don't see floodgates opening but I do see hope for him and for the Caps as long as he can play decently.”
The Caps have lost all three of the games in Ovi’s surge, so there’s that, but ‘never count out the great ones.’
“Remember when Tiger Woods was hurt and he was off the tour, and you guys used to ask me if he’d ever win another major? My answer was always the same: if it were anybody but Tiger Woods, I'd say no, but because it's Tiger Woods, I think it's possible, and he did win that Masters in 2019,” John said. “It’s the same thing with Ovi. If it were anybody else as a goal scorer, I’d say, you know, he's 38 and he's not the same player, but with Ovi, I say, you never say never with a player that great.”
So Ovi is on the Mount Rushmore of DC athletes, but is he No. 1?
“I think he has to be. The only other guy who comes to mind is Wes Unseld, because he was such a great player; he wasn’t a big scorer, Hayes was the scorer, but he was so much the leader, and the rebounder and defender.
He was just absolutely great,” John said. “Jurgensen was great in his prime but never won a championship, and Juan Soto was great the year they won the World Series, but I put Ovi first.”
EB mentioned Darrell Green, who was “Deion Sanders before Deion Sanders” in John’s mind, and the guys settled on Ovi, Unseld, Green, and?
“None of us saw him, but what about Walter Johnson? He won what, 440 games?” John said. “I’m not THAT old and didn’t see him, but he was obviously great.”
EB then mentioned Riggo, who ‘was short-lived as a great player,’ and John made the allegory of how Kentucky fans get mad at him when he does his group of best college hoops coaches…but that’s why you debate Mount Rushmore, and as they all agreed, ‘somebody has to be fifth!’