Thrashers tease Ovechkin, but Caps get last laugh

The Thrashers poked fun at the NHL’s most valuable player Tuesday night.

A mock public-service announcement shown on the videoboard during a timeout joked about ridding the world of bad TV commercials featuring hockey players. The prime example: a spot in which Alexander Ovechkin sang and danced to promote a car dealership.

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AP

Thrashers goaltender Ondrej Pavelec (31) rejects a shot as he collides with Washington Capitals left wing Tomas Fleischmann (center) and Thrashers defenseman Garnet Exelby.

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“Ovie, next time, call me,” deadpanned Thrashers star Ilya Kovalchuk, a real-life friend of Ovechkin’s.

And after the Thrashers’ second goal, images of a dancing Ovechkin appeared over one of the usual celebration videos.

Ovechkin got the last laugh, though, with two assists to lead the Washington Capitals to a 4-2 victory at Philips Arena. The man who looked so silly in that commercial sure looks good with the puck.

He has 55 goals, 10 more than runner-up Jeff Carter. And he has 53 assists, the latest two on a pass to Alexander Semin and on a shot that produced the rebound Sergei Fedorov converted into the game’s final goal.

Ovechkin remained two points behind NHL scoring leader Evgeni Malkin with two games left in the regular season. Malkin had two assists at Tampa Bay on Tuesday night for his 109th and 110th points.

The scoring race and the spoof PSA were more interesting than the game between the Capitals, who already have clinched the Southeast Division title, and the Thrashers, who were eliminated from playoff contention weeks ago.

“There was no emotions, no good crowd, and it was hard to play hockey here,” Ovechkin said. “It’s a hard situation for Atlanta right now. There’s only two games [left] in the season, and then it’s vacation. We’re in the playoffs, and all that’s on our mind is the playoffs.

“It’s the kind of game you don’t have emotion, you don’t have energy, and it’s kind of hard to play.”

The video broke through that haze, if only for a couple of minutes. The spot, narrated by defenseman Ron Hainsey, didn’t just tease Ovechkin. The Thrashers’ Colby Armstrong gave a mock defense of a notoriously lame car commercial he did while playing for the Pittsburgh Penguins. But Ovechkin was the prime target.

“It was pretty funny. I liked it. I’m laughing,” Ovechkin said.

His coach disagreed.

“I know it was all in fun, but I thought that was over the line,” Bruce Boudreau said. “If they want to mock their own players, fine, go ahead and mock their own players like that. But people pay a lot of money for these commercials, and I didn’t think it was in good taste what they did with Alex.”

It was the Thrashers’ second loss to the Capitals in three days. They led through two periods of Sunday’s loss; they never led Tuesday night. The Capitals’ three-goal first period got started when Thrashers center Marty Reasoner accidentally kicked the puck into his net. Goalie Ondrej Pavelec got little help from his teammates early but kept his head in the game and played well in the final two periods.

Thrashers coach John Anderson switched the left wings on his top two lines by the end of the first period, with Kovalchuk skating with Peverley and Armstrong and Slava Kozlov re-joining Todd White and Bryan Little.

That, and the video, didn’t produce enough magic to overcome Ovechkin and the Capitals.