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Apparently, Alex Ovechkin has been in the news of late for his “dirty” play.  Considering that I’ve been calling him “Alex O’Cheapshot” (and also “Ovul8″) since December of 2006 it really comes as no surprise to me.

I’ll stop just short of calling him “dirty” and stop way short of going all Jim Kelley on his ass because I think from a physical standpoint he is very similar in style to the Sabres Pat Kaleta.  He does go out of his way to find people to hit, he does take a run at people, and he does try to inflict as much damage as possible when he does it.  The difference is Ovechkin scores sixty goals per year and Kaleta will be lucky to score six, so they are viewed in a different light.  Kaleta has a national rep as a goon and a cheap, dirty player while Ovechkin gets, or at least did get until recently, a pass for his style.

I know that it’s all the rage to talk about how his style is great for hockey, and how he’s just the sort of marketable star the NHL needs, and how his over-the-top goal celebrations are just “Ovie being Ovie” instead of it being all about him, but I don’t like the guy.  Seems to me he gets a Brett Favre level pass with “he’s just having fun out there” while some of the things he does get conveniently overlooked.  Great player, all the talent in the world, but he’s not my type of player.

But enough about Ovechkin, as the Sabres have some problems of their own.  Mike Grier is still off visiting his sick mother, Paul Gaustad is still out for a couple weeks, Chris Butler is still out for at least another week, and Andrej Sekera is out (what, so soon?) tonight as well.

That, my friends, means Nathan Paetsch plays defense tonight and Nathan Gerbe gets a callup from Portland.  That means someone has to get moved to IR (likely Gaustad as it can be retroactive) to make room for our little midget friend on the roster.  No idea what the lines may look like tonight, but I would imagine Gerbe is going to get a shot on one of the “top” lines.  Seems to me he will be hungry and can maybe show Derek Roy or Jason Pominville what effort looks like.  I’m sure Mr. Harrington at TBN will keep us in the loop as to the line combos this morning.

Since I haven’t written anything since the loss to the Rangers, I just wanted to note that I found a highlight that summarizes a couple Sabres’ problems of late:

That’s right, it’s Pominville’s OT winner while shorthanded against Ottawa in 2006.  See Pominville rushing down the wing while outnumbered?  What does he do if that happens tonight?  He peels off, goes up high, and floats a softie towards the net while hoping someone happens to be going to the net.  Know how I know this?  Because it actually happened a couple games ago against Carolina, the only difference was Pominville came down the right wing.  Other than that, same play.  Easy way out.

I know it’s old news and I’m not breaking any new ground here, but we have three “stars” on this team who on most occasions are content to take the easy way out and hope somebody else makes the tough play.  Sure, there’s nights when they are fired up and are willing to pay a price, but I think we all knew that after a game like Montreal (6-2 win) they were going to come out and think everything was easy again.

But tonight’s game is the sort of game when the Sabres DO show up.  Washington can absolutely destroy a team if they are not on their game, and nobody likes to take a public beating like Philly did the other night.  We’ll see who shows at 7:00 tonight.

UPDATE:  ESPN’S Pierre LeBrun has some thoughts on this three-game stretch.  Also, according to Mike Harrington, Sekera has not been ruled out for tonight.