The Hockey News columnist Ken Campbell has a question why isnt Alex Ovechkin being lionized for sacrificing personal success for team success the way Steve Yzerman was in Detroit?

Campbell also has a theory:

This wouldnt have anything to do with a bias against Russians would it? Didnt think so.

We dont need to get into Ovechkins reduced ice time under Capitals coach Dale Hunter. If you still dont know the story there, just scroll PHT and youll find a few thousand posts on the topic.

But some of you might be less familiar with Yzermans career progression.

From a 2006 Sports Illustrated article, well let Red Wings GM Jim Devellano bring you up to speed.

We had some really good teams in the early 90s, but we couldnt get it done in the playoffs, said Devellano. So we brought Scotty Bowman in to get us over the hump in 1993. Up until then Stevie was a tremendous one-way player, which wed encouraged. In his early years we needed his goals and assists and, well, his glitz to sell tickets and to promote the team. Scotty didnt care about any of that. He was determined that players were going to play his way.

Sound familiar?

However, with all due respect to Campbell, thats where the comparisons stop. Because not only did Yzerman become a better two-way player, he became the best two-way player, winning the Selke Trophy in 2000.

To state the obvious, Ovechkins nowhere close to winning the Selke. He hardly sees the ice when the Capitals are trying to protect the lead, and he hasnt spent a single second killing penalties in the playoffs.

See the original post:
PHT: Hold off on Ovechkin-to-Yzerman comparisons