TheChurchMilitant: 18 tweets from @SlavaMalamud on Ovechkin and the pathetic Washington Capitals.

It helps if you read these like a extra long run-on sentence.

GO PENS!

problems extend beyond a bad def pair, an underperforming goalie. The failure is endemic and systematic. It’s the result of choices

2/ fanboy owner Leonsis made in 2004 when he decided his business model would be not building a winner but servicing a marketable megastar.

3/ There’s nothing wrong with building a team around a star, but it has to be the right kind of star. Ovi just isn’t the “win first” type.

4/ I’ve known Ovi since he was 17. Kid was born with a silverware set in his mouth. Always told he is the greatest, teammates must be worthy

5/ but his demands on himself stay the same. He’s not the bloodied inspirational leader. He is the tousled-hair sexy charismatic ruffian.

6/ Yes, he’s the NHL’s favorite stripper who’s been giving the hockey world a lap dance for 13 years. Sorry, but the length of your erection

7/ hockey world, is unhealthy by now. You need to face the truth: the Caps personality-cult culture is counterproductive to winning the cup.

8/ Fueled by innumerable fanboy blogs and media whipped into terrified subservience by CapsPR, the culture feeds on self, kills all dissent,

9/ and spurns all criticism. You know, Caps fans, that despite all the issues Oates and Hunter had, your main problem w/ them was trying to

10/ turn Ovi into a man of the system. You hate that. You want your boy toy wild and free. Everyone wants this of Ovi, even RUS coaches.

11/ Compare this to Crosby who will take any role on CAN w/o complaint. You call 87 a whiner, but who whined the loudest during the lockout,

12/ threatening to stay in the KHL? Who whines now, threatening to leave the league to get an Olympic trinket? While Leonsis bends over

13/ backwards to satisfy all his ridiculous demands. This is a guy who looks out for himself and his public image (Wild and Sexy Rebel,

14/ Patriot of Motherland). His only interest in the Cup is how his reflection will look in it. Problem is, Leonsis has the same priorities.

15/ He has dissolved himself and the team in Ovechkin’s 13-year-long marketing campaign. It worked out great financially. The price to pay

16/ is being humiliated every year by real winners. Congrats, Caps, you've sold lots of t-shirts. Congrats, Caps fans, you've been had.

17/ Oh, and that sound you’ve just heard is your window of opportunity slamming shut. I hope this wild ride on the Charisma Train was fun.

18/ Rant out. Enjoy your Redskins mini camp.

TheChurchMilitant: Sometimes anti-social, but always anti-fascist since 2005.

TheChurchMilitant