Once again, FanHouse has gotten passed an English translation of an interview that's appeared in the pages of Sovetsky Sport. Today, we're able to share a translation of an interview conducted by the folks at Sovetsky with Sergei Fedorov, late of the Washington Capitals. Fedorov is in Quebec City with the Russian National Team competing in the IIHF World Championships. Thanks once again to Sovetsky's Washington correspondent, Dmitriy Chesnokov, for giving us a hand.

Sergei Fedorov scored the game winner against Switzerland (5:3). After the game he met with Pavel Lysenkov at Hotel Concorde, right after dinner.

To be honest, the plans were to do a long interview with questions about the distant Soviet past [the last time Sergei played at the Worlds was when the Soviet Union still existed]. To debut for Team Russia at World Championships at 38 is a unique fact in itself. Just for that fact one can write odes to Sergei. But Fedorov did not want to talk about it:

"Oh, no, I will only talk about the game against Switzerland. If I start kicking up the past, my brain will start working backwards. And I need to look forward and not lose my concentration. Playoffs are close."

The other shoe finally dropped on San Jose Sharks head coach Ron Wilson today as the team announced that he had been dismissed and the search for a replacement would begin immediately.

I'm finding myself having a tough time saying much about this decision, as most of the hockey world knew all too well that if Wilson didn't manage to get his team -- seen as one of the most talented in all of hockey -- within striking distance of the Stanley Cup Finals this year, his tenure in the Bay Area would likely be terminated. And so it went.

In a little more than 4.5 seasons in San Jose, Wilson posted the most regular season wins (206) and the best winning percentage (.535) in team history. More importantly, however, was his 28-24 record in four playoff campaigns, never getting closer to the Cup than in 2004, when San Jose dropped the Western Conference Finals in six games to Calgary.

Every once in a while, FanHouse gets passed an English translation of an interview with Washington's Alex Ovechkin that's appeared in the pages of Sovetsky Sport. Today, once again, we're able to pass along a translation of his most recent talk with the folks at Sovetsky after he was named "Athlete of the Month," by the newspaper and one of its television partners.

The biggest news in the interview -- it looks like the refs working the worlds are getting the same sort of reviews the refs working the Stanley Cup Playoffs are getting. In other words, they stink (but you already knew that). Thanks to Dmitry Chesnokov, Sovetsky Sports' Washington correspondent, for the translation, which follows:

As a result of a poll conducted by "Sport" [Russia's public sports channel] and Sovetsky Sport [Russia's largest newspaper], Washington Capitals and Russian national team forward Alexander Ovechkin was named Athlete of the Month in April. Alex received 51.4% of the vote, overtaking Evgeni Malkin who received 48.6%. This interview Alexander Ovechkin gave to Pavel Lysenkov and Vitaly Slavin of Sovetsky Sport in Hotel Concorde two hours after the end of the Russia-Sweden game [3:2], where Alex the Great scored the game winner.

One day, you're worth a second-round pick in the 2009 Entry Draft. Two months and change later, you're likely worth upwards of $5 million per year.

Such is life for former Canadiens backup netminder Cristobal Huet, who was stolen acquired by the Washington Capitals at the trade deadline and is now on the verge of perhaps testing his value on the open market as an unrestricted free agent (to be fair, Huet wasn't in the Habs' long-term plans with Carey Price having taken over the number one job, so moving him for a pick made some sense... until they had to start Jaroslav Halak in the playoffs).

How good (and under-rated) was Huet's season? Consider that only one goalie in the entire NHL (Jean-Sebastien Giguere) had both a better GAA and SV% than Huet in 2007-08. And that Huet won the highest percentage of games played of any goalie in the League with more than 43 appearances (and only the two Detroit goalies had a better percentage if you lowered the games played requirement to two). And that he ended the regular season on a 9-0-0 run during which he posted a 1.52 GAA, a .941 save percentage and allowed only seven even strength goals as he snuck the Caps into the playoffs by a single win.

Late last night we passed along the information that long-time Washington goaltender Olie Kolzig wouldn't be back in a Capitals uniform next season. But over at ESPN.com, they might not actually notice that he's gone.

Take a gander at the screen shot I captured a couple of minutes ago. One thing is for sure -- that's not Olie Kolzig. This is Olie Kolzig.

So who is it? After a quick consultation with my colleague, Earl Sleek, we discovered that it's actually Anaheim Ducks defenseman Sean O'Donnell.

A piece of news that had been painfully obvious since the middle of the regular season finally became official tonight, as news has leaked that long-time Washington Capitals goalie Olie Kolzig has played his last game as a member of the Washington Capitals. Kolzig had been with the organization for almost 19 years, ever since the Caps took him with the 19th pick in the first round of the 1989 NHL Entry Draft.

Kolzig broke the news over lunch with Washington Post beat writer Tarik el-Bashir:

"For me, it was disappointing the way it ended," said Kolzig, who led the Capitals to their only Stanley Cup finals appearance in 1998. "It's unfortunate, because they have a good team here now. It's a fantastic team, fantastic group of guys. Not to be a part of that is going to be tough, especially after 17 years and three years of what we went through post-lockout."

After a long pause, he added: "It just doesn't feel right. But at the same time, as an athlete, you have to know when to move on."

Certainly, the team had been sending a number of unambiguous signals to Kolzig for most of the season. The first came in January, when head coach Bruce Boudreau, who had taken over the team just after Thanksgiving, created a defacto rotation between Kolzig and backup Brent Johnson.

Anyone who has watched even a little bit of NHL hockey has been bombarded by advertisements featuring wunderkind (the best player ever!) Sidney Crosby. Sidney sells, and there are no shortage of companies wetting their pants to get Crosby to pretend that he actually buys and uses their product.

How about Alexander Ovechkin, the most exciting player in the NHL? We've seen little of him in the marketing arena, as companies don't seem to be able to or want to get behind the guy.

Apparently, that's about to change ...

In the works are deals with Ferrari and U.S. mobile phone company Verizon, says Konstantin Selinevich, who spearheads Ovechkin's off-ice business relationships. Selinevich says talks continue with others, including Coca-Cola. Just last month, the Wasserman Media Group, a powerful sports marketing agency in Los Angeles, was hired to buttress efforts to land endorsements for Ovechkin.

While the star already has sponsor agreements with Reebok's CCM brand, trading-card company Upper Deck and Hype, an energy drink, none has put much marketing muscle behind him. (Selinevich says that will change this summer when Reebok rolls out an Ovechkin clothing line.)

"It's been hard; in the past there have been some language-skills issues," says Selinevich, who has worked with Ovechkin since 2004. "Now, he's had such an unbelievable season that there is more interest, but we don't want him to be a walking billboard. You'll see some major deals this summer."

Yeah, I know there are language issues (although if you ever hear an Ovechkin interview, there aren't THAT many), but that didn't stop marketers from jumping on Yao Ming, despite the fact that the guy is absolutely boring to watch when he's actually working.

While I understand why the golden boy Crosby gets so many endorsements, I'm shocked that companies haven't jumped on the Ovechkin bandwagon all that much. Just put on a few highlight reels of Ovechkin, and the guy pretty much sells himself. For all of Crosby's greatness, his on-ice exploits aren't nearly as flashy and he doesn't have the same 'WOW' factor.

The following video is from the always funny Onion News Network. It's a dream of mine to figure out how these guys come up with such consistently hilarious stuff. It's pretty awesome, as I'm sure you know. Now this video isn't exactly pro-hockey. It's about Alex Ovechkin getting drafted to play professional sports so it's anything but. Sometimes we have to laugh at ourselves. If we can't, then we're just uptight and annoying to be friends with. The end of the video tries to make up for all the hockey bashing as well, as the reporter and commentator show that they know nothing about hockey or even what Ovechkin looks like. It's all in jest, so don't fry me over this one folks. Deal?



h/t Covered in Oil

NHL Refs are always an easy target. The media pounds on them, the coaches are always mad at them, the fans aren't fond of them, and the players certainly don't appreciate their efforts. Thus, few ever stick up for the Zebras when guys like Tom Poti make idiotic comments like this (in regards to his tripping call, which gave the Flyers the game-winning Power Play).

"To have the referee decide the series like that, with two teams battling like that, is tough to swallow. I definitely didn't think it was a penalty," Poti said.

Who really decided last night's game? Was it Tom Poti, who decided to break the rules and trip the guy? Was it Joffrey Lupul, who scored the winning goal, or was it the guy DOING HIS JOB?

Unless the ref seriously blows a call (See Mick McGeough), the striped man NEVER decides the game. It is the ref's job to call fouls and penalties, and it is up to the players not to get caught taking penalties and to play by the rules. The fact that the refs hadn't called a penalty in over a period is irrelevant, since the rules for hooking and holding are always in effect, and the players ought to know that by now.

Why can't Tom Poti simply stop spouting stupid clichés and admit that he SCREWED up and let his team down? Rather than blaming the ref for doing his job, maybe Poti should apologize to his team for taking a bad penalty at the worst time.

No, we know that won't happen, and we know Poti won't be the last moron to use the tired excuse of officials 'deciding' the game.

Every day from Monday to Saturday, The Ice Sheet will take a look at the biggest stories in the league that happened on the ice and elsewhere the night before.

If I was attempting to be as trite as possible, I would follow that title with more of Mick Jagger's words: "I'm a man of wealth and taste." This would be misleading because I am certainly not a man of wealth and most people that know me would argue that I'm a man of questionable tastes (you know the idiot that plays Kid Rock at the bar every Friday? That's me). I am, however, new to the NHL FanHouse and this is my first Ice Sheet, so let this serve as my real introduction to you.

Similarly (WARNING! TENUOUS METAPHOR AHEAD!) eight NHL teams have introduced themselves to us during the first round of these playoffs. That means that after a quick rundown of last night's frenetic Game 7 action, we're going to take an even quicker look at all eight teams that have advanced and what they've done to introduce themselves to us during the first round. Groan. I think that metaphor's all used up and I promise you won't find it again after the jump.