but they really should market Alex Ovechkin more. He's a better player than Sid the Kid and his zest for the game is really infectious and he scores really great goals.

If anyone else celebrated the way Ovechkin does, he'd be called an obnoxious, self-centered hot dog. Or Sean Avery. (But I repeat myself.) But since he can't speak English, it's "charming" and "infectious."

For pure, selfless joy on ice, look no further than New Jersey's Zach Parise. I have never seen anyone radiate as much love for their sport as he does.

And the kid can play some, too.

Ovechkin is a great player, but I think Russian or European players have a harder time catching on with the general public. Look how tough it is for them to remember any names other than Wayne Gretzky.

Parise has talent. I went to Crosby's first NHL game in New Jersey, and Parise had a point or two. The entire crowd chanted "Parise's better" no less than four times that night.

could score like Alex Ovechkin, folks would cut him some slack on being an asshole. Though, he's such a huge asshole that he'd have to average 6 or 7 goals a night to completely make up for it.

Ovechkin's a hit in Washington and cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Detroit are absolutely in love with their European players (and each of those cities has a European captain, as well).

Where I live in California, Teemu Selanne's a huge hit. People show up at Ducks games in replica Team Finland jerseys like you wouldn't believe.

It's taking time for fans to get used to a much heavier European presence in the game and it seems like players from Slavic countries have more trouble with English than Swedes and Finns do.

The big problem seems to be that only existing hockey fans care about stars from outside their team's market. One of the big motivating factors behind the increased inter-conference play that the GMs considered this year was getting wider exposure for the league's stars. When was the last time Anaheim saw Sidney Crosby?