COMMENTARY

By Kara Yorio

updated 12:27 p.m. ET June 30, 2004

Capitals hockey is saved. Bring out the bubbly inside the Beltway.

Yes, something good finally happened to hockey in the nation's capital. It didn't happen on the ice, but in the NHL's New York offices. The reward for the Capitals' next-to-last regular-season record came with the draft lottery victory.

The Capitals came up the big winners in the lottery, and they won the No. 1 pick — Alexander Ovechkin, a winger. Capitals general manager George McPhee got calls from competing GMs looking to pry that pick loose, but he wisely didn't budge.

And the Penguins lost one final time in a seriously sad season.

The Penguins had the best chance — 25 percent — of winning the lottery because they finished dead last in the regular season. But it turns out the odds really aren't with the favorite. The last-place team hasn't won the draft lottery since 1997, when the Bruins finished last, won the lottery and drafted Joe Thornton.

Most years, lottery day is very uneventful. This is not the NBA, where a superstar appears most seasons, everyone knows who the No. 1 selection will be, and he is expected to turn around a team quickly. The NHL draft is a crapshoot. Top 10 guys fail, and gems are found below. Devils goalie Martin Brodeur, taken 20th, is considered the best goaltender in the game, and he's the only goalie in the playoffs not being chased by questions. Avalanche center Peter Forsberg wasn't taken first, but sixth. When he's healthy, Forsberg has been the game's best all-around player in recent years.

Last year, there were a few players who could have been taken first, depending on the team with the pick and its need. Each was praised for what he brought to the table and his ability to help an NHL team this season (which each of them — Marc-Andre Fleury, Eric Staal and Nathan Horton — did at some point). But no matter how good those players become, they were not immediately game-changers, team saviors.

This year, everything is different. The future was riding on winning this draft lottery. People around the NHL talk about Ovechkin like Mario Lemieux — as in, he is a guy who can save a franchise. He can turn a team into a winner. He can bring in the fans. In the days before there was a lottery, the Devils and Penguins both wanted to finish last to get Lemieux in 1984. The Penguins won by losing that time. This time, they lost. And they needed Ovechkin. Then again, so do the Caps.

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So, here they are — after a fire sale that acknowledged an embarrassing string of overpriced mistakes, the Capitals get this season's prize that is second only to the Stanley Cup. As they had no shot at the Cup, that's not bad.

And exactly how good is Ovechkin? Should Washingtonians line up for opening night tickets — whenever opening night might be?

"Ovechkin is a 100 percent complete package," Goran Stubb, European director for the NHL's Central Scouting, said in an e-mail from Europe. "He can skate, pass, score, hit, check. (He's) a two-way player but also a real power forward. He has an excellent attitude. Everything is 10 out of 10 points. He has all the tools needed to be a superstar, even in the NHL in the near future."

With the second pick, the Penguins took Russian center Evgeni Malkin. ("Good, but not close to Ovechkin," Stubb says.)

Ovechkin played in the world junior championships, having what he considered a subpar performance — seven points (five goals and two assists) in six games.

"You cannot compare Ovechkin to anyone," Stubb says. "He is in his own class."

He is the Class of 2004. Congratulations, Capitals.

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