Sportsman of the Week Ending 4/6/2025

He is.  The Greatest.  Of All Time.  Goal scorers at least.  Washington Capitals sniper/winger Alex Ovechkin defied father time and the history of the National Hockey League in scoring his career goal number 895, breaking what many thought was an unbreakable record held by "The Great One" Wayne Gretzky.  This may finally be unbreakable, to average 45 goals for 20 years is just something hard to do, especially as physical as the game is in the 2020s and beyond.  He broke the record on Sunday with a national audience tuned in, but overall, for the week he scored 5 goals in 4 games (scoring at least one in all four).  He's actually scored a goal in 5 straight games and sits fourth in the league in goals despite missing five weeks due to a knee injury.  The Soviet Superstar has gas left in the tank, and is a deserving Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 11/14/2021

Hockey season is back, this time for a regular full season and one of the legends of the current game is showing he hasn't lost a step in his older age.  Washington Capitals left winger Alex Ovechkin continues to climb up the all time scoring charts and shows now sign of slowing down.  Ovi led the Caps to four big victories during the week to thrust them to within a point of the Metropolitan Division lead.  His two goals during the week pushed him to 742 career total, for fourth all time (trailing only Gretzky, Howe, and Jagr).  He added six assists along with a plus six in the four wins.  The Caps are looking for another Stanley Cup playoff run and their first chance to lift the cup since 2018 when he took home the Conn Smythe Trophy.  This week, he gets the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week trophy!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 3/8/2020

A hat trick is one thing.  Five goals in a game is another.  But our Sportsman of the Week did just that.  Mika Zibanejad of the New York Rangers tormented Ilya Samsonov of the Washington Capitals for the quinfecta in 52 minutes to give the Rangers a key win in their playoff chase in the Eastern Conference.  Zibanejad scored 7 goals in 3 games over the week.  His 39 goals this year are a career high and he's hit the 20 goals in a season 5 of the last 6 seasons.  The Swede showed his mettle this week, and is the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 2/12/2017

The post NFL playoffs time of year turns our attention to so called "spring sports".  The Washington Capitals have been the dominant team during the regular season with their eyes on the Presidents Trophy (for the most team points in the regular season) for the second year in a row.  In three dominant wins this week, Caps Center Nicklas Backstrom scored two goals and had five assists while the Caps outscored their opponents 17-7.  Backstrom is one point off the NHL league lead in with 60, and his 43 assists are tied for the lead as well.  The Caps are 18-2-1 since January 1, and their +71 goals and 84 points are both tops in the NHL.  Backstrom is our Sportsman of the Week and in line for a number of honors for the overall season, hoping to raise his first Stanley Cup this summer.

Sportsman of the Week Ending 2/14/2016

It's that time on the sports calendar where football no longer dominates the national scene and so called spring sports take over the airwaves.  Basketball, hockey, golf, soccer, and NASCAR are all getting rolling in 2016.  This week, a hockey team, led by our Sportsman of the Week, made a big statement for the Stanley Cup playoffs.  Patrick Eaves of the Dallas Stars played his best period of the season (maybe life) in skewing the rival Chicago Blackhawks for a hat trick in the first period of a critical tilt.  Behind his three goals, the Stars landed a 4-2 victory on enemy ice (for only the 7th regulation loss for Chicago on the season).  Further, the Stars have now won three straight,  including a 4-3 victory (that was 4-0 entering the 3rd period) over the NHL leading Washington Capitals, their second victory over them on the season (including one of only four home losses for Alex Ovechkin and crew earlier in the season).  On the week, Eaves scored 4 goals with a pair of assists in three victories to position the Stars as the Western Conference top seed at the moment.  Effort worthy of our Sportsman of the Week!

Sportsman of the Week Ending 4/15/2012

Better late than never, going to square up the balance sheet and name a Sportsman of the week for the week that ended on Sunday 4/15. Not a clear cut sport or athlete so I thought I'd recognize someone who leaped from obscurity to make a difference. This week's Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week is Washington Capitals goalie Braden Holtby. Having logged 60 minutes only 4 times (3 wins) during the regular season, the native of Saskatchewan was the portrait of "immovable object" in his two games, logging 60 minutes of shutout play against the Stanley Cup Champion Bruins in Game 1 (lost in OT 1-0), then tallied 83 minutes (4 periods plus) with one goal in a 2-1 winning effort. So essentially 7 periods of 2 goals against a pretty good team. The reign will be short due to logistics, but Holtby is logged in the annals of this Blogs history as being the Longhorndave Sportsman of the Week!