Tweet Less than 48 hours after his season came to a stunning conclusion in a Game 7 loss to the Montreal Canadiens, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin still is struggling to find the right words. "When you lose, you try to forget about it, but when you lose in a game like this, its pretty hard to say something," Ovechkin told reporters on breakdown day. "Just try to forget about it, but its hard." The Capitals won the Presidents Trophy and were expected to, at the very least, cruise through a first-round series with the Canadiens. But after building a 3-1 series lead, Habs goalie Jaroslav Halak spent the next three games doing a stand-out imitation of a brick wall as Montreal took the next three games and advanced to the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Capitals vs. Canadiens (Getty Images) Capitals vs. Canadiens (Getty Images) "When you get the lead 3-1 you think, OK, maybe theyre going to give up and maybe were going to win an easy game and be ready for next round," Ovechkin said. Instead, the Capitals scored just 3 goals in the next three games. Thats a far cry from the team that scored a League-best 313 goals during the regular season. "I think how we played in the regular season and how we played the last couple games in the playoffs, it was two different teams," Ovechkin said. "We didnt score goals. I know in the regular season we scored lots of goals. If we were losing 3-1 or 4-2, we know we can come back and win the game." Ovechkin said he should shoulder the blame for losing, saying any and all criticism was warranted. "Yes, its fair. It was my fault," he said. "We need to score goals. I have a chance to score goals, I didnt score goals." But he scored 5 goals and 10 points in the series, while other players -- notably Alexander Semin and Mike Green -- were major disappointments. Semin, who had a career-best 40 goals during the regular season, fired a League-high 44 shots in the first round, but none found their way into the net, and he finished with just 2 assists. Green, whos led NHL defensemen in scoring two-straight years and goals for three straight, was whistled for twice as many minor penalties as he had points (3). "Everybody knows how they can play," Ovechkin said. "They had chances. Semin hit the post in the first period. When you dont score, it goes through your mind, you feel like, Why cant I score right now? Next time you have a chance and you cant score, you feel like, Jesus what happened to me? You start concentrating on that and forget different things." What wont be forgotten is how the Capitals had their season end so early. There was a mix of boos and cheers from the Verizon Center crowd following Game 7, and Ovechkin believes both were right. "When fans boo us, its the right decision (and) what fans cheer us and say good job, its a good decision," Ovechkin said. "The fans are the most important thing in our organization. They want to win. You can see how they celebrate and how they were happy when we won Game 2 in overtime. We can feel their energy. "We fight, we want to do our best. They want to win. If youre losing everybody is going to say bad things. If youre winning everybody is going to say how good you are, how special you are. Its always like that. If you win youre always on top; if you lose you always go down." Ovechkin said its too soon to know what the future holds, but said he liked the mix in the dressing room and coaching staff. Next for him is taking what happened as another learning experience. "Everybody wants to win not in the regular season -- everybody wants to win the (Stanley) Cup," he said. "You can see right now -- we lost, Buffalo lost, New Jersey lost. The top three teams lost in the first round of the playoffs. We all played great in the season, but in the playoffs something we missed. We have to concentrate more on the playoffs and more on how we have to play in the playoffs, not the season. … We just have to be ready for playoffs and be ready for that kind of pressure." Contact Adam Kimelman at akimelman@nhl.com
Tyler Seguin Jersey Moorhead’s Tiffany Swanson qualified for the Minnesota Class 3A state girls golf meet after finishing in eighth place at the Section 8 meet Friday. Swanson finished with a two-day score of 185. She grabbed the last spot among individual qualifiers who weren’t playing for St. Cloud Apollo, which won the section team title Overall, 61% of Republicans who recognize Gingrich now view him favorably, while 32% view him unfavorably. This gives Gingrich the second-lowest favorable and the highest unfavorable rating of any candidate Gallup is tracking, according to the Gallup organization. You can view the Gallup report here Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/generallifemisc/movers-shakers/11/06/1132953/did-blingfest-at-tiffanys-doom-the-gingrich-campaign#ixzz1OHesO5Rf
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Daniel Sedin Jersey Moorhead’s Tiffany Swanson qualified for the Minnesota Class 3A state girls golf meet after finishing in eighth place at the Section 8 meet Friday. Swanson finished with a two-day score of 185. She grabbed the last spot among individual qualifiers who weren’t playing for St. Cloud Apollo, which won the section team title Overall, 61% of Republicans who recognize Gingrich now view him favorably, while 32% view him unfavorably. This gives Gingrich the second-lowest favorable and the highest unfavorable rating of any candidate Gallup is tracking, according to the Gallup organization. You can view the Gallup report here Read more: http://www.benzinga.com/generallifemisc/movers-shakers/11/06/1132953/did-blingfest-at-tiffanys-doom-the-gingrich-campaign#ixzz1OHesO5Rf
Mats Sundin Jersey Finals We’re not sure. But we are also puzzled by his claim that he had a “standard, no-interest account” at Tiffany & Co. The disclosure filings that Gingrich’s third wife, Callista, provided to the House of Representatives when she worked for the Agriculture Committee listed debts to Tiffany of $250,001 to $500,000 on a “revolving charge account” for two straight years. (The disclosure forms also show debts of $15,001 to $50,000 to American Express.) The notion of global economic imbalance widely discussed these days can be typically seen in China and the United States. China allegedly saves and exports too much, the US problem is just the opposite. Critics now want to flip the scenario by seeing the population of China consume more and people in the US save more, with the exchange rate policy involved to correct the imbalance. That view is somewhat biased. The imbalance does exist, but I am skeptical of its size. In other words, we should re-examine whether the US savings rate is really that low. The crux is the traditional definition of savings and consumption, the two basic concepts in modern economics that were formed more than a century ago. In the current national accounting system, spending on human capital is measured as part of consumption. Such a classification is dubious. Related readings: Davos meeting to discuss global economy, climate, Haiti Chinese think tank predicts global economy will grow by 2%-3% next year Take the global imbalance seriously Hu: Opposing protectionism helps revive global economy For example, education, culture, study, adventure and tourism are activities critical for enhancing human capital, considered the key driving force for modern economies, especially for the most advanced economies such as the US. In China, investments on fixed assets, including buying equipment and building factories, are the key engines for growth. The economic growth of the US is no longer driven by hardware investments - investments largely on fixed assets such as infrastructure and facilities - but fueled by wealth of knowledge and technological innovation. It is noticeable that expenditures in these fields make up a very high proportion of the US total GDP (gross domestic product). In my observation, while the proportion of US companies among the worlds top 500 enterprises has dropped from more than 30 percent two years ago to approximately 28 percent today, their leading positions in technological innovation, standard-setting and branding have never faltered. The US is still the most advanced and powerful nation in the field of information technology, bioengineering, aviation and other high-tech industries, even in the agricultural sector of crop seeds, fertilizers and pesticides. These advantages are not forged in massive fixed asset investments, but from hefty spending on training, R&D and design. I believe spending in these areas should not be cataloged as consumption. However, the US does spend too much in certain areas, such as the energy sector. The US has 5 percent of the worlds population, while its energy consumption accounts for 21 percent of the total. Another sector is medical care. Spending on medical treatment is remarkably high in the US, accounting for 17 percent of the total GDP. In the legal service sector, lawyer fees in the US are much higher than the average level in other countries. The US should consider cutting down spending in these areas; its consumers should be more thrifty when buying daily consumable goods as well. There is a great sense of inevitability and legitimacy embedded in the imbalance between China and the US. The two countries are at different stages of development. China is in the process of industrialization, while the US has entered a post-industrialization era. The Chinese economy is dominated by material production and heavily relies on factory input, while the US economy is primarily led by the service industry and technological innovation. Many admire Chinas gigantic foreign exchange reserves. Indeed, even though the US and European countries do not hold that much in the way of financial assets, their fixed capital is several times more than that of China. Besides, they each have about 10 times more ecological wealth and much more invaluable intellectual wealth and human capital. Fundamentally, the trade and capital account imbalance between China and the US is due to the fact that China focuses on producing low value-added products, while the US concentrates on high value-added products. Chinas growth model is energy-intensive and environmentally unfriendly to some degree, while the US is seeking ways to improve the ecological environment. Against such a backdrop, China has to maintain a high capital accumulation ratio and export capital to the US, while the US could control global resources with the help of its industrial, technological and financial advantages. Liberalization of the renminbis foreign exchange regime also wont help solve the economic imbalance between China and the US. Admittedly, it is necessary to reform Chinas interest rate and exchange rate policies toward a more market-oriented view so that market forces could play a greater role in upgrading industrialization. But will reform of Chinas exchange rate policy correct the imbalance fundamentally? Not likely. Labor cost in China is significantly lower than that of the US, about one tenth in comparison. The imbalance cant possibly be solved until the Chinese reach the same living standards as the US population, which will take a long time to achieve. Moreover, even if China is no longer the country with the biggest surplus, that position will be taken by Vietnam, India, Indonesia and other developing countries, just like China took over the position from Japan, the Republic of Korea and the East Asian tigers a couple of years ago. Hence, it will not mitigate the problem of the manufacturing industrys exit in the US. It is an irreversible trend that pure capital or labor-intensive industries will be gradually phased out in the US, and the country will have to focus more and more on industries heavily leaning on knowledge, technology and management expertise. Such structural change is the so-called industrial upgrading - a quandary faced by many countries nowadays. There is an urgent need to reform the global economic growth model. The current production and consumption model must be replaced. Taking economic globalization as a backdrop, sustainable development does not come simply with efforts made by any single or several countries alone. Each country should do its part and find out its own sustainable and environmentally friendly growth model. The author is chairman of China Construction Bank and former head of Chinas State Administration of Foreign Exchange. (China Daily 01212010 page8) ' ' '
