Saturday, June 7, 2008

Is Alex Ovechkin this season's MVP? The answer to that question won't be revealed until the "NHL Award Show" on Thursday night, but blue Reebok T-shirts touting the Washington Capitals all-star as the Hart Trophy winner were on sale Friday afternoon through the league's Web site.

They were, that is, until league officials realized the mistake and pulled the item. Ovechkin, the league's leading scorer last season, is a finalist for the award with Calgary's Jarome Iginla and Pittsburgh's Evgeni Malkin.

NHL spokesman Frank Brown issued the following statement regarding the apparent mix up: "In an effort to offer our fans the merchandise they want in a timely manner following an event such as the NHL Awards, our licensees prepare product for all possible outcomes. In this situation, the link for one of the possible products became live early through an error by our e-commerce provider. We regret the error and have since taken steps to amend."

-- Tarik El-Bashir