Bogart of the year

 Raise a glass this morning to St. Louis Blues goalie Jordan Binnington, but make sure you keep a firm grip on it. Seems the guy's got some exceedingly sticky fingers. 

Last night, for instance, he tried to bogart Alex Ovechkin's milestone goal, only to have the on-ice officials basically say, "Come on, man. Give it up." What happened was, Ovi collected the trash from an errant shot from the point, neatly slid it to his backhand, and tucked it behind Binnington. 

It was his third goal of the season, and one of half-dozen the Washington Capitals put behind Binnington in a 6-1 paving. It also was Ovi's 900th career goal, making the NHL's alltime leading goal scorer the only player in history to reach that particular round number.

So what did Binnington do?

Why, what any collector of rare artifacts would do: He quickly scooped the puck out of the net and stuffed it down his pants. Puck? Puck? No, sir, Mr. Referee, sir, haven't seen any pucks around here. 

Now, Binnington didn't speak with the media after the game, so the jury's still out on whether this was an actual bogarting, or if Binnington was just pulling a hockey player prank on Ovi. Having been around hockey players as a sports scribbler for a good chunk of my professional life, I'm inclined toward the latter.

(Mind you, this is not solely -- not solely --  because I once was pranked myself by a Fort Wayne Komet who shall remain nameless. At the height of the hilarity on the night the Komets won one of their several league championships, he dumped a beer on my head.  Then he baptized me again. I forgave him because  one, he was one of those guys it was impossible to get mad at, and, two, because I was the dummy who decided venturing into the locker room during the postgame celebration was a good idea.)

Anyway ... Binnington willingly surrendered the puck, and the game went on. Presumably the officials presented it to Ovechkin at some point -- which evokes a brief conversation that probably didn't happen, but could have.

Ovechkin: He stuffed it WHERE?

Official: Um, down his pants, Ovi.

Ovechkin (dropping puck): Ewww.