Athletistic / Hockey. The 106th season of National Hockey League (NHL) games begins on October 10. For the first time, the Vegas Golden Knights will defend the championship, but Russian hockey fans, despite the presence of Ivan Barbashev’s “knights” in the camp, are more interested in the Washington Capitals. Alexander Ovechkin will spend his 18th season in North America with the Capitals.
The 38-year-old Russian’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s seemingly eternal record for most NHL regular-season goals is attracting increasing attention. Ovi is now 72 goals behind the legendary Canadian and many expect that the Russian will manage to regain most of this handicap from the 2023/2024 season.
However, Washington appears to benefit from continuing the Ovechkin story purely from a business standpoint. In recent seasons, the capital’s results have declined sharply and last season they failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time in nine years. It would seem that the main star is constantly knocking out more than 40 goals per season – what’s wrong? But it seems that some North American journalists and experts believe that Ovechkin is Washington’s ballast and the main reason for the team’s failures.
On September 25, the authoritative publication The Athletic published an article in which they made predictions about Washington’s performance in the upcoming NHL season. Journalists devoted most of this material to Ovechkin. And, surprisingly, they subjected the team captain to an avalanche of criticism.
It all started quite positively:
“Ovechkin still shines offensively – and at 38 years old. Last season, Alexander scored 42 goals and scored 75 points in 73 regular season games in the NHL. For some, that’s proof enough of the effectiveness of Ovechkin.”
But that’s when the incessant criticism begins:
“But it’s a lot easier to do that if you’re on the power play 95 percent of the time and everyone is trying to feed you passes so you can make shots on your way to another average season. “It’s much easier to be productive when defensive play is considered optional.” “.
After “attacking” the Russian for the fact that he scores the lion’s share of his goals playing in uneven formations (which is a mistake), the authors began to criticize Ovi for his defensive game:
“Throughout his NHL career, Alex has always been quite cavalier about playing without the puck, but last season he reached new lows. His defensive performance would rank fourth worst forwards in the league, largely due to the fact that last season Washington scored 0.57 more expected goals with Ovechkin on the ice compared to his teammates.
Ovechkin cheating to offend is nothing new. What’s new is that he plays less with the puck now. His passing game isn’t what it used to be and he’s not as effective in the offensive zone. The Great Eight has become a below average forward when it comes to getting the puck into the end zone. Ovechkin remains an exceptional talent due to his “generational shot” and killer instinct as a forward. But now he is no longer the player who can be the best on a playoff caliber team. Only the San Jose Sharks, Philadelphia Flyers and Montreal Canadiens have a weaker “better” forward than Ovechkin in the NHL.
It is not difficult to refute the conclusion of The Athletic journalists simply by resorting to statistics. Does he only score in uneven lineups? Of the 822 goals in the regular season, Alexander Ovechkin scored 510 at even strength (62%). Playing bad defense? Yes, the Russian finished last season with a -16 utility rating, but his overall NHL utility rating is now +68.
Washington failed last season, but Ovechkin can hardly be blamed for that. The Capitals’ entire team mechanism worked with big mistakes last campaign, but it was their captain who stopped the Capitals from becoming underdogs in the league. If the owners of the franchise realized that the Russian was dragging the team down and not bringing any benefit, then rumors would have already spread in the media about a possible exchange of Ovechkin to another team or about the fact that the management of the Caps was not satisfied with the actions. of the hockey player. However, this is not the case at all.
In our opinion, Washington’s problems last season were linked to the figure of the head coach. Peter Laviolette was not a good fit for the Capitals, which was evident throughout his time in the US capital, but that became clearly visible last season. It is not for nothing that Evgeny Kuznetsov recently could not restrain himself and expressed his dissatisfaction with the work of his former mentor. The team was also disappointed by constant injuries, which did not allow even the first 6 to play, let alone the four trios.
Washington will likely face a tough season, where the team will have to hold on to any opportunity to make the playoffs. However, Ovechkin, having healed all his injuries this summer, will once again prove to the whole world that he is the best sniper of the generation. And maybe the whole history of hockey.
Nikita Serbakov, Athletistic
Source: Sport
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
