“Kuzya, look at Laviolette’s work!
The Arizona game was supposed to be the 700th for Evgenia Kuznetsova in a career. But he didn’t do it: in the morning, the head coach “Washington” Spencer Carbery announced that the center would remain on the bench for the game against the Coyotes.
“He needs to restart mentally,” explained the coach. “We’re constantly talking about how he can improve his game. And now it’s time to look at Washington hockey from the outside.”
The Capitals roster is already extremely weakened. Removing one of the club’s remaining stars is a controversial decision. But the fans took it with understanding. Kuzi’s statistics this season are not at all encouraging: only 9 (4+5) points in 19 matches with a score of “-5”. In the last six games, he has only scored 1 (1+0) point.
And of course, fans couldn’t help but remember how Kuznetsov recently criticized former Washington coach Peter Laviolette for making the Capitals’ game primitive and simple: instead of playing the piano, they were forced to wear it.
“Kuzya, look how Laviolette is working now!” – fans are writing now. The New York Rangers are in first place in the NHL and your young teammate Artemi Panarin is scoring hat tricks. Maybe it’s worth understanding?
“And I remember how Alexey Yashin ran away from Laviolette from Long Island. He never reached his full potential and Laviolette quickly won the Stanley Cup with Carolina. »
In general, perhaps in a few years, 42-year-old Carbery will appear to everyone as a coaching genius. And it is clear that Kuzya deserved such a placement on the reserves. In general, there is talk that Washington could trade Kuznetsov or even send him to the waiver draft. But here and now this decision of the coach led to the fact that Washington, already weakened, simply collapsed in the match against Arizona, losing with a score of 0: 5 after the first period.
Cooley met his idol and scored the winning goal
When a team misses five goals after 10 shots, it looks like one of two things: either the whole team got up on the wrong foot in the morning, or the players are cheating on their coach. We don’t know what happened this time – you have to be in the locker room to find out. But this incredible Arizona won the game in one period.
Yes, here the Coyotes, by the will of the schedule, played with the last five Stanley Cup winners. And I managed to defeat them all! They were St. Louis (4:1), Colorado (4:3 OT), Tampa Bay (3:1), Vegas (2:0) and now Washington (6:0).
In the ninth minute, Logan Cooley, one of the contenders for the title of best rookie of the year, opened the scoring with a power play. Interestingly, Cooley, 19, was born in Pittsburgh. But he always said that since his childhood, he had “drowned” for Alexandra Ovechkina . And he even went everywhere wearing a Washington t-shirt, causing surprise among local Penguins fans. So, Cooley not only met his idol in an official NHL match, but also defeated him.
After the first period, there was no longer any need to go on the ice. In the next two periods, spectators saw only one puck – Nick Bjugstad brought Arizona’s victory to 6:0. The first star of the game was host goalie Connor Ingram, who scored a cracker.
With such a team, Ovechkin will not overtake Gretzky
And Ovechkin? He played tied in a line with Dylan Strome and Tom Wilson, which according to advanced stats looked pretty good, even outperforming his opponents. But in principle this is understandable. After all, Washington lost at even strength with a score of 0:3, conceding two goals in the minority and one on the power play, when Bjugstad had just scored. But the Capitals had already stopped playing there.
Ovechkin got 19:31 minutes of playing time, had three shots on target and scored a -1. Overall, another banal and mediocre match. Over the last seven matches, Alexander the Great has kept six clean sheets without scoring anything. And only with Anaheim he scored two assists. But he hasn’t scored since November 18, 2023, when he scored against Columbus at home. And judging by what’s going on, Ovechkin is statistically going to fail miserably this season.
We won’t talk about when Sasha scores her 1,500th career point. It’s a matter of time, and it could happen in the next game, when Washington hosts Dallas at home on Thursday. But in general, with such “Washington” you will not go far, and the gap behind Wayne Gretzky (894) in goals to Ovechkin (827) will seem like an abyss. Judge by yourself…
Ovechkin’s main center forward is Nicklas Backstrom, but he is desperately injured and has effectively ended his career. The second center is Evgeny Kuznetsov, but his career is in decline. They talk about some kind of chronic injuries, depression from such hockey. Somehow Kuzya is no longer the same and he is already put in storage.
Creative forward TJ Oshie, who complemented Ovechkin in the top three, is now injured. For some reason, Washington signed veteran Max Pacioretty in the offseason, but he is also on the long-term injured list. Three veteran offensive players have $17 million in cap space but are not playing. Yes, this amount is currently not counted against the salary cap. But where are you going to find three stronger attackers in attack? It would be nice to have the three Vladimir Tkachev – Ryan Spooner – Reed Boucher from Avangard. But who will give it to Washington?
The Capitals roster now looks woefully mediocre. So it turns out that Ovechkin is gradually getting closer to the choice – or to stew in this mess for another two and a half seasons, without having serious chances to overtake Gretzky, which everyone expects. Or leave your original club on schedule – to join a stronger team where there will be good partners.
Fans here suggest on social networks: “Washington”, let Ovechkin go! Why are you torturing him? The ideal option is Pittsburgh. We’d all like to see how Ovechkin and Crosby played on the same line at the end of their careers?
Of course, Pittsburgh is a long-time enemy of Washington on the ice. Yes, Ovechkin’s departure from the Capitals will be received extremely ambiguously by fans. It could even be that after this Ovi’s sweater will no longer be lifted under the arcades of the palace of the American capital. But what is happening now cannot continue. Although there is another interesting measure: resigning Spencer Carbery himself so that Washington can mentally reboot. After all, does the coach consider this approach effective?
Listen, even desperate San Jose, who suddenly began to show normal hockey, was able to do it. Perhaps it is time for “Washington” to no longer be “the shadow of Hamlet’s father”? What is happening now is just a nightmare. Shame. A shame.
There is no sadder story in the world…
Source : MatchTV
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.
