Ovechkin’s capper in reach
Breakthrough built on passion of youth after haunted past
Finally, it is the spring of Alexander Ovechkin. One year ago, on the morning of another Game 7 in Washington, he was optimistic. They all were. The Capitals are mostly about stories that end sadly, but they said they had talked about their past, faced it. They said they had banished the negative thoughts.
Then they lost to the Pittsburgh Pen- guins, and every man looked alone. Now the new Capitals have beaten Pittsburgh and reached the conference final and won two games in Tampa over the Lightning, without all-star centre Nicklas Backstrom. Ovechkin had two points in each of those first two games. As Tampa Bay coach Jon Cooper told the reporters who were actually there Monday morning: “How many years has he been in the league? 14 years? I think he’s taking out 14 years of frustration out in one … playoff season.”
That’s one way to look at it. The 32year-old Ovechkin has 10 goals and 19 points in 14 playoff games, which puts him two points behind Sidney Crosby’s spring, but we’ll get back to that. The Capitals had never seen the third round in the Ovechkin era, despite three Presidents’ Trophies. Now against Tampa, they have been the better team: faster, sharper. They have made the mighty Lightning look silly.
“I think he’s enjoying the run, the playoffs, maybe for the first time in a long time,” said Washington coach Barry Trotz to reporters at the series. “He’s the face of the franchise, and as I said, as the face of the franchise you get a lot of the credit and you also get a lot of the blame. Because of that I think at times it’s taken some of the joy out of it, too.”
They look like a team that has slayed its demons. That’s mumbo-jumbo, of course.