It’s high time for Ovechkin, Backstrom to ‘do something’
PITTSBURGH — The question was about what more Alex Ovechkin wanted to see from the team; but it was fitting the Washington Capitals captain responded by criticizing himself.
“I have to play much better,” Ovechkin said after Washington’s 3-2 Game 4 loss Wednesday night.
For the past 12 seasons, Ovechkin has been the face of the Caps, a living reflection of their repeated post-season failures. That hasn’t always been fair, but as Washington needs to win the next three games against the Penguins in an Eastern Conference semifinal series, the spotlight is again on him to lead the Capitals to a first conference final in 19 years.
With expiring contracts this off-season closing the window on the most talented team to ever surround Ovechkin in Washington, this could also mark his last, best chance to alter the narrative that has defined his career.
“Our top players didn’t play as well as they need to,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said after Wednesday’s loss. “They need to be top players and step up right now.”
From the moment Ovechkin took the stage with team management and announced Washington’s first-round pick at the 2006 NHL draft, a skilled Swedish centre named Nicklas Backstrom, the two players have been linked, the thunderous shooter with the subtle playmaker. They have fed off each other, raised each other up with their individual strengths and supported one another.
“When we need something to happen, it’s not uncommon for Nicky to bang his stick on the boards and get Ovie’s attention and say, ‘Let’s go,’” Trotz said.
They made the playoffs for the first time together during Backstrom’s rookie year, and though they lost in a seven-game, firstround series in that 2008 postseason, with those two as cornerstones of the franchise there seemed to be hope a Stanley Cup was in Washington’s future.
But in nine post-season trips together, Ovechkin and Backstrom have yet to advance past an Eastern Conference semifinal, despite finishing with the league’s best regular-season record three times. Ovechkin is now 31 and Backstrom is 29, and both are weary from repeatedly running into the same second-round wall.
Though Ovechkin has averaged nearly a point per game in the playoffs, he has had to answer for Washington’s string of early exits more than anyone. He and Backstrom each have four points in four games this series.
Brian MacLellan’s three-year tenure as GM has been a series of “all-in” moves to build around Ovechkin and Backstrom. He signed defencemen Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen to strengthen the blue-line. He traded for T.J. Oshie, arguably the best fit Ovechkin and Backstrom have had in a linemate, then signed forward Justin Williams to bolster the team’s top-six forward corps. After secondary scoring was lacking last season, MacLellan traded for centre Lars Eller and then signed winger Brett Connolly in free agency to create a third line with more offensive upside.
His last big splash was trading for puck-moving defenceman Kevin Shattenkirk in February.
With 11 players on the roster entering either restricted or unrestricted free agency this summer, MacLellan knows this is the last year with this group surrounding his two stars. Evgeny Kuznetsov, Andre Burakovsky, Dmitry Orlov and Nate Schmidt will all be due pay raises in restricted free agency this summer, making it hard for the team to keep defenceman Karl Alzner, Oshie and Williams with the salary cap expected to stay flat.
The acquisition of Shattenkirk symbolized the sense of urgency. The morning after the trade, Ovechkin voiced that.
“Every year we talk about, ‘This is our year, this is our year.’ Enough talking. I think it’s time to do something.”
But a roster carefully constructed to be as complete as possible has shown cracks this postseason. The league’s stingiest team during the regular-season has allowed the most goals of any team still standing in the playoffs. After the Capitals emphasized strengthening their secondary scoring in the summer, the bottom-six forwards haven’t scored in this series against the Penguins.
Connolly, who tallied a careerhigh 15 goals during the regular season, has been scratched for the past three games and the Capitals have played seven defencemen for the first time under Trotz. Shattenkirk has a minus-four rating in the playoffs and Orpik’s minus-seven is the worst on the team.
Ovechkin had one of his least productive years in goal-scoring, but Trotz was actually pleased to see the powerful sniper not running himself ragged to chase individual accomplishments.
“I think he recognized that on this team, he didn’t need to be the guy night in and night out, and that’s probably allowed him a little bit of mental rest,” Trotz said in April. “I don’t know that we need him to be the guy, he just might be the guy for us in the end here,” said MacLellan of Ovechkin before the playoffs.
But with the secondary scoring in a drought and another promising campaign on the brink of ending prematurely once again after Wednesday’s loss in Pittsburgh, Trotz said he wanted to see more from his top players. Ovechkin felt it was time for him to do more.
“It’s the time for us,” he said.