Older stars on clock to win Cup
Pressure mounts on Ovechkin, Crosby and Nash to deliver.
Alex Ovechkin has heard enough. Enough questions about windows of opportunity being wide open — or starting to close — for his Washington Capitals. Enough bold proclamations about how this is the season they’re going to set aside their pattern of playoff pratfalls. Enough chatter about why things went wrong in the past but won’t this time around. Or so he says. “Every year, we talk about, ‘This team can do something.’ I think right now, it’s not (for) talking. We have to do it,” Ovechkin said. “It’s 10 years. We have to move forward and take a big step.”
During his decade in the NHL, the Russian wing has piled up all sorts of personal accolades. He’s got the 50-goal seasons, six in all. He’s got the trio of MVP awards. His team has been quite successful during the regular season in that span, too. What Ovechkin never has done is make it past the second round of the playoffs.
That’s where the club’s 2014-15 season stopped, after Washington wasted a 3-1 series lead against the New York Rangers.
“I hope this year is going to be much better,” Ovechkin said, “for me personally and for the team, as well.”
At some point, the question about Ovechkin will become how much longer he can keep scoring at will while playing his hard-hitting style.
The questions already are out there about when — or even whether — he and the Capitals can finally have some serious postseason success.
“He’s gone through a lot of things here,” coach Barry Trotz said. “He was a young phenom, to a solid veteran, to a great leader, to one of the best goal scorers and dynamic players that fill the seats nightin and night-out that the game has known. So I think the next step for him is to try to find that ring.”
He’s not the only one. As the NHL kicks off with four games tonight, several promising players and teams must deliver soon.
The New York Rangers, who open tonight at the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks, haven’t won the Cup since 1994, despite having one of the best goalies in the game in Henrik Lundqvist and 40-goal scorer Rick Nash. They also have a high-salary roster loaded with veterans.
“We have to win now,” Nash said. “It’s not like we have years and years to lose and have another shot at it.”
Same for the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sidney Crosby has been in the league for 10 years and has hoisted the Cup just once, back in 2009. But with the arrival of Phil Kessel, the Penguins look a lot better offensively than they have in previous seasons.
“We have more speed up front,” Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford said. “We have more guys who can score. We have more balance and depth among our forwards.”