USA TODAY International Edition
Ovechkin amazes
Underappreciated Capitals star is an all- time great, columnist Kevin Allen writes,
Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin is one of those athletes whose dominance will be recognized and appreciated far more post- retirement than during his heyday.
Today, the NHL’s national fan base views Ovechkin as a player of extraordinary talent, a gamebreaker, a difference- maker, a player worth the price of admission. But the pure enjoyment of his ability always seems undermined by the Capitals’ lack of playoff success and the debate about the strength of Ovechkin’s leadership or overall game.
Still, once Ovechkin hangs his skates on the nail in his garage, all the hockey world will remember going forward is that he was one of the most dangerous scorers in NHL history.
This week there has been considerable talk about how difficult it has been to score goals in this era. There has been an average of 5.32 goals per game. There’s a drumbeat for enlarging the nets or reducing the size of goalie equipment or changing rules to make it easier to find the net. The prevailing sentiment is there is no net to shoot at these days and there hasn’t been much net to shoot at in recent years.
Yet somehow over the last decade, Ovechkin has located the net enough to score 483 goals in 773 games. Coming into this season, he had scored 50 or more goals six times in 10 seasons.
While many of his contemporaries are struggling to score, Ovechkin owns eight goals in 13 games. That’s a 50- goal pace.
The truth is we are witnessing one of the most amazing players in NHL history, even if not all of us understand that yet.
Ovechkin didn’t score Tuesday against the Detroit Red Wings, but he registered 15 shots on goal. That’s not a typo. To put that shot total into perspective, consider that Patrick Kane is tied for the lead in goals and points, and he hasn’t generated more than seven shots in a game this season. He’s averaging 3.73 shots per game while Ovechkin is averaging 5.92.
The advanced stat crowd appreciates Ovechkin’s impact. During his career, the Capitals have controlled the play 3.6% more when Ovechkin is on the ice. Ovechkin’s Corsi this season is almost 59%, according to War- onice. com.
Ovechkin needs one goal to pass Sergei Fedorov to become the NHL’s highest- scoring Russian of all time. Here’s the part of that story that speaks to Ovechkin’s phenomenal play: Fedorov was a marvelously dynamic player, and yet Ovechkin needed 476 fewer games to match Fedorov’s goal numbers.
It won’t be long before Ovechkin joins the 500- goal club, and he is tracking to become the fifthfastest player to reach that total. Wayne Gretzky ( 575 games), Mario Lemieux ( 605), Mike Bossy ( 647) and Brett Hull ( 693) will be ahead of him. All of them launched their careers in an era in which goals were far more plentiful.
Anyone who witnessed the dominance of Gretzky and Lemieux is never going to say Ovechkin is a more dangerous scorer than either of them. Gretzky scored 92 goals in 1981- 22 and 87 in 1983- 84 when no one else had more than 56. Lemieux had 85 goals in 1988- 89. Those guys were playing goal- per- game hockey.
But here’s what should be remembered about Ovechkin: He just turned 30 in September, and he could pass Lemieux to be among the top- 10 scorers all time by 34. Based on his scoring rate, Ovechkin has an outside shot of chasing down Gretzky’s record of 894. Unlikely, but not impossible.
It might be time to stop overanalyzing Ovechkin’s game and simply enjoy the entertaining player he is.