Boychuk shuts down Ovechkin
Johnny Boychuk wanted to deflect the praise, but there was no hiding fromthe fact he acted like a shutdown cornerback on Alex Ovechkin all Sunday afternoon.
“It’s just your job,” Boychuk said after his Islanders won 21 in overtime at the Coliseum, taking a 21 lead in the best of seven firstround series. “He’s an excellent player. He’s the best goalscorer in the game right nowand you have to pay attention to him. If you don’t, you’re probably going to be going home early.”
Boychuk helped to limit Ovechkin to three shots on net on 14 attempts — nine of them blocked. Boychuk had three of those blocks alone on a secondperiod penalty kill when he was all over Ovechkin, giving him no time or space to shoot or make a play. The 31yearold was a plus2 over his 26: 23, which included four shots on net, five hits and four blocked shots.
“It’s not just me, it’s everybody in the dressing room being aware of where guys are on the ice,” Boychuk said. “He’s very, very dangerous.”
Trying to shut down the opposing team’s best player is normally the task of Travis Hamonic, but the Isles defenseman has been sidelined with an apparent leg injury suffered in the penultimate game of the regular season in Pittsburgh. That has left Boychuk to do some of the heavy lifting, and at least so far, he has risen to the occasion.
“Johnny did a great job,” coach Jack Capuano said. “He’s a big body, he played a lot of hard minutes for us here tonight. He took some big hits, he dished out some big hits.”
Capuano decided to get forward Tyler Kennedy his first action of the postseason, making Michael Grabner a healthy scratch.
“Tome, Tyler brings an element of grit and desperation in his game,” Capuano said. “I thought hewas one of our top forwards here tonight.”
As far as his lineup going into Tuesday’s Game 4, Capuano said: “We always have to reevaluate after the game. And it all depends on your health too.”
Kennedy played on a line with Brock Nelson and Anders Lee, and had three shots on net in 8: 51.
One of the biggest weaknesses for the Islanders this season— and in their most recent playoff series, two years ago against the Penguins— is their penalty kill. Yet they went 3for3 over 6: 00 on Sunday, and have held the Capitals’ topranked powerplay unit to 1for6 in the series.