My thoughts on Alex Ovechkin
 

I wrote a blog post on my thoughts on Alex Ovechkin after another early playoff exit. He's no Crosby or Malkin during the spring:

Same Old Ovechkin | Hockeh Blog

Nice blog. I'm guessing you are pretty young. You mention not being able to remember a rookie who made an impact in the NHL like Ovechkin. Do you remember a guy named Teemu Selänne?

He netted 76 goals for 132 points. That's 26 more points that Ovie in his rookie season.


If you surround Ovie with better players he will have playoff success. Plain and simple. He hasn't had the talent Crosby has surrounding him ever in his career.

Hey, first of all thanks for reading the blog, the kind words, and commenting on it. I only started following hockey probably around 1997, which was before Teemu's rookie season and I fully agree with your points. I guess my main focus was on Ovechkin's huge star like impact off the ice too, which I don't think Teemu ever had. But you are totally right, nobody had a rookie entrance like Teemu. His celebration when he broke Bossy's record is probably my second favourite goal celebration of all time.

hes just too predictable i feel. stamkos is the same but finds a way somehow, guess its that clutch factor hes missing

I feel that Ovechkin had some decent talent surrounding him a few years ago...Backstrom and Semin? That year, they had some decent blueliners too alongside Greene.

Goaltending? Horrendous. Not the actual goaltenders per se, but how the Capitals seemed to take the netminding situation as last priority and not building a single goaltender to be prepared for the playoffs for the Capitals.

It looked like Holtby would be the guy this season, but he fell apart in game 7. Perhaps a landing spot for Luongo? As for the Stammer, he's done something that Ovie couldn't which is make it to the Eastern Conference Finals despite playing less seasons that Ovie. Alex is one of my favourite players to watch and I would love to see him break through.

Holtby has been stellar in the playoffs...both this and last year...

I totally agree, he's been great, except for game 7 against the Rangers this playoffs. He was not good, but then again, none of the Capitals were good.

Well hopefully Holtby will continue to learn and grow. He's still very young and he basically pushed himself towards a starting role a few years ago. As for Ovechkin, I love how the guy plays and his passion for hockey but as some have mentioned already, he's becoming a lot more predictable and I'm sure many of you still remember how Hal Hill was able to shut him down almost single handedly a few years back in the playoffs. To revive his career, I think WSH needs to find him another sniper with a different way to score so he'll have more space and time.

+1. The Capitals need more depth in scoring from their forwards in other to give Ovie more space and time to do score goals.

-wonder what GM George McPhee will do in the offseason to bolster the Washington roster.

I have no idea how the Caps haven't even made the Eastern conference finals since Ovechkin got there. Anyway, I'm not sure if this is a good analogy, but looking at Ovechkin reminds me of Shaq. Yes Shaq won 4 championships and Ovechkin hasn't won any, but there was always this feeling that if Shaq just got into shape, he would be even more dominant. I feel like that for Ovechkin; if he just took the game as seriously as Crosby, he'd be even better. He just wants to have fun, and that's not a knock against him at all - he's still young, has a ton of money, and plays hockey for a living. I'd be enjoying life too, and if he retired right this second, he'd still be a first ballot Hall of Famer.

omfg, gtfo of here.....dumbest shit I have ever read......

The biggest difference between Ovechkin/Capitals and Crosby/Malkin/Penguins is depth. The Capitals rely solely on their stars and when those guys don't produce, no one else steps up. The Penguins always have depth players willing to pick up the slack especially during the times Malkin and Crosby are out of the lineup. Vokoun replacing Fleury in this year's playoffs is another good example of that. I'm not sure the tandem of Holtby/Neuvirth can get a similar result.

Penguins Roll 4 lines deep, Caps have 1.5 lines. They make the playoffs because they are in a weak division, but they dont have a balanced team.

I followed the rangers series and to be honest, Caps got screwed on Game 6, when Rangers had a 5-0 PP advantage, I thought there were a few penalties that rangers should have gotten called on, but that game I think killed the Caps momentum, Caps played a better game imo but it's hard to win when the other team has a 5-0 penalty advantage in a game. Caps were #1 on the PP in the league and weren't given a single PP, the result was rangers winning game 6 by a score of 1-0, and then going on to destroy the Caps in Game 7.

That's the other knock on Ovi, he doesn't go on the Penalty Kill, and them killing penalties for most of the game and not being on the Power Play - where Ovi is a beast, and you have caps going out in the 1st round again.