Alex Ovechkin Has A Strong Case For Hart Trophy
Mandatory Credit: Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin had one heck of a season. As great as it was, most people probably still don’t realize just how valuable Alex Ovechkin was to the Washington Capitals. In most seasons, Alex Ovechkin would win the Hart Trophy in a landslide. However, this season, Carey Price had an equally excellent season. One could easily argue that Price should win the Hart Trophy and not be wrong. Despite that, Alex Ovechkin should at least be considered to get first place votes and might even wind up winning the award.
Alex Ovechkin’s MVP Case
The Hart Trophy goes to the player who is deemed to be “the most valuable to his team”. People tend to argue over what that means, but to me, that means the player who played the largest role in his team’s success. Obviously, Carey Price, as an elite goaltender of a team that didn’t score that much, has a very valid case for being that. I certainly won’t protest if Price wins the Hart Trophy. However, don’t forget about the best goal scorer in the world Alex Ovechkin.
Just as Price was extremely valuable to the Montreal Canadiens by keeping them in games that they would not have otherwise won, Alex Ovechkin did the same for the Washington Capitals. He generated an almost hysterical amount of their offense. Let’s take a look at just how much of their offense was created while Alex Ovechkin was on the ice.
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During the 2014-2015 regular season, the Capitals had 4,736 CorsiFor events (shot attempts including those that were blocked) and 3,480 FenwickFor events (unblocked shot attempts) during all situations. Alex Ovechkin was on the ice for 2,079 CorsiFor attempts and 1,543 FenwickFor events. That’s 43.90% of their CorsiFor events and 44.34% of their FenwickFor events. If you’re not a fan of possession stats, here’s one for you. The Caps had 2,420 shots on goal during the regular season. Alex Ovechkin was on the ice for 1,044 of them. That’s 43.14% of their shots on goal.
Let’s break it down even further. Ovechkin obviously didn’t have a part in every single one attempts while he was on the ice. But he still amassed a high amount of the Capitals shot attempts just by himself.
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Ovechkin led the Capitals in each of the categories. To fully understand his value to his team, one must understand that Ovechkin literally carried his team on offense. The person in second place in each of the three shot categories was defenseman John Carlson. Ovechkin had 202 more shots on goal (395 to 193), 315 more FenwickFor attempts (597 to 282) and 431 more Corsi events (825 to 394) than Carlson. That’s more than double Carlson’s shot attempts in each category.
If you prefer graphical form, here’s a graph. The x-variable is Individual CorsiFor attempts. The y-variable is Individual FenwickFor attempts. The color variable is Individual shots on goal. For fun, the size variable is goals scored. Note: this is during ALL situations. Not just even strength.
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Perhaps Alex Ovechkin’s greatest asset to the Washington Capitals is his ability to score goals. Ovechkin had a league leading 53 goals this year. That would have been very difficult for the Caps to replace. Ovechkin had 32 more goals than Troy Brouwer who was second on the Caps with 21 goals and 33 more goals than Marcus Johansson who was third on the Caps with 20 goals.
Without Alex Ovechkin, it’s hard to see the Capitals making the playoffs. Or even being that good of a team. Forget how much better Alex Ovechkin is than the rest of the NHL at scoring goals and shooting the puck. The Capitals would likely be as screwed, if not more so, than Montreal if both teams lost their respective Hart Trophy candidate. It would most likely be easier to replace Price during a season when the league-wide goals against average was the 21st lowest of all time (and the third lowest of the 21st century) and the goals scored per game were down than it would be to replace the forward who scored 10 more goals than the guy in second place. Not saying it would be easy to replace either. But this season, elite offense was more difficult to come by than elite goaltending.
Is Carey Price an extremely deserving Hart Trophy candidate? Absolutely. But so is Alex Ovechkin.
Next: What's Next For Alex Ovechkin?