Washington Capitals: Alex Ovechkin Is Heating Up
Alex Ovechkin has picked up his play in a big way and is climbing back into the race for the most goals in the NHL.
Coming off of his sixth 50-goal season since entering the National Hockey League, expectations were once again high for Alex Ovechkin heading into the Washington Capitals‘ 2015-16 campaign. He started the season extremely strong, scoring five goals in his first five games. After that start, Alex Ovechkin just seemed quiet somehow.
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To some extent, it has remained that way. Almost halfway into the Capitals’ season, Alex Ovechkin has just seven power play goals, compared to 25 last season. He had 24 PPG the season prior and racked up an incredible 16 PPG in 48 games during a lockout-shortened 2012-13 season where he scored 32 goals. His current numbers on the power play are noticeably lower than in previous seasons, seemingly sending off alarm bells in the heads of Caps fans.
Pump the breaks on those alarms. Ovechkin is in fact scoring goals at a faster pace than he was at this time last season. The Great Eight has 21 goals heading into the New Year, whereas he only had 17 at this time last year. This is just about the time when Ovechkin usually gets it going, and yet again, he is right on cue.
He had nine goals in the month of December, potting seven of those goals since a huge comeback win over the Tampa Bay Lightning on December 18th. In that game, Ovechkin scored two goals and added two assists. Though he was never really struggling that badly from a goal scoring standpoint, this game may be viewed as a launching point for Ovi for the rest of the season. Several of those goals in December were game-changing goals.
A little less than one month ago, we talked about why the Washington Capitals didn’t need fifty goals from Alex Ovechkin anymore because of the overall team depth that the Capitals have never had before. At the same time, a goal scoring tear from Ovechkin has been a long time coming.
His shooting percentage this season is currently 11.4%, still a full percent under his career S% of 12.4%. Over the past three seasons, his shooting percentage has been even higher, shooting 14.5%, 13.2% and 13.4%, respectively since 2012-13. While those numbers will probably decline as Ovechkin ages, that leads you to believe he has a pretty good chance to see his current S% continue rising as we go this season.
As mentioned above, one undeniable thing is that Ovechkin is playing with much more high-quality talent this year. Players such as T.J. Oshie and Justin Williams are much more capable goal scorers than Troy Brouwer and Joel Ward were, and the emergence of Evgeny Kuznetsov have certainly reduced the need for Alex Ovechkin to carry the load as he has almost his entire career.
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In an offense with so many capable contributors, Alex Ovechkin’s role involves much more than scoring goals. Whether it is at even strength or on the power play, other teams know they have to focus on him more than anything else. These days, there is almost always someone shadowing Alex Ovechkin when the Washington Capitals are on the man advantage, thus leaving a virtual 4-on-3 for the rest of the team. When you have names like Marcus Johansson, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie and John Carlson on that same power play unit, you’re going to have problems no matter who you cover. That is a big reason that his power play goals are a bit lower than before, and that’s perfectly okay.
Despite all of the reasons why one would expect Alex Ovechkin’s production to eventually decline, he finds himself just three goals behind Jamie Benn, who has 24 goals, for the league lead. As quiet as Alex Ovechkin has seemed at times, he is most likely well on his way to another 50-goal season. He has found different ways to score this year other than from his patented “Ovi-Spot,” even though a few more of those will find their way in as we go.
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The Washington Capitals have had such a good start that Alex Ovechkin has almost been under the radar to some fans. But he is on pace for another great year, and his recent play points to his season only getting better from here.