Alexander Ovechkin no longer needs to do all of Washington’s scoring.
It used to be that they way to beat the Washington Capitals was to key in on Alexander Ovechkin. Washington struggled for years to find scoring outside of its superstar. While focusing on the Great Eight isn’t a bad idea for opponents, the Capitals have been getting scoring from every line to complement Ovechkin.
Ovechkin still leads the team with 21 goals, but he hasn’t been needed to be the only source of offense, especially recently. Washington has been on an offensive tear, scoring 25 goals in the last four games — Ovechkin has accounted for exactly zero of those.
That’s a great sign for the Caps because it means that they now have the depth that’s been missing.
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Nicklas Backstrom, Andre Burakovsky, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Jay Beagle, Justin Williams, and T.J. Oshie have all stepped up their scoring recently.
It’s not like Ovechkin hasn’t been producing — he has six assists in the last four games. Instead of being just a goal-scorer, he’s been making plays and setting up his teammates. It’s a great sign that the Capitals are winning and scoring a lot of goals even without one of the best goal scorers in the entire NHL doing it.
Secondary scoring and scoring from players other than Ovechkin has been key recently for the Caps. That’s going to have to continue once the postseason hits if Washington wants to change its recent history.
There’s no question that Alexander Ovechkin is one of the top players in the NHL. The fact that his team just scored 25 goals in four games without him even having one should scare the rest of the NHL and make the Capitals a very dangerous team.
As it stands right now this is the most complete team that Washington has had in a long time. It’s been a good mix of solid offense and stingy defense. The fact that the Capitals can still put up big numbers and win games without Ovechkin scoring is a great testament to the depth and the talent of the rest of the team.
Ovechkin will surely come up big when needed, but for now, it’s a positive sign that he doesn’t have to be the only source of goals in Washington.