The Washington Capitals take on the Vegas Golden Knights. To learn more about how to watch and bet on the game click here. To be frank, I’m mad I’m even writing this right now. But I avoided it the last two games. If you have Alex Ovechkin on your fantasy hockey team, it might not be the best idea to start him tonight.
Those that have followed my work over the years know how much I love Ovechkin. But this season even I admit that he’s off to a slow start and that dreaded Father Time may be catching up to him. But I still think it’s a bit early to make that judgement.
Having a 6.5 shooting percentage this season which is certainly a career low hasn’t helped his poor start to the season. With five goals and nine assists for 14 points, those are low numbers by Ovi standards.
Chris Morgan of Yahoo Fantasy Sports wrote the following about Ovechkin:
"I trust, in time, Ovechkin’s 6.5 percent shooting will improve. This matchup is not an easy one, though. Even if Logan Thompson is in net with Adin Hill dealing with a lower-body injury, Thompson has a 2.49 GAA and .916 save percentage. Vegas also has the sixth-ranked penalty kill."
While the goals haven’t been coming for Ovechkin, the assists have. He had two the other night against the Anaheim Ducks. Both of those assists came on two of three Tom Wilson goals and each one came on the power play.
The Caps didn’t have a power play opportunity in their win over the Los Angeles Kings who have the best penalty kill in the league. Facing the sixth best PK in the Golden Knights will also be no easy feat.
But if Ovechkin can prove me and Chris wrong and score a goal tonight it will be a historic one. One goal or even one assist, either/or, will give Ovechkin 1,500 career points. Something that I predicted he would do in late October.