As the Washington Capitals have gotten better as a team and certainly could’ve been a lot worse, their captain Alex Ovechkin has been off to a slow start. Now in his last 11 games, he hasn’t scored a goal and it’s the longest goal-less drought of his career.
Ovechkin has 16 points in 26 games this season. Still decent numbers but of course he has more assists with 11 than goals with five. It’s a slowest start to the season ever in his impressive 19 year career that begun in 2005 after he was drafted number one overall by the Capitals a year earlier.
In last night’s 4-3 loss in the shootout to the Philadelphia Flyers that saw the Capitals blow a 3-2 lead late in the third period, Ovechkin led all skaters with 22:10 minutes of ice time. He finished with a plus/minus of -1 and had a hit. He also ripped four shots but none went in.
Ovechkin averages 19:32 minutes of ice time per game. He also has 48 hits and seven blocks along with nine takeaways and 15 giveaways. In addition his plus/minus is a bad -3. But what’s most alarming is Ovechkin’s shooting percentage.
The reason why he hasn’t been scoring much is because he’s only unleashed 94 shots on goal for a career low 5.3 shooting percentage. In Ovechkin’s last five games last night was the second time he had four shots on goal and it was the most. The other time was in their 4-0 win on home ice over the New York Rangers.
In their losses to the Arizona Coyotes 6-0 and their shootout loss to the Dallas Stars, Ovechkin put up three shots. In their 4-2 road win over the Chicago Blackhawks Ovechkin had two after recording a hat trick in that building last year for his 800th career goal.
Ovechkin will look to get himself going tomorrow night when the Capitals take on the Nashville Predators at 8 p.m. eastern.