Alex Ovechkin had just 12:38 on ice time last night in the Caps opening night 5-2 win against the Carolina Hurricanes. It isn’t a surprise that head coach Spencer Carbery limited Ovi’s time on the ice as he begins his 22nd season in the NHL. Still, with a player who has averaged over 20 minutes per game during his illustrious career, twelve and a half minutes is out of the ordinary. However, Ovechkin isn’t a kid anymore. He’s 41, and there is a lot of wear and tear on the big Russian. He isn’t as fast as he once was and time is catching up to him. So, it isn’t really that unexpected that he would play fewer minutes now than when he was 24 years old. With that said, the box score suggests that it wasn’t age that affected his playing time but something else.
The Capitals only had two power plays last night. Ovechkin and his linemates, Dylan Strome and Ryan Leonard, are part of the first power play unit. Compare Ovi’s time on the ice (TOI) to those two (Strome played 13:11 and Leonard 12:08) and they all played about the same amount. Perhaps the days of the Great 8 playing the full two minutes of a powerplay are over, but getting only two chances with the man-advantage in a game is going to cut down on certain player’s minutes. That means fewer opportunities for Ovi to set up in his office on the left side where he has scored more powerplay goals than anyone else in NHL history. There will be nights when the Caps have a few more chances with the extra skater.
(It’s too bad the Caps didn’t have more time with the extra man. Carbery hired new assistant coach Ray Bennett this summer to revitalize their stagnant play with the man advantage. Bennett is a long-time NHL assistant and is a powerplay guru. The team saw marked improvement in the preseason without Ovechkin. It’s a small sample size but things seem to be headed in the right direction.)
More telling is the fact that the Capitals had to kill off six penalties last night. Ovechkin is not a penalty killer. Neither are Leno and Strome. Penalties not only put a team down a man, they also keep their scorers on the bench. That probably contributed more to Ovi’s lack of playing time than anything else.
Despite the limited ice time, the line Ovechkin-Strome-Leonard played pretty darn well. Leonard scored 8 seconds after Carolina’s first goal to stretch the Caps’ lead to 5-1. Strome and Ovi each assisted. Those guys will be fine. There are 83 more games to go, then (hopefully) the playoffs. The Caps need their captain in April and May (and perhaps June?) There’s no reason to push it in Game 1 after he sat out the preseason.
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