The Washington Capitals report card series continues with Alex Ovechkin. This is usally an easy one to grade but in order to completely grade Ovechkin we have to break this into three parts.
Ovechkin finished with 31 goals and 34 assists for 65 points and had a plus/minus of -22. On the surface those are bad numbers for a guy like Ovi and that includes a scoreless playoffs and a -2 with just five shots on goal. But those numbers don't tell the full story...
The beginning
Ovechkin would score just eight goals in his first 43 games, leading many naysayers to say that father time finally caught up to the great eight. But before he traveled with his family to Dubai instead of playing in the All Star Game, which was the right choice, Ovechkin scored in Dallas in a loss to the Stars.
The camel ride
Following the break Ovechkin took a family vacation in Dubai and rode some camels. You can check it out here via The Hockey News.
The home stretch
We'll include that game in Dallas for this exercise. In the final 36 games, Ovechkin recorded 23 goals and 13 assists for 36 points. That's pretty darn good considering the man turns 39 in September.
It gets better, Ovechkkin had 20 goals and 12 assists for 32 points after a goal and an assist on National TV against the Boston Bruins. Since the March 7 win in Pittsburgh over the Penguins where Ovi had another goal and assist on the road, he went on to score 20 points in the final 22 games to will the Capitals to the playoffs. That's 14 goals and six assists. He also scored in the regular season finale over the Philadelphia Flyers to put him 41 away from tying Wayne Gretzky.
Playoffs: Yeah let's forget those four games happened.
Final Grade A-: I have to give credit where credit is due. From watching Ovechkin since making his debut myself and other folks around these parts and beyond know to never count out the Great Eight.