The Capitals Are A Team Of Many "Ifs" Going Into Next Season
By CJ Witt
Alex Ovechkin
Whether Capitals fans want to admit it or acknowledge it is or not, Ovechkin is a question now until he retires or leaves. It simply does not matter who you are, age comes for you and your professional sports career.
We thought we were seeing that early last season when Ovechkin was not scoring goals anywhere near his usual pace. He ended up turning it around in the second half of last season and ended the season with 31 total goals.
Then the playoffs happened.
He was completely ineffective. Zero points in the four game sweep at the hands of the Rangers. If the Capitals can get back to the playoffs can he keep up with playoff hockey? We just saw two of my favorite players of all time get left behind in the playoffs, Ovechkin being one, Joe Pavelski of the Dallas Stars being the other. And it looks like the latter is now retiring.
We already talked about this a bit, but what about injuries? He's getting older. Injuries get harder to fight off. The small things get bigger and take more time to shake off. Can Ovechkin continue to dodge those injuries?
He'll be 39-years-old before the start of next season. Can he put up another 30 goal season, or more? Sure. It would be unwise to bet against Ovechkin at this point. All I'm saying is this. It's unreasonable to go into next season expecting Ovechkin to be the Ovi of old. It's more reasonable to expect old Ovi.
Age is coming. What if Ovechkin takes a step back?