AP Scouring the game log of Alex Ovechkin‘s decade-long career, there have been few prolonged scoring droughts.
The Washington Capitals captain is without a goal or assist in his past four games, the fifth time in his 687-game career he has been held pointless for that long. If he fails to get one against the Detroit Red Wings on Wednesday (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN), it will be the longest slump of his career, according to Elias Sports Bureau.
Unsurprisingly, Ovechkin’s drought coincides with Washington getting just one win from its last three contests, and only scoring seven total goals.
The lack of production probably has something to do with his lack of shots on goal (some hardcore analysis there, I know.) Ovechkin fired 24 pucks on net over his first four games of the season, and scored five times; over the last four games he’s put just seven on net and none, as mentioned above, have rippled mesh.
There are reasons, however, why nobody’s doing the customary “WHAT’S WRONG WITH OVI?” freakout. One is that the Caps are playing pretty sound hockey under Barry Trotz; they’re a more structured group that’s conceding fewer shots per game, and have compiled a solid 4-2-2 record.
Another reason is that Ovechkin’s contributing in other ways. Trotz has raved about No. 8’s physicality, which was on display during Sunday’s loss in Vancouver:
Ovechkin also has a team-high 60.1 Corsi For percentage and leads all skaters in hits, with 33. (Lest we forget he does lead the team in goals, with five.) It’s because of those contributions that Trotz figures Ovi will soon snap his slump — although the coach did acknowledge the slump was occurring.
“He’s playing the right way,” Trotz explained. “You see him blocking shots, defensively he’s way better in his commitment level there. On the forecheck, he’s using the body, separating people.
“[Ovechkin] hasn’t scored in the past four games, but he’s had good looks. He’s trying to be maybe a little too fine with his shot. That’s a lot of our guys in the last couple games. They’re down the pipe. Those will go in. We keep getting looks, they’ll go in.”
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- patthehockeyfan - Oct 29, 2014 at 2:37 PM
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Do you want Ovi to score? Or, do you want him to play defensively?
Either. Or.
Can’t have both.
(written entirely in jest)
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- valoisvipers - Oct 29, 2014 at 11:05 PM
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Ovi should have to sit through 100 hours of Paval Datsyuk and then maybe he would know how to do both!
(written entirely jest free)
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- pjblake2redwings - Oct 29, 2014 at 2:38 PM
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hopefully Howard can hold Ovi to 5 games without a point.
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- corpsman123 - Oct 29, 2014 at 2:43 PM
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Lets leave to scoring to Gus tonight.
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- stepanup - Oct 29, 2014 at 2:38 PM
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Trotz’ coaching is already setting in!
No, I don’t actually believe that, but it was too easy. I’ll start Jimmy Howard in fantasy tonight, and the Caps will break out, with Ovechkin leading the way. Book it.
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- lowenni - Oct 29, 2014 at 2:41 PM
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Although I love the Trotz signing and love what he is doing with this team, as a Caps fan I will concede that his system may have some effect on Ovechkin’s goal output. I’ve watched every game this season and he is getting offensive zone time, he’s been putting up very good possession stats as well, he just hasn’t been putting the puck on goal too much. I didn’t like the Eric Fehr experiment on the top line–Johansson is finally shooting and has looked great and I’d like to see the Ovi-Backstrom-Johansson line reunited. Eric Fehr does the dirty work well but that’s what Ovi needs, he needs the puck to be fed to him and Backstrom hasn’t been at the top of his game offensively. They’ll figure it out.
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- lowenni - Oct 29, 2014 at 2:48 PM
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*but that’s not what Ovi needs
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- theageofquarrel - Oct 29, 2014 at 2:43 PM
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Where is the Tardanator?
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- hockey412 - Oct 29, 2014 at 3:16 PM
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Maybe he finally figured out that this site does not use hashtags.
#heystupidsmissing
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- sjsblitz - Oct 29, 2014 at 4:35 PM
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Ovechkins +/- right now is +1. Hope you people are happy
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- phtjoey - Oct 29, 2014 at 5:49 PM
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No one is happier than Trotz.
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