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Win one other Stanley Cup, or have Alex Ovechkin grow to be the all-time goal-scoring chief?
When you had requested Washington Capitals followers what was extra more likely to occur this season, most would have chosen the latter. And but, after profitable 5 straight video games, Washington at the moment owns the fifth-best document within the NHL. In the meantime, Ovechkin has scored simply twice in six video games — considered one of which was on an empty web.
Ovechkin might want to rating 40 extra occasions within the subsequent 74 video games to beat Wayne Gretzky’s all-time NHL document for profession objectives.
Contemplating that managed simply 31 objectives final yr, it’s most likely not going to occur. Not less than, not this season.
However what appears to be like like it would occur is that the Capitals might be a playoff crew once more. The best way they’ve began the season, they seem like they might be a darkish horse choose to win the Stanley Cup. And it’s coming in what might be Ovechkin’s worst offensive yr within the NHL.
It’s as if there’s an inverse relationship between his private success and the success of the crew.
Two years in the past, Ovechkin scored 42 objectives for a Washington crew that missed the playoffs. Final yr, he had simply 31 objectives — his lowest whole in a season the place he performed in additional than 45 video games — and the Capitals have been a wild-card crew.
To date this season, it appears to be like like will probably be one other playoff run. Following a sweep of a home-and-home series with the Flyers on Tuesday and Wednesday, the Capitals are 5-1-0 for the primary time since 2015-16. And whereas Ovechkin has had bother discovering the again of the web, it’s not like Washington has been hurting for objectives.
Try takeaways from tonight’s Capitals sport from Kevin Bartechko, my visitor author for tonight and somebody I’m proud to name a buddy:https://t.co/SQNovjkCSv
— Sammi Silber 🏒 (@sammisilber) October 24, 2024
Whereas the crew has the third-worst energy play (9.5-percent success fee), Washington is tied for the third-most objectives per sport (4.33).
Each line is contributing. Tom Wilson has 5 objectives in six video games. Dylan Strome and Connor McMichael every have three objectives. Third-liners Nic Dowd and Taylor Raddysh have two objectives apiece, whereas fourth-liner Andrew Mangiapane has two objectives.
“They’ve made an enormous distinction in a ton of various areas,” coach Spencer Carbery informed reporters. “So, they deserve lots of credit score, the blokes which have are available which have type of slot in seamlessly and carried out and discovered the issues that we’re making an attempt to do offensively with the puck. So, there’s that, and the opposite a part of it for me is our management group and our veteran gamers dragging them in and exhibiting them and setting the tone and speaking about that issues that now we have to do.”
That is probably the most balanced that Washington’s offense has seemed since Ovechkin was drafted.
“He is a sensible participant… He is the type of participant that does all of it.”
Connor McMichael has 8 factors in 6 video games to date with the Capitals, going from a rising younger participant to a top-6 influence man seemingly in a single day. Extra on the #ALLCAPS ahead’s sizzling begin: https://t.co/lgXNK4ltAN
— Sammi Silber 🏒 (@sammisilber) October 24, 2024
Ovechkin stays the point of interest of the crew. However on the age of 39, there’ll come a time when it could actually’t simply be all about Ovechkin. The best way it is wanting, that point has come loads ahead of anybody thought.
Not like the Pittsburgh Penguins, who’re nonetheless counting on Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Kris Letang to hold the offense, the Capitals have already discovered a strategy to bridge the hole between the previous and future.
The best example of that is McMichael, a 23-year-old who ranks second on the crew with eight factors in six video games. Mix that with the contributions of a number of gamers who have been introduced in final summer season – Pierre-Luc Dubois, Jakob Chychrun, Mangiapane, Raddysh and goalie Logan Thompson – and it appears to be like just like the Capitals simply may keep away from the rebuild that they’ve postpone for therefore lengthy.
Within the course of, they could additionally get Ovechkin one other Stanley Cup ring.
Related: NHL Power Rankings: Time To Show The New No. 1 Team Some Respect
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