We’re talking an extremely small sample size here. But through four games, Capitals star left wing Alex Ovechkin is still trying to find his way. He had a nice tip-in goal after a shot by teammate Mike Green against Pittsburgh on Thursday. And Ovechkin’s 5-on-3 blast from the point went wide but rammed off the boards and back out front to Brooks Laich for a power-play goal in the season opener vs. Carolina on Oct. 8. One goal. One assist. That’s it. That’s the list. Hard to be too critical yet, though. This is a player, after all, who registered two goals in his first 11 games of the 2008-09 season and ended up with 56 and a Hart Trophy. But anytime a player plummets offensively — even if it was to “just” 32 goals in 2010-11 — he will be watched like a hawk.
So far, Ovechkin’s minutes have been controlled. He played a season-high 21:47 against Tampa Bay and a season-low 18:10 against Ottawa. He has taken 15 shots. That would be well off the pace to match even last year’s career low of 367 shots. Ovechkin also has had 10 attempts blocked and missed the net another nine times. Anyone worried? Not really. Goals are just harder to come by now.
“Teams make [Ovechkin] work. They make him work for everything he gets,” Caps teammate Mike Knuble said. “He’s got to work for every inch on the ice. He needs to start by hitting the net more probably. He’s missing the net. But he’s putting good shots on goal, shoots the puck hard enough, gets rid of it quick enough that it’s going to start going in.”
– Brian McNally
