The Resurrection of Alex Ovechkin
At the NHL All-Star break I buried him. Now I come to praise him.
Back on March 19, I anticipated that I wouldn’t write about the Washington Capitals again for the rest of the month, wanting to wait until the team fought through a stretch of tough games that would likely determine whether or not it would complete an unlikely run to qualify for the 2024 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
But after yesterday’s 3-0 win over a good Winnipeg Jets team, I feel compelled to write again, this time to marvel once more at the greatness of right wing Alex Ovechkin.
When the Capitals headed into an extended NHL All-Star break in January after 43 games, it seemed clear that the “Russian Machine,” while it might not have broken, needed some preventive maintenance at age 38. Ovechkin had just eight goals to start the season, putting him on pace for the worst full season of his NHL career. But since then, after Ovechkin returned from a vacation to Dubai with his family, things turned around in a big way. Ovechkin scored 18 goals in the next 24 games — which would have been a pace to score 60 goals over a full season — roughly coinciding with his team’s climb into playoff contention. He’s scored eight goals in his last five games, and had two-goal games twice in his last three games, including yesterday’s win.
Ovechkin finished off the Jets yesterday with this goal.
There was a time when Ovechkin might have wound up with a cannonade of a slap shot in a situation like this, but as the broadcast team noted, the wily veteran of 19 NHL seasons opted for the sweet backhand instead. Having a backhand is a neglected skill in today’s NHL, and I’m glad to see Ovechkin flash it at a time like this.
That goal was Ovechkin’s 26th of the season, which means he has more than a puncher’s chance of exceeding his full season career-low mark of 32 before the end of the current campaign. But what’s more important, is that the game’s afoot when it comes to Alex’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky for the NHL’s career goal-scoring mark. Now Ovechkin stands only 46 goals away from Gretzky’s mark, making it increasingly likely that Ovechkin could very well break the record before the end of next season.
Before Ovechkin took that trip to Dubai, I have to admit that I was more than ready to turn a shovel full of dirt over on his career. As you might imagine, I’m more than pleased to be proven so profoundly wrong. I guess I should have taken more of my own advice. Back in 2016, I wrote that whether or not the Capitals ever won a Stanley Cup with Ovechkin, we ought to appreciate his greatness today, because his absence will be so obvious once he’s gone.
Thanks to Ovechkin for setting me right once more.
One player who will be sitting out a while in Washington is right wing Tom Wilson. Back on March 20th, Wilson, who has developed something of a reputation for playing close to the edge in his 11 NHL season, uncorked a careless and reckless one-handed slash to the face of Noah Gregor of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
For his trouble, Wilson got a double minor penalty and an appointment for a Zoom call with the NHL’s Department of Player Safety. While he was reasonably contrite from the moment after the infraction, and Gregor himself didn’t seem to think the slash was malicious, the league saw it otherwise and suspended Wilson for six games.
What’s so aggravating about this infraction is that it seemed as if Wilson had learned to keep his game under control, something that allows him to stay on the ice and help his team win games. He’s been suspended six times since 2017, but not since a 2021 incident where he was docked seven games for boarding Boston’s Brandon Carlo. The latest suspension will hit him in the wallet, costing Wilson more than $160,000.
Even more ironic, is the fact that Wilson recently sat down for an interview with Colby Armstrong of Canada’s SportsNet where he admitted that he had “tightened up his game,” to positive effect. The suspension couldn’t have come at a worse time for Washington with its season on the line, but the team seems to have responded, winning twice in Wilson’s absence. Now that he and the National Hockey League Players Association have opted not to appeal the suspension, the earliest he can return to the ice is April 4th at home vs. the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Let’s hope he spends some time on the couch thinking about it.