The two goals yesterday before the ENG were great. On the first shot the puck actually rolls on its side as he’s about to shoot and he essentially slingshots it into the net. The second shot was vintage Ovi from the Office — pinpoint accuracy with overwhelming power. You couldn’t have walked that puck in and placed it any better.
He looked terrible Saturday against Pittsburgh and then looked a decade younger on Sunday. Any given night he can turn back the clock.
I saw the game on Saturday and was somewhat concerned as he did look bad....but maybe not as that bad....maybe more invisible. I remember saying to my son....I haven't seen OV pretty much all game....what's going on.....to me that isn't great, but better than being noticeably bad out there. Jack Hughes, for example, in 4 Nations....I think he would have liked to be invisible out there, but instead, he was noticeably bad.
On the Saturday game....what I really didn't like was his close to 5 min shift because they were on the PP, then got another 4 min PP shortly after the first started. I guess it helped that WSH was already way up at that point so it didn't matter if they were just out trying to feed him pucks to shoot.
Unfortunately, I was in my car for 3 hrs yesterday, so missed the whole game. His first 2 goals were great goals. Not incredibly surprising though, shooters can typically always shoot, they'll lose a bit off the shot, perhaps not be able to get it off as quick....but generally, this skill holds up well. We've already seen with OV that there is serious decline in other aspects, like keeping up with the pace, but you see in those 2 goals, that handicap doesn't play a role. The empty net goal seems to be one that things these days.....you question what the hell the Oilers are doing pulling the goalie while down 3 goals, but seems to be the trend now. I'm guessing they figure, it doesn't matter if we lose by 3 goals or 4 goals, so might as well try to score to see if we can tie it up....no downside?
The real interesting thing here is how high in goals can he go? I know he's aging, but going back to the shot....you should be able to still put him out on a PP, don't need him to move around very much and he'll still be able to get good shots off for awhile yet. I suspect he'll hang it up for lack of motivation first though.
