Video Nasty
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For the people who routinely watch him night in and night out, what is the explanation for his rapid turnaround?
Ovechkin Milestone Thread - Countdown to 894
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For the people who routinely watch him night in and night out, what is the explanation for his rapid turnaround?
- Feb 10, 2010
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First part of the season he looked mostly like crap.
Since the break he's looked quite good. Same player he was previous two seasons.
Maybe he just needed some time off?
BallardEra
Leafs&Caps Since 1982™
He seems to be moving a lot better out there. The break did him some good for sure but I have to wonder if he was dealing with something nagging that we didn’t know about. He also did miss 3 games due to injury before the break as well.
BallardEra
Leafs&Caps Since 1982™
Ovie beat the statistical model from 2015:
forums.hfboards.com
Statistical model predicts Ovechkin could hit 836 by age 39.
Rob Vollman is a pioneer in the field of hockey analytics and the co-author of Hockey Abstract. His innovations include Player Usage Charts on Home Plate Save Percentage. He will contribute a regular column to NHL.com throughout this season. Washington Capitals forward Alexander Ovechkin is...
HTFN
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- Feb 8, 2009
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It’s almost like that was always a stupid argument anyway, which is why nobody could actually point to thinks they were doing that went against winning when pressed.
HTFN
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- Feb 8, 2009
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Very likely working through something that seemed upper body or core related. Earlier this season he was being more selective and gunshy than I’ve ever seen him, it was taking him longer to load up his shot and he was passing on opportunities to just smack one now and then for like no good reason. It read to me like someone who had to commit to/expect pain to make plays and didn’t want any of that effort going to waste, which meant hunting “perfect” chances
Early season distractions with Backstrom possibly calling it, and learning how to be himself in a new coach’s team, which he has also had a bit of a history with. I think it takes time to weigh how to show you’re a team player and captain while also scoring with talent you can’t really coach too much at times.
On top of that, Kuznetsov clearly being in a bad way probably hasn’t helped anything, whether he wants to help or if he’s tired of the cloud in the room, who knows, but it seems like it’s taken a weight off to have him gone (and having virtually the worst player in the league removed from the line helps)
Acallabeth
Post approved by Ovechkin
Video Nasty
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- Mar 12, 2017
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With his primary assist on the GWG tonight, Ovechkin tied Henri Richard in career assists at #64 in the league's history.
Eight more assists would move Ovechkin into a tie with Fedorov, which sounds like a big deal for a Russian player (I still remember the 15 shots in a game Ovechkin took to tie Fedorov in career goals when Fedorov was in the stands).
Eight more assists would move Ovechkin into a tie with Fedorov, which sounds like a big deal for a Russian player (I still remember the 15 shots in a game Ovechkin took to tie Fedorov in career goals when Fedorov was in the stands).
HTFN
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- Feb 8, 2009
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I know he's got a games played advantage but there's something that tickles me about Ovechkin "the one trick pony" approaching Fedorov's career assists number. The guy that got a ton of respect for being able to do it all, had people gushing over how perfect and fluid he was at his best, and if anything was more of a passer/playmaker than anything else will very probably be passed up by a guy that people have been trying to frame as a PP specialist for like a decade.
Now I'm not saying he's as good as a passer in a vacuum but it does introduce an interesting wrinkle to the "he's a PP turret" argument.
There is a positive and a negative spin on that. The negative spin is that Ovechkin's career assist milestones are a bit like Thornton's 400 career goals. Many great goal-scorers like Bure and Kovalchuk barely surpassed 400 career goals; Thornton was never a good goal-scorer (well, he has two 35-goal seasons from DPE, which have to count for something, but still), but Thornton was such a good player that because of his passing skills he stuck around long enough to accumulate 400 career goals. Ovechkin is an even better player and very durable too, so due to his goal-scoring prowess he will stick around long enough to accumulate 700 career assists, crack top50 in career assists, etc.
A positive spin is that yes, Ovechkin is a very underrated passer. He has been sacrificing this part of his game to focus on his core competency, which is ripping off shots and scoring goals, and that makes the team better - but if he is struggling with an injury, like this season, he switches somewhat to making plays and is actually quite good at it. For example, Strome is currently having a career season in goals in large part because Ovechkin is feeding him with good passes. Likewise, when a much younger Ovechkin was playing through a wrist injury in 2010/11, he passed more and became 6th in the league in assists.
HTFN
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- Feb 8, 2009
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It's this, 100%. I'm not saying anywhere near the likes of "Ovechkin > Fedorov" on a playmaking scale but his "turret" reputation is a result of that working so goddamn well that people would have to be fools or out-thinking themselves to not just keep doing it, and it doesn't matter how many highlights are posted to the point where it's still an underrated facet of his game at this age, even though it's always been there when needed.
He's playing better for sure, and as others mentioned already he probably had something nagging him. Injury wise.
Also want to point out that he had quite a bit of bad puck luck early on. Lots of iron, and shots that he might normally have burried that for whatever reason did not find the back of the net.
That often goes hand in hand though, playing better brings more puck luck - but in all honestly he probably should have had a few more goals to his season based on what he did.
I think he cracks 900 and then throws in another 8 for good measure
- Aug 12, 2008
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think its what others have said and also some combination of being slightly unlucky for the first time in his career, getting a little older and some slight injury. He also had 2 or 3 goals waived off earlier in the year iirc. In the first half of the year there were more whifs of the puck, stick breaks and uncharacteristic things happening to Ovi that happen to all players but usually not that much to Ovi.
When he is injured - he needs to take time off. These "little things" don't get better at his age if he plays through them.
Sentinel
Registered User
That's a good thing. Gretzky would have a field day with his surgeon-like high shots.
BallardEra
Leafs&Caps Since 1982™
BallardEra
Leafs&Caps Since 1982™
SkinsFan09
Registered User
A nearly 20 year sample size (granted he hasn't missed that many games) says the Capitals are HORRIBLE without Ovechkin. People saying this were always dumb.
He's relied on by WSH for success way more than Crosby, Malkin or pretty much any other star elsewhere in the league.
WarriorofTime
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- Jul 3, 2010
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50 points, if he can stay healthy the rest of the way and get there, would be a pretty remarkable achievement. In NHL history, only 20 players have hit the 50 point milestone in their age 38 season. Clearly not as washed as everyone was saying.
The Gr8 Dane
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Neil Racki
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