Scratch the first two days of the season and Alex Ovechkin has looked — by his lofty standards — pretty average so far. And the captain’s lack of scoring is not good news for a Washington Capitals team struggling to meet its own high standards from the recent past.
Ovie and the Caps came storming out of the gate, with the six-time goal-scoring champ netting a hat trick in an opening-night shootout win over the Ottawa Senators, then bagging four more goals in a 6-1 stomping of the Montreal Canadiens.
But after recording seven goals in two outings, Ovechkin has just seven more in his past 21 contests. The former two numbers represent a 27-goal pace, which is a great total for a young scorer trying to establish himself in the NHL, but nowhere near what we’ve come to expect from the best goal-scorer of his generation.
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While it might be extreme to suggest red flags were raised last year when Ovechkin’s goal output dropped to 33, it did seem notable that 17 of those markers came with the man advantage, leaving him with only 16 even-strength goals in 82 games. Since the start of 2016-17, the 32-year-old has 26 even-strength goals in 105 games. That number is exceeded by no fewer than 30 skaters in the league and matched by Paul Byron, a player the Montreal Canadiens claimed on waivers two years ago.
Four Toronto Maple Leafs — who host the Caps on Saturday — have more even-strength goals than Ovechkin since the start of last year, including Auston Matthews (43), James van Riemsdyk (29), Nazem Kadri (28) and Patrick Marleau (28 with San Jose and the Leafs).
Not surprisingly, Ovie’s power outage has had an impact on the Capitals’ offence, as their usually potent attack sits 19th with an average of 2.83 goals per contest. Washington — which hasn’t finished with fewer than 100 points since Barry Trotz took over as coach before the 2014-15 season and won the Presidents’ Trophy each of the past two years — is on pace for 89 points this year, its lowest total since registering back-to-back 70-point seasons during Ovie’s first two years in the league.
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