We'll get to the fact that I've thoroughly embarrassed myself in the first round of the playoffs in a minute.
Although the Calgary Flames and San Jose Sharks played a great Game Seven that was exciting until the last buzzer (although it didn't go to triple OT like I had hoped), I was glued to the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals' Game Seven much more intently.
It could have been the fact that I was running on 39 hours straight of being awake by the time the Flames/Sharks game came on, but needless to say, I saw more of the Flyers and Caps.
Throughout that series, I noticed something. Despite the veteran presence on each squad, all of the youngsters showed up in this series when it mattered most.
Nicklas Backstrom came on extremely strong, scoring in each of the final four games of the series, Jeff Carter and Mike Richards continued to cement their status as the Flyers' future (granted, that's if Carter isn't offered a contract by another team as an RFA this season), and Alexander Ovechkin, although he seemed to lose a step for a few games, showed up when it mattered.
But for everything he does so well, is Alexander Ovechkin his own worst enemy?
I'm not saying this as a jaded Leafs fan—okay, I could be, but as far as you know I'm not—and I'm not saying this as someone who wants to see his celebrations toned down, claiming that he'll get hurt.
In actuality, I just don't want to get shown up.
So why is Alexander Ovechkin his own (and the Capitals) worst enemy?
It's pretty straightforward actually.
Shift length.
Now sometimes shifts go on too long because you can't get out of the zone, and going to the bench will leave your team at a disadvantage at a pivotal moment. If that happens, you'll find players going off at the first opportunity that presents itself.
Not Alexander Ovechkin.
Throughout the entire series, Ovechkin could be seen dragging on his shifts, staying on the ice as long as possible because, let's face it, he's so talented, that even he thinks the more he's on the ice, the better chance the Caps have of winning.
If it was any other player, he'd be benched—no coach would tolerate that. But because he's Alexander the Great, there's probably a little leeway, as to an extent Ovie is right—when he's on the ice, good things happen.
But is a tired Ovechkin really going to help the Caps late in the game and in overtime when they need him at his best?
Think about this: Throughout the first round series against the Flyers, Alex averaged 24 minutes of ice time, good for second on the team to Mike Green who averages nearly 27 minutes a game (26:58).
In that same light, Ovechkin averages the tenth-most shift on his team—eight fewer than team leader Tom Poti (who averages 24:00 minutes and 30 shifts a game), making Ovechkin the only player on his team to average more ice time, than shifts per game (24:03/22.1).
Not one player on the opposing Philadelphia Flyers had that problem, nor did any player on any other playoff-bound team. Every other player's ice time was below the amount of their average shifts per game in the playoffs. That's a big trend that Ovechkin is going against.
9 comments Last one added about 1 year ago — Leave a Comment
Tim Taylor about 1 year ago
Its funny that you say this about Ovechkin, because you could argue that in the same city Gilbert Arenas and the Wizards are dealing with a similar issue.
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M D about 1 year ago
I think that the statistics you bring up are due in large part to the amount of power plays the Capitals got in the series. Ovechkin is no different than other stars (such as Jagr) who find themselves out for most, if not all of their team's power play. That's a 1:30 shift or more most of the time which definately contributes to the statistics you're citing. Secondly, he doesn't penalty kill. Every time the Caps take a penalty that's two full minutes he gets to collect himself which is huge. Lastly, Ovechkin's a winger, and doesn't have to be flying all around the ice every single shift. What the great players do is conserve their energy until they see an opening or opportunity and then pounce. Being a winger he has the least defensive responsiblity of anyone and, being as explosive as he is, it only makes sense he expend most of his energy in the offensive zone. He might look tired in his defensive zone but I assure you he's not. Let's face it, the Caps don't even sniff the playoffs without him and since he was largely responsible for getting them in it only makes sense to ride that horse as long as you can. The deeper and better team won last night but I'm glad Boudreau did what he could to keep Ovechkin out there because this would have been a sweep had he not.
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Bryan Thiel about 1 year ago
He does play a lot of powerplays for the Capitals, but he does also stay on longer than he sometimes should. That's the only thing I noticed that could take away from him when I was watching the series, and it would come into question a few times a game.
I don't really think that a 2:00 minute break is going to help Ovechkin that much as games wear on if this habit of his keeps up. Maybe if it's early in the first or second period, but if you're in a tight overtime game, then that extra 5-7 seconds on the ice are definitely going to hurt late in the game.
Also, the way that Ovechkin plays the game, he is doing as much as he can, and he's one of those players that doesn't "coast" on his shifts. He gives it all every shift.
That being said, I don't disagree that he's a big reason why the Caps are in the playoffs, and I'm not discrediting him as a player at all. I think it's just something that could come back to hurt him in the future if he keeps it up.
Thanks for reading and enjoy the playoffs!
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MJ Kasprzak about 1 year ago
Still, I like the unique analysis of the ratio of shifts to minutes, and I think you make great points. I also obviously like your pick more than Frank's for Stars-Sharks. Trust Marty more? That's just wierd since he has the "can't-win-in-the-playoffs" tag, not Nabby.
Wish I'd been in y'all's pool--I had only one wrong in each conference (Ducks, Capitals). I even had the exact order of wins in the Sharks' series (actually, I had not decided whether we would win game three or four, but had us getting one of them only).
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Bryan Thiel about 1 year ago
Next year I'm definitely thinking of expanding it and including as many NHL writers as possible. This was Derek's idea, but I think opening it up to more people would be great, so I'll keep you in mind MJ. The scoring system is 2 if you guess the series winner, 1 if you guess the correct amount of games the series finishes.
As far as Frank, his defense for Turco is that he has more to prove. If he hadn't gone first on that one, I would've made that point. I thoroughly believe that Turco is out to try to make a point this season (going back to last year's Canucks series, he's looked excellent in the playoffs).
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MJ Kasprzak about 1 year ago
If I am understanding you, there is one extra point for winning in the right number of games, not one point for guessing the number of games correctly but the winner incorrectly. Therefore, according to my picks a fortnight ago, I had the Sharks in seven (3 points), Ducks in six (0), Wings in five (2), and Avs in six (3) in the West. I had the Canadiens in five (2), Pens in five (2), Caps in seven (0), and Rangers in six (2). If my calculations are correct, I would have 14 and be tied with Derek. AAAARRRGGH!
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Sean Crowe about 1 year ago
Does Alexander Ovechkin remind anyone else of Alexander Mogilny? Specifically, the version from video games. He was an offensive force. For some reason, I can't seem to remember if he was as good in real life as he was in video games, but he was a video game GOD.
Remember the old version of NHL Hockey for Sega Genesis where you could check guys onto the bench and break the glass behind the goalie with hard slapshots? Give Mogilny the puck, have him skate around a while, make the defense look stupid, then score a goal.
Worked every time.
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Daniel Freudberg about 1 year ago
Jeremy Ronick was the greatest player in NHL 93 or something like that.
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Daniel Freudberg about 1 year ago
If you notice Ovi's shift lenght between the first 3 games and the second 4 games I'm pretty sure there was a dramatic decrease. As a side note, Ovi was playing injured.
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