New-Look Alex Ovechkin Setting Tone for Capitals, Keys Thrilling Win vs. Rangers

NEW YORK—Like any great story, this one begins in Las Vegas.

Before Alex Ovechkin willed his Washington Capitals to a 2-1 victory in Game 1 of their second-round series against the New York Rangers on Thursday night, there was a four-hour meeting between the superstar and his new coach Barry Trotz at last year’s NHL Awards. It did what so many players are trying to do during a postseason game—set a tone.

Trotz wanted more from Ovechkin.

“I asked him to do certain things,” an engaging Trotz said in the media room at Madison Square Garden after the win. “Really, what I told him was, I wanted him to be more active. I thought he had too much glide in his game. When I was in the other conference (coaching the Nashville Predators), we talked about how he wasn’t skating and how easy he is to cover. 

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“I said, ‘I want to have a plan to get you the puck. Do what you do when you have it. Do what I want you to do when you don’t have it, so we can get it back to you.’ ”

Ovechkin has always been a generational talent, a game-changer of the highest order. Even his staunchest defenders would admit his unplugged video game controller style of defense prevented from him having a complete game, the type of game that would at least deflect some of the criticism he’d absorb after every subsequent playoff elimination or failure to qualify.

In a game that was controlled by the Rangers and had all the pace of flow of oatmeal being dumped in a garbage can, Ovechkin’s skill and Trotz-instilled work ethic combined to carry the Capitals to what was looking more and more like an unlikely victory.

It started late in the first period, when Ovechkin turned a scoreless game into a 1-0 lead for the Capitals. He blazed down the left wing, took a stride toward the middle and unleashed an unholy wrist shot that would’ve required the Earth shifting off its axis for Henrik Lundqvist to have a chance of stopping it.

The puck was in and out of the net before you could say “enigmatic,” a jaw-dropping goal that silenced the barely audible fans in blue.

“I thought it was average,” said the always hilarious Joel Ward, who later benefitted from Ovechkin’s greatness.

“I don’t see too many goalies stopping that to be honest,” he said in a moment of seriousness. “If you give us all 100 pucks, no one’s going to hit that spot. What a beast he is and what a shot.”

“The goal he scored was an all-world goal,” Brooks Laich said. “The speed, the release through the defenseman and to pick that corner. I played with Alex a long time… I should be more wowed by what he does, but I’ve seen him score a lot of goals like that. He’s just a game-breaking talent. I thought he did a lot of great things away from the puck tonight as well.”

There’s a different feeling around the Capitals when it comes to Ovechkin, perhaps even a newfound respect for the player that even Trotz said had a tendency to throttle into neutral when he didn’t have the puck in the past.

If he scored a big goal in the previous times, it’s not as though teammates didn’t want to heap praise on their captain. But it was pretty standard, usually cliché things about a player that had a reputation for being selfish.

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Maybe it’s Trotz, maybe it’s Ovechkin, maybe it’s both, but there hasn’t been that same sentiment around him during this postseason.

“If you look at his stats, he’s one of the best playoff performers in the league,” John Carlson said. “We haven’t had much team success, so everybody looks down on it. It’s pretty impressive what he does, day in, day out. For him, he’s got everyone breathing down his neck. Everything tightens up in playoffs hockey. Everyone gives their extra little pushes here or there, tries to slow him down here or there, everyone diving and blocking shots as much as they can.

“So it says a lot when people are doing that and they have a game plan for one specific player and he can come through.”

That’s what’s different. Carlson offered an unsolicited defense of Ovechkin when asked where his performance Thursday ranked among his other great postseason efforts. 

And Ovechkin’s effort on the wining goal is likely emblematic of that change.

With 14.1 seconds remaining and a neutral-zone faceoff pending, overtime looked to be a sure thing. Jesper Fast tied the game at 1 with 4:39 remaining and the Capitals looked every bit like a team that needed seven games to win their first-round series, weary and chasing the fresher Rangers.

It’s not that the Capitals couldn’t have found a goal in overtime, but upon yielding the tying goal after about 15 minutes of heavy-legged hockey, things weren’t trending well for them.

That’s when Ovechkin used those legs to do a lot more than glide. He regained control of the puck after the Rangers won the faceoff, carried into the offensive zone, and although he couldn’t get a shot off, he managed to get the puck into the right corner as he fell to the ice. Nicklas Backstrom delivered one of those hits that are legal in the postseason to free the puck from Dan Boyle, setting the stage for Ovechkin to hit Ward with a pass from behind the net against the flow of play that won the game with a second remaining, cementing this among his legendary performances. 

Plays like that will have the Capitals going beyond the second round for the first time in the Ovechkin era and maybe even to a Stanley Cup Final.

“He’s been a guy that’s been miscast in the past,” Trotz said. “Ovi is one of those guys that really wants to win. He’s won virtually every award he can win individually. He’s done everything individually and now he wants to do something team-wise.

“Ovi’s been terrific for us as an all-in player this year. The player has to buy in. I have to give him all the credit.”

Finally, an uplifting story about something happening in Vegas, not staying in Vegas.

All statistics via NHL.com.

Dave Lozo covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. You can follow him on Twitter: @DaveLozo.