Alex Ovechkin: How Far Has His Star Fallen?

The moment he hit the ice for the first time, there was no denying that Alex Ovechkin was a star. Few players make their way to the NHL to emerge as an instant all-star—something Ovechkin did as a rookie in 2005-06 when he scored 52 goals and netted 106 points.

Since his rookie season Ovechkin has continually posted all-star-calibre numbers, accumulating point totals of 92 (2006-07), 112 (2007-08), 110 (2008-09) and 109 (2009-10). Over that time span Ovechkin registered goal totals of 46 (2006-07), 65 (2007-08), 56 (2008-09), 50 (2010-11).

While Ovechkin’s career totals are impressive, many NHL pundits have been debating whether or not Ovechkin has been evolving as a player—a debate that took off last season as a result of Sidney Crosby’s strong play in 2009-10.

Try as he might to avoid such comparisons, Ovechkin has long been compared to Crosby, and his Washington Capitals to Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins.

Both players went first overall in their draft years, both players were saddled with the expectation of saving their respective franchises.

For the most part, both Ovechkin and Crosby have delivered. Ovechkin has been a perennial MVP and Rocket Richard Trophy candidate, with Crosby giving Ovechkin plenty of competition for both awards year after year.

As good as Ovechkin has been in his five plus seasons with the Capitals, he has never tasted much success in the playoffs.

Last season the Capitals took home the President’s Trophy as the NHL’s best regular season team. As a result, the tired excuse of “Ovechkin has never been part of a great team” was now officially over and done with—the Capitals were now widely viewed as the deepest team in the NHL and, as such, there were no more early exit excuses to be made by Ovechkin fans.

Through 28 career playoff games Ovechkin has accumulated an impressive 20 goals and 20 assists, good for 40 points.

Unfortunately, as good as Ovechkin’s numbers have been, the Capitals have only won one playoff round in three years. Playoff success has eluded Ovi and the Capitals thus far. In fact, the playoffs have been filled with disappointments, including an early exit in last season’s playoffs when they lost to the eighth ranked Montreal Canadiens in seven games.

The deciding game was played on home ice—the same ice surface they lost two previous game sevens on.

Fair or not, many NHL fans pointed to Ovechkin’s inability to grow his game as a prime example of why the Capitals lost the series.

Last season NHL fans watched en mass as Sidney Crosby’s game grew in leaps and bounds. Crosby, who had long been considered more of an assist guy, worked diligently over the summer to improve his shot, resulting in his Rocket Richard winning performance in 2009-10.

Crosby also improved his defensive game, seemed more physical and, as always seems to be the case, scored some of the biggest goals of the year—including his game winner against Team USA at the Olympics which brought a Gold Medal to Canada.

To be fair, Crosby and the Penguins struggled in last years playoffs as well, but nobody was pointing to Crosby’s game, effort or lack thereof, as a catalyst for the Penguins struggles.

Besides, Crosby could be excused. Crosby has won a Stanley Cup, Crosby won a Gold Medal at the Olympics. Ovechkin…not so much.

Now, 40 playoff points in 28 career playoff games is nothing to sneeze at, but without the team success Ovechkin’s numbers look small in comparison to Crosby’s, who, coincidentally has 30 goals and 82 points in 62 career playoff games.

In Ovechkin’s defense, there is a long list of Hall Of Fame players who never won a Stanley Cup ring. That said, given the fact that Crosby has already led his team to the Stanley Cup Finals twice, winning a Cup in 2008-09, Ovechkin will always be second fiddle to Sid the Kid until he too tastes victory.

Complicating matters for Ovechkin was his inability to lead the Gold Medal favorite Russians to so much as a medal at the Olympics. Ovechkin would score a disappointing four points in four Olympic games and eventually lose to Team Canada (led by Crosby) by a final score of 7-3 in the tournament quarter final where he was kept off the scoreboard and was a non-factor in the game.

Ovechkin fans were quick to point out that it was the Russian team that lost to the Canadians, but Ovechkin came up small on the big stage and for Ovechkin haters, that was further proof that, while an elite scorer, Ovechkin’s game simply could not match that of Crosby’s.

As much as Ovechkin struggled in 2009-10, many NHL pundits felt he would explode this season. Surely Ovechkin would be motivated to show everyone that, while losing out on some key hardware, medals and his disappointing Stanley Cup playoffs in 2009-10, that he was still the premier player in the NHL, if not the best.

Unfortunately for Ovechkin, the 2010-11 season has been anything but a statement year. Through 33 games Ovechkin has a mediocre 12 goals, ranking him 29th in the league, 14 goals behind league-leader Sidney Crosby who has 26 goals in 33 games and is drawing comparisons to Wayne Gretzky.

As good as Crosby has been, he is still far behind what Gretzky was accomplishing in the eighties. That said, today’s game is very different from that of the high-scoring eighties. Today’s NHL focuses on defensive play, positioning and size—three things that were a rarity in the 1980’s.

One could argue that Crosby is having an excellent season. Fact is, Crosby has an outside chance of scoring 50 goals in 50 games—something that has not happened since Boston Bruins legend Cam Neely accomplished the feat in 1993-94.

This season Ovechkin is also far below his career average in the points department, accumulating just 36 points over that same 33 games, ranking him seventh overall, 28 points behind league-leader Crosby.

As poor as Ovechkin’s offense has been this season, another area of concern has been his inability to contribute on the power play, where he has registered just two goals—this from a player that has posted power play goal totals of 21 (2005-06), 16 (2006-07), 22 (2007-08), 19 (2008-09) and 13 (2009-10).

Pro-rated, that would put Ovechkin on pace top score a paltry five power play goals on the season, a far cry from his career-high of 22 in 2007-08.

As it stands right now, Ovechkin is on pace to score 85-90 points on the season (say 28 goals, 62 assists if he continues his current pace). Those are decent totals for most NHL players—an epic fail by Ovechkin standards, especially with Crosby averaging nearly two points per game.

The legend of Ovechkin is still strong, but with every early playoff exit, his failure at the Olympics and now, with his regular season statistics taking a huge hit, one wonders just how far Ovechkin’s status has fallen?

Last season Crosby out-shined Ovechkin on so many levels—outscoring him, beating him at the Olympics and taking the Penguins a step further in the playoffs than Ovechkin did with the Capitals.

Crosby’s ability to evolve as a player, a leader and a person have far out-weighed anything Ovechkin has done. Fact is, as good as Ovechkin is, there is just no comparison. Crosby has been better.

While Ovechkin is still regarded as a great player, there are mounting questions about his leadership ability, lack of defensive prowess and, more importantly, his inability to tweak/evolve his game from what he has always been (the NHL’s premier goal scorer) which has taken a step back this season.

Last season Steven Stamkos did the unthinkable and outscored Ovechkin in his sophomore year. Stamkos didn’t blow Ovechkin out of the water or anything, but nobody saw that coming.

Henrik Sedin had a marvelous season in 2009-10, scoring more points than Ovechkin—a key cog in Sedin winning the Art Ross Trophy (points scoring leader) and Hart Memorial Trophy (League MVP), both of which Ovechkin was the favorite to win before the 2009-10 season began.

Ovechkin did win the Ted Lindsay Award last season as the NHL’s outstanding player, but for the first time in a long time many fans questioned the voters decision on that one.

Now, there is no shame in losing out to Stamkos or Sedin, but Ovechkin losing out on both trophies was a huge shock for many NHL fans, and probably Ovechkin himself.

This season Ovechkin is not even in the conversation for the Hart or Art Ross Trophies, nor is he in the position to be part of the Rocket Richard Trophy discussions.

Ovechkin is still one of the most recognizable faces of the NHL, still an elite player and, in my opinion, still one of the most entertaining players to watch.

That said, if he continues to struggle to score goals, continues to struggle to lead his team to the promise land and fails to evolve as a player, his status stands to continually take a hit, leaving him in the dust of Crosby, Stamkos, Henrik Sedin and whoever else steps up their game.

Yes NHL fans, Ovechkin once was the “great eight,” but it remains to be seen if he can continue to earn that nickname.

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Until next time,

Peace!