Darren Dreger Isn’t Sure Alex Ovechkin Will “Buy In” to New Coach Barry Trotz

Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin hasn’t played in a single game yet, but TSN’s Darren Dreger is already criticizing him for future wrongs. Two years after completely changing positions and not complaining under Adam Oates, Dreger is worried that the Russian machine won’t “buy in” on the plans of new Caps head coach Barry Trotz.

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International treasure Hope Smoke transcribed Cousin Darren’s segment on TSN.

The full audio’s here:

Ovechkin is the Canadian media’s perennial escape goat, picked to be verbally flogged for any or all of the team’s wrongs. So when Ovechkin led the league in goals for the fourth time in his career last season, at age 28, that didn’t matter as much as his minus-35 rating.

We’ve said a few times that plus-minus does not measure what you think it does. Ovechkin’s rating was so poor last year mostly because of his linemates’ low shooting percentages and the number of shorthanded goals the Caps surrendered. Dreger ties the stat directly to some personal shortcoming of Ovechkin.

Dreger’s take also kind of ignores all the other problems the team had last season, most notably the coaching and lack of NHL-ready defensive depth.

But hey, what do I know?

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