Alex Ovechkin will have his fourth opportunity to either tie or pass Gordie Howe for the second-most goals in NHL history in Ottawa on Thursday night.
Ovi has only gone four consecutive games without a goal on one occasion so far this season. The Senators are very aware of that and while they respect Ovechkin’s talent, they seem determined not to be the team that let’s him make even more history.
Ottawa head coach DJ Smith put into context how impressive Ovechkin’s accomplishments are, but also reiterated that the team’s focus was winning during his pregame presser.
“Really when you think about it, I grew up a Gretzky fan,” Smith said. “My era, Wayne Gretzky, Mario Lemieux. To think that this guy is right there – it really is amazing. In today’s world with all the video, today’s goalies how good they are, the system play, and he just continues to score. It really is amazing, but for us, we want to get a win before Christmas. We want to get back going good. We’ve had a good month. We want to feel good about ourselves going into the break so it’s (more) about that than it is about him.”
The Senators currently sit dead last in the NHL’s Atlantic Division with 30 points from 32 games played. They have been better of late though as winners of six of their last 10. They’ll need to find a way to stop Ovi from finding the back of the net if that spell of good play is to continue on Thursday.
“There’s been, I’m sure, so many different theories on how you would try and stop him,” Smith said. “The only way that holds true is you have the puck in the offensive zone and he doesn’t have it. If you can do that, he doesn’t have the puck and he can’t go and do what he wants to do. But, once he gets it, he’s a huge man with great hands, an absolute desire to score, and is willing to do anything to do it. Block shots, whatever he has got to do to score and that’s why clearly we’re sitting here and he’s on that verge.”
Smith keyed in on something that opposing teams are finding very hard to do this season. Ovechkin, Dylan Strome, and Conor Sheary have formed a dominant top trio for the Caps that play a ton of hockey in other teams’ defensive zones. That is not something that has been typical of Ovechkin lines at five-on-five prior to Strome’s arrival in DC.
In close to 190 minutes with that line on the ice at five-on-five, the Caps are seeing 52.5-percent of the shot attempts, 59.4-percent of the expected goals, 56.2-percent of the scoring chances, and a ridiculous 63.6-percent of the high-danger chances. By direct comparison, in over 900 minutes last season with Ovechkin on the ice with his normal center partner Evgeny Kuznetsov the team only saw 50.4-percent of the shot attempts, 48.8-percent of the expected goals, 49.2-percent of the scoring chances, and 46.6-percent of the high-danger chances.
All of that time spent in the offensive zone has Ovechkin on pace for 48 goals in his age-37 season. Last season, at 36, Ovi became the oldest player in NHL history to score 50 goals in a season — a record once held by John Bucyk (age 35) for over 50 years (1970-71).
“What he did and what he does for hockey is really special to watch,” forward Tim Stützle added. “I love watching him but we don’t want to give him 801 tonight.
“He can score from everywhere,” he continued. “He’s deadly on the power play but he’s also really good at getting to the net. I learned in these three years that you’re not always scoring nice goals, you also got to score those dirty goals and get in front of the net. He’s really good at it. I think there is some guys in the world the puck seems to find them everywhere and he’s one of those guys.”
Ovechkin’s ability to find soft scoring areas closer to the net seems to be something that the Senators are aware of and are taking precautions to try and prevent. Defenseman Thomas Chabot spoke to The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir about just that.
“Yeah, we looked at that,” Chabot said. “We’re going to cover that even more tonight. But like I said, he’s dangerous from anywhere – it’s that simple.”
Against the Senators in his career, Ovechkin has scored 35 goals and recorded 56 total points in 52 games played.
Screenshot via @Senators/Twitter
