Alex Ovechkin goes shotless in back-to-back games for the first time ever

Alex Ovechkin played his 1,350th game on Wednesday night, a dreary 6-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators. In 18:33 of ice time, Ovechkin got an assist on a John Carlson goal and had four shot attempts blocked.

But for the 19th time in his career, he did not record a shot on goal. He also went shotless in Monday’s game, which means this is the first time in his 19-year career that Alex Ovechkin has gone consecutive games without a shot in goal.

Those 19 games:

The core of Ovechkin’s threat historically has been his shot volume, generally putting about 10 on net every hour (plus about ten more attempts missed or blocked). Ovechkin’s volume through three games is half that amount right now.

Ovechkin, 38, has played 25 of his five-on-five minutes with Nicklas Backstrom at center. Dylan Strome was his center for about 15 minutes.

The Capitals have not been majorly possessed during Ovechkin’s shifts, putting up 40 attempts to opponents’ 37. But those opponents have scored three goals to Washington’s one, corresponding with a major shot-quality disadvantage – the Caps have owned just 36.8 percent of expected goals when Ovechkin’s on the ice. Ovechkin’s line won’t convert just five percent of their shots for much longer, but they need to be generating more threat overall.

Last December, Ovechkin passed Ray Bourque for most shots in NHL history. He currently has 6,359, which was also the number he had last weekend.

Headline photo: Alan Dobbins/RMNB