Alex Ovechkin scored for the sixth straight game on Tuesday night.
Ovechkin now has 17 points (8g, 9a) in his last 16 games and no player in the NHL has more goals than him since January 26. The revival of the league’s second-leading, all-time goal scorer, isn’t surprising given his historic career but is a definite change of pace given how he started the season.
In the 43 games before this recent run, Ovechkin had posted only eight goals. His previous highest-goal-scoring month was November when he scored three times in 12 games and he is coming off a January with just two goals in 10 games. The long goal-scoring droughts come just a season after he scored 42 goals in 73 games and before the six-game streak, he was on pace to score less than 20 goals in a campaign for the first time in his 19-season career.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery was asked to give his take on what he thinks has powered the big winger back up after practice on Thursday. The rookie bench boss says he is seeing Ovechkin take purposeful steps to get more involved in all three zones which is helping him get back to more of his old self.
“I feel like his overall game when you go through his shifts there’s a little more jump in his game,” Carbery said. “He’s just a little bit more explosive in some areas, he’s skating more whether that’s forecheck or whether that’s defensively. There’s a little bit more detail inside of his game. I’ve noticed a few key defensive plays that he’s made inside the last stretch of games.”
The Capitals have played five games in February since returning from their extended bye week plus All-Star weekend break. In those five games, Ovechkin is averaging 19:54 of ice time per game, the most he has played on average in any month since October (20:13).
With Ovechkin on the ice at five-on-five, the team is also seeing positive results from a process standpoint. Even when adjusted for score and venue, the Capitals are seeing 59.7 percent of the five-on-five, high-danger chances with their captain on the ice. That mark is fourth best among the team’s forwards and the Capitals have also outscored their opponents 3-2 in those same minutes.
While that sample size is small, the positive play is a great sign that the Capitals simply aren’t getting pulverized with their leading scorer on the ice anymore. Before these stretch of games, the Capitals had been outscored 39-20 with Ovechkin on the ice and were only seeing 44.5 percent of the high-danger chances.
“When you’re around him, there’s confidence,” Carbery continued. “When the puck starts to go in for a goal scorer, you can feel it on the bench and feel it around them. There’s a confidence growing and a swagger that he feels when the puck drops that it’s going to go in.”
Ovechkin is also getting more help from the players around him like Rasmus Sandin, TJ Oshie, and Dylan Strome who have directly contributed to his recent tallies. Perhaps more importantly, Ovechkin has been away from Evgeny Kuznetsov which is a pairing that does not work and was a drag on the team and the pair’s individual numbers.
Carbery believes the team has finally activated Ovechkin on the power play this season as well. The Capitals are trying to move him around the team’s 1-3-1 setup more and Carbery thinks that is giving opposition penalty killers fits.
“With us moving him around, you can tell from the bench and watching that when he starts to move it gets the penalty kill starting to look at each other,” Carbery said. “So, now, there’s enough film on that. From a pre-scout standpoint, you can’t just say [Ovechkin] is going to be here, and here’s how we’re going to defend it. When he starts moving, now they have to make an adjustment.
“It just creates a little bit more confusion and a little bit more second-guessing of which situation is which and more preparation and planning for them. Him being freed up a little bit on those flanks is because we’re moving him around a little bit more and our formation is changing more frequently.”
Three of Ovechkin’s six goals during his streak have come on the power play. Notably, all three of those strikes have come on one-timers, something he has struggled to do with regularity this season up until recently. One of the goals came from the point of the 1-3-1 and the other two from his usual office on the left flank.
As a team, the Capitals are operating more effectively while up a man. In February, they rank just outside the top 10 in power-play effectiveness, potting three goals on 14 tries. Ovechkin has eight shots on goal on the power play during his six-game streak. There was a nine-game stretch in December and January, where he managed just four power-play shots.
