Alex Ovechkin wants a puncher’s chance at the playoffs and Washington Capitals general manager Brian MacLellan is inclined to give it to him.
Saturday, MacLellan spoke to the press about putting Evgeny Kuznetsov on waivers and the team’s trade deadline philosophy.
MacLellan also revealed that he spoke to Ovechkin about the team’s plans — “Yes, I did” — as Washington enters a pivotal week for the team’s future.
With potentially only three more chances to win another Stanley Cup, Ovechkin is hoping for another opportunity to make a postseason run.
“Ovi wants to win,” MacLellan said. “He puts pressure on us. ‘I want to win,’ which is a good thing. I get it. That’s why we will try to remain competitive, and I think we are with our younger players.”
Heading into Saturday’s games, the Capitals had only an 8.3 percent chance of making the playoffs, per Money Puck, due to a difficult end-of-season schedule, but only trail the Philadelphia Flyers by four points for the Metropolitan Division’s third playoff spot. The Capitals (65 standings points) have two games in hand on the Flyers (69) but are also fighting with the New Jersey Devils (64), New York Islanders (64), and Pittsburgh Penguins (62) for the position. They also trail the Tampa Bay Lightning by five points (70) for the second wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
In recent weeks, the Capitals have engaged in a big youth movement as several veteran players have been unable to play including TJ Oshie, Nic Dowd, and Kuznetsov.
“McMichael, Protas, these guys have played well,” MacLellan said. “Lappy’s playing well. Sandin, Marty, that’s the path we hope to continue to pursue.”
MacLellan doesn’t want to interrupt the clear progress he sees on the ice, but wants to continue to regroup and retool for the future, too.
“Yeah, I think it’s difficult to do, but that’s the spot we’re in,” MacLellan said. “We want to stay competitive, but we also want to incorporate young guys and develop young guys and have one eye on the future of our organization. Then, we have some older guys that are finishing up careers that we remain respectful to.”
Over the last few seasons, MacLellan has kept lines of communication with Ovechkin as he tries to do right by the team’s legacy players which also includes Oshie and John Carlson.
MacLellan spoke to Ovechkin before the team’s trade deadline moves last season and the Capitals’ captain was reportedly not happy about it.
“I always meet some of the older guys,” MacLellan said then. “I met with Ovi just to tell him what I thought would happen down the stretch here just so he’s getting a heads up on the reasons why. Why it was going to happen and what we hope to accomplish through the trade deadline.”
In a Russian language interview last summer, Ovechkin said that “in Washington, if they ask for any advice, I give it.
“I’m not a general manager,” he added, “I can’t manage a team. My task is completely different.”
