Evgeny Kuznetsov knows Alex Ovechkin better than most on the ice, serving as Ovechkin’s primary center for large swaths of his 11 seasons with the Washington Capitals. The two formed a productive duo for most of their time together, with Kuznetsov assisting on 110 of Ovechkin’s 890 career goals.
Ovechkin enters play against the Carolina Hurricanes on Wednesday night just four goals away from passing Wayne Gretzky for sole possession of the NHL’s all-time goals record. Given Kuznetsov’s vast amount of experience skating next to the legendary winger, he shared what he thinks is the most unique on-ice quality Ovechkin possesses, which allows him to have so much goal-scoring success.
“He has a sense of where to open up, where to accelerate or stop,” Kuznetsov told Match TV and translated via Google Translate. “All great hockey players don’t play by the puck, they try to guess where the puck will be.”
Kuznetsov seems to be referring to Ovechkin’s innate ability to constantly find himself open in high danger areas of the ice. Ovechkin has needed to rely more on that aspect of his game as he’s gotten older and no longer transports the puck up the ice on his own.
Ovechkin, who owns the record for most career power-play goals (322), still sometimes finds himself alone in his office in the left faceoff circle. So much so, that “Ovechkin Island” has been coined in past years to describe when teams leave the deadly sniper wide-open while down a man. Ovechkin gave a prime example in his last game against the Boston Bruins.
Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery has also referred to the same ability this year when questioned about how he uses Ovechkin in empty-net situations. Ovechkin is the all-time leader in empty-net goals (65) and is second (8) only to Mikko Rantanen (9) in empty-net goals this season.
“What I see in the empty-net situations is a player that has an incredible ability to read where the puck is going,” Carbery said in February. “People would say, ‘What’s he doing out there? He doesn’t penalty kill. He’s not a defensive specialist. Why would you put him out there?'”
Ovechkin will hope to use more of his smarts to get open in the Capitals’ final eight games of the regular season. He is on pace to topple Gretzky by the Caps’ game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on April 13, their second-to-last game.
