The Washington Capitals received five power plays in their 3-1 loss to the Boston Bruins on Opening Night at Capital One Arena. During a couple of those ultimately unsuccessful man-advantage opportunities, eyebrows were raised after Caps captain Alex Ovechkin did not stay out with the team’s second unit.
Ovechkin has rarely missed any power-play action with the Capitals under head coach Spencer Carbery the past two seasons, averaging the NHL’s highest amount of ice time (4:22) while up a man. Given his and Ovechkin’s past track record, Carbery was questioned about the seemingly new strategy after Wednesday’s loss.
“I thought just a couple times — I’m monitoring his shift lengths — so he had a 5-on-5 shift, then a power play, right back-to-back,” Carbery said. “So that puts him in a tough spot from playing three minutes in a row. Same thing on that 5-on-3 where he’s out there for the 5-on-4, then the 5-on-3, and then we come back out. Those are times where, look, I’ve got to help him.
“It’s not quantity, it’s quality with O now at this point in his career, so it’s my job to find him that quality. I have to make sure that his minutes are where they need to be, and we’re utilizing him in the spots to use his strengths and what he does at an elite level at this point in his career.”
Ovechkin still played the most power-play ice time of any player in the game, spending 6:22 over the boards with Bruins players in the sin bin. During those minutes, the league’s all-time leader in power-play goals (326) was shut down by Boston’s penalty kill, failing to record a shot and only notching two shot attempts.
While Carbery may be more proactive about finding more rest for Ovechkin during The Great 8’s age-40 season, he emphasized that he still believes the team’s power play will always be stronger with the legendary winger on the ice. Ovechkin led the Capitals in power-play goals last season (14) despite missing 17 games primarily due to the broken leg he suffered in November.
“For sure [just] situational,” Carbery said. “He’ll play most of the time on that second unit, I would bet. It’s purely, purely situational because at the end of the day, there’s a lot of times where he’s tired. No one else in the league, other than maybe Willy Nylander, plays the full two minutes, right?
“So at that minute mark, most guys are tired and go off, right? He’s no different. He’s a human being. He’s tired, too. But his tired on the power play is better than most people’s fresh, so that’s where you use him when he’s a little bit fatigued, and you can use his shot.”
Ovechkin himself sounded completely unconcerned about maybe taking a little more time off in games this year. “We’re going to try different things, and we’ll see what’s going to work,” he said.
At the end of regulation, Ovechkin finished with 18:16 of total ice time, good for sixth best on the team overall and third best among just Capitals forwards. The only forwards that skated more than him were Tom Wilson (22:15) and Aliaksei Protas (19:16), who played at all three strengths on Wednesday.
Ovechkin finished the 21st season-opening game of his career with three shots on goal, nine shot attempts, one individual scoring chance, two hits, and one drawn penalty. He remains three goals shy of becoming the first player in NHL history to record 900 career goals.
