Thoughts On Ovechkin (PT.1)

As I mindlessly perused Twitter last Wednesday night looking for anything of interest, I stumbled upon Slava Malamud’s account (@SlavaMalamud). Malamud brought up an interesting point that very few, if any, have mentioned before. It’s difficult to admit, but anyone who’s really watched hockey over the past few years can’t help but notice the lack of pure domination that Alex Ovechkin imposes on the rest of the NHL.

Sure, Ovechkin still possesses outstanding size, speed, a great shot and a playing style that is overloaded with reckless abandon. However, it’s impossible to ignore the fact that Ovechkin simply isn’t as feared as he once was across the league. Ovechkin put up his lowest goal and point totals of his career a year ago. Some attributed this to an increase of emphasis on the defensive aspect of things by both Ovechkin and – the recently fired – Bruce Boudreau, who undoubtedly got sick of seeing his offensive one-trick pony put up shiny stats in the regular season only to be bounced out of the playoffs by less talented teams. Still, the fact that Ovechkin – a player that was universally regarded as either the best or the second-best in the world – could be held to a paltry 85 points in 79 games should have set off some warning bells. This was, after all, the Great 8, the same man whose previous low for goals in a season was 46 and who ripped off 50 or more goals in four of his first five seasons. This was the same guy who terrorized goalies across the league with a cannon for a shot, usually deployed on the left side of the defense on the power play or on Ovi’s patented move – a drive down the left side before cutting back to the middle and firing a howitzer past a helpless goalie.

Malamud puts it best with the following set of tweets.

“Is it possible that Ovi never really had anything beyond those 2-3 moves, freakish strength & drive? Got figured out, noth to fall back on?”

“Gretzky was a positional genius w/ supernatural hockey sense. Mario had inexhaustible supply of talent. Sid evolves. Ovi none of the above?”

“I also think OV suffered through a personal crisis in Vancouver. A genuinely humiliating moment, he just lost control. Never happened before”

“His supreme dominance over peers hadn’t been questioned since he was 9. The Olympics forced a re-evaluation. Not the same since. IMO”

“Looking at Ovi’s shots/attempts-blocked stats is pretty interesting. Eastern teams block 50% of his shots. Western much less. Preparation “

To take on the first two, it’s hard to tell if Ovechkin had anything beyond a few moves that worked every freakin’ time like it was NHL 06 and the CPU couldn’t adapt for some mind-numbing reason. He never had to do anything else. If any GM across the league could piece together a prototypical winger, it would be Alex Ovechkin. Yes, the prototype would be 6-2, 230 pounds, built like a tank, hard-nosed with a laser of a shot, deft hands and a good passer. As Malamud points out, though, those things can be figured out. However, like he said, it’s ironic enough that Ovechkin’s biggest rival might just be what Ovechkin needs to become an elite player once again.

To Be Continued….