Friday, February 1, 2008

Another Career Night for Ovechkin

Alexander Ovechkin was held in check by the Montreal Canadiens a mere two evenings ago. It was not to happen two games in a row as Ovechkin turned in his second four goal, five point performance of the season, vaulting himself to the top of the NHL leaderboards.

Ovechkin increased his league-leading goal total to 43, just three shy of his 82 game total last season. He's now on a pace to reach 68 goals, which would be the most the NHL has seen since Mario Lemieux netted 69 in 1995-96. Not only is Ovie five goals ahead of Ilya Kovalchuk in the race for the Richard, he has moved into the point scoring lead as well. Now with 70 points, Ovie sits two points ahead of both Daniel Alfredsson and Vinny Lecavalier.

After being a relative non-factor a couple nights ago, Ovechkin came out of the gate throwing his weight all over the ice, breaking his nose and necessitating stitches along the way. With much more help from his linemates than he received in Montreal, the unfazed Ovechkin was able to power his way into prime scoring real estate time and time again -- and did not miss his opportunities. Just how much help did his linemates provide? The trio of Ovechkin-Backstrom-Kozlov combined for 5 goals, 4 assists, a +11 rating, 15 shots (plus only one that was blocked,) and 8 takeaways (more than the entire Habs team had.)

Ovechkin's overtime game winner was created by a nifty little play from Jeff Schultz, who in rarified air pinched down on the play. A Mike Green slapshot caromed off Cristobal Huet into the shins of Schultz, who deftly kicked the puck to his stick and centered the bouncing biscuit to Ovechkin who tapped home the winning goal. The play by Schultz, who saw his workload increase over the 20 minute mark for the first time since sitting out against Toronto, was unlike any I've ever seen from him. His extra playing time came at the expense of the Steve Eminger-John Erskine pairing who combined for barely 20 minutes themselves.

The greatness of Ovechkin bailed out his netminder, Olie Kolzig. Although Kolzig made a couple fine stops, his .810 save percentage on the night cannot be overlooked. Not to mention the timeliness of a couple of the goals allowed. With less than half a second to play in the second period, Kolzig let one slip by him to give Montreal momentum entering the final stanza. While trying to maintain a one goal in the last minute of the game, Olie failed to cover a puck in the crease and gave up the tying goal with only 33 seconds to play. 

Of course this performance is anything but an anomaly for Kolzig of late, as we've seen him turn in a number of atrocious performances. But, for some reason, the Capitals are scoring for him and he's posting wins. In fact, his record since Thanksgiving when stopping less than 86% of shots faced is 5-2-0 (featuring five performances below 79%), including wins in four straight. Go figure.

The Capitals finally worked over Huet, peppering him with high quality shots and creating a ton of traffic in front of him. The 38 shots by Washington are only three more than they registered two nights prior, but it's the quality of their chances that tells the story:

With Carolina and the New York Rangers winning, the Capitals kept pace in the standings, still trailing both teams by three points. They did, however, move ahead of Buffalo and Atlanta into 10th place in the Eastern Conference and are just one point shy of the New York Islanders for 9th.

A FEW NOTES FROM THE GAME:

• Mike Green played his best game since Shaone Morrisonn hurt his foot. His two assists put an end to his four game pointless streak and his +1 rating on the night was his first plus performance in eight games.
• Viktor Kozlov has suddenly come to life, and it may not be a fluke. After adding a goal and two assists, he now has six goals and three assists along with a +6 rating in his last six games.
• After lighting up the scoreboard prior to the All Star break, Alexander Semin appears to have regressed. He has followed up back-to-back shaky performances with another stinker, highlighted by a ridiculous hooking penalty just 11 seconds into a Caps' power play.
• Joe Beninati alluded to an article written in the Montreal Gazette by columnist Red Fisher during the broadcast. Fisher discusses how Ovechkin is one guy he would pay to see play.

Read More From The Archive Or Head To The Home Page