THE OPTION | Is this the Great Eight's Year?
He's one of the most prolific goal scorers in NHL history, but he still doesn't have a cup.
Since 2005, Alexander Ovechkin has been the NHL's most prolific scorer, with 607 regular season goals to date.
In fact, he's never had less than 32 goals in a year and this is including the truncated, 48-game, post-lockout season of 2012. Among active players, he's third in career goals behind Jerome Iginla (625) and Jaromir Jagr (766). That said, Iginla and Jagr are in their forties and are both future hall of famers. Ovechkin is only 32. If Ovechkin plays another ten years, and somehow manages to keep his seasonal goal-scoring average around 30, he's on pace to eclipse Wayne Gretzky's career goal record. That's saying a lot considering Gretzky played against goalies who didn't really know what they were doing. Ovechkin is undoubtedly the best pure-scorer in the NHL right now, but unfortunately for him, NHL glory isn't determined by padded stats and highlight reel goals. It's determined by Stanley Cup wins of which Ovechkin has zero.
For the past 13 years, the Washington Capitals have been suffering from the Ovechkin curse, constantly finishing at or near the top of the conference, just to get bounced early on in the playoffs. Throughout his career, Ovechkin has been labeled selfish and lazy on defense. He's been the black sheep of the 2005 draft, while Sidney Crosby is its golden child with three Stanley Cup wins. On top of this, Crosby and his Penguins always seem to be the ones knocking the Capitals out of the playoffs.
This year, the Penguins and the Capitals faced off in the playoffs for the third season in a row, but this time it was different. The Capitals finally won one.The miraculous thing, is that the overtime goal which sent the Capitals into the Eastern Conference Final didn't come from Ovechkin on some single-handed herculean effort. Instead, it came off a pass from the Great Eight that sent Evgeny Kuznetsov on a breakaway. In one motion, Ovechkin bucked his selfish reputation and took his team the furthest they've been in the playoffs since 1998. When asked about the goal in the postgame interview, Ovechkin exclaimed that all he was thinking was "Please score. Just please f***ing score."
Now, following last night's 6-2 rout of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Capitals are heading back to Washington with a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference Finals. Washington has outscored Tampa 10-4 in two games, and don't look like they're slowing down in the slightest. For his part, Ovechkin has ten goals this postseason and one in each game of the Eastern Conference Finals so far. He's also has nine total assists and is first in points among players who are still in the playoffs.
Despite the fact that he's been routinely lighting the league on fire for the past 13 years, Ovechkin is now in uncharted territory. He's never been this deep in the playoffs, and it's been interesting to watch his play style evolve to reflect the magnitude of the games he's playing in. He's passing more. He's getting more involved on defense. In short, he's doing the things championship players do. While the Lightning series is far from over, it would take a monumental collapse for the Capitals to miss the Stanley Cup this year. That said, they'll probably end up facing the Golden Knights in the cup, a team that dispatched them with ease during the regular season. Still, Ovechkin is one of the most singularly talented guys to ever play the game, and the smart money is on the Capitals. Even Vegas, the Golden Knights' hometown, says so.
Matt Clibanoff is a writer and editor based in New York City who covers music, politics, sports and pop culture. His editorial work can be found in Inked Magazine, Popdust, The Liberty Project, and All Things Go. His fiction has been published in Forth Magazine. -- Find Matt at his website and on Twitter: @mattclibanoff
POP⚡DUST | Read More…
THE OPTION | The Stafford Effect
THE OPTION | Catalan Independence and What It Means for Barcelona Soccer