Capital Ups and Downs: Week 7

AO has to be physically restrained to keep him off the ice.

Maybe he has come to realize that what happens in November doesn’t necessarily matter come April and he’s perhaps leaving a bit in the tank so it’s there when he needs it. I don’t think he’s lost his love of the game by any means.

That said, when reading Friedman’s 30 Thoughts today, I got to #5 (“One referee, on Steven Stamkos: ‘No one in the NHL plays with a smile on their face like he does.’ I think that’s so important. You can’t be great at anything unless you love it.”) and thought, "Yeah, that used to be our guy…

Or it’s the result GMGM and many feared would happen if Ovi played the regular season, the Olympics, the NHL playoffs, and again after the NHL season.

What was GMGM’s quote? The he didn’t see how it would be very productive. Something like that.

Just throwing the too much hockey school of thought in there

I agree with this, and what really gets me is that when you step back and look at the big picture, yes, he’s not playing well, and we’re writing 800 words critiquing or psychoanalyzing the current #4 in points and #10 in goals in the NHL. This is his worst slump ever and cause to question whether he still wants to play hockey?

170 other NHLers would kill for a slump like that.

A lot of the discussion here is second-guessing, like the above post to some degree.

I see it a lot like when people talk about what lines the Caps should be using. People can call each other idiots for “stupid” lines, or pat each other on the back as line-making guru’s, but it’s all completely irrelevant. (That’s my own personal pet peeve, we’ve all got em)

Then again, in both cases, depending on future situations, people can say, “you know what, that was totally the right call”

Now you have Cream’s Crossroads stuck in my head!

I agree with a lot of that. In reading a number of the comments in this thread, a couple of things strike me:
1. it seems there’s a disconnect between the argument about the team needing to play now the way they will play in the playoffs so that they are practiced at it, and some comments that Ovi is just saving it for the playoffs, can just throw on the switch. Haven’t many here crticized the whole notion of the team throwing on the switch?

2. I am concerned with how he’s playing, but I doubt it has anything to do with after hours activities. People have to have a life outside of work, to relax, and recreate. Yes, he has to be mindful of being prepared for games at all times. I also don’t think it’s motivation, but I am coming to think he is transitioning his game and the process will not be pretty for awhile. I feel certain that has to do with the Campbell suspension most of all. I hope, too, that he’s thinking about why he and his teams did not do well last season in the various tournaments and how he can be more effective in those situations.

As JP said somewhere, it is a wait and see situation.

His typical style of play is not as effective as it once was since he is the number one person to shut down by the opponents. He has been double-teamed heavily since the beginning of this season and despite being off his game still manages to get points.

I was totally with you up until this point. That’s been the case for his entire career; there’s no one on the ice you game-plan for more than Alex Ovechkin. In his earlier years, he was the only credible offensive threat. Now, he’s still the most lethal scorer on the team and the opposition knows that they have to take him away or he’s going to destroy them.

His typical style of play hasn’t lost its effectiveness, his typical style of play has been almost totally absent. The thing that’s defined him throughout his career is the ability to get a dangerous shot away when absolutely no one else can. That takes a lot of energy and it’s energy that I frankly haven’t seen this season, other than in short bursts. During the OT in NSH, the third period against NJD, the occasional play, you see the old brilliance and absolutely unstoppable freight-train style come out. When he does that, he’s the irresistible force.

But I haven’t seen it often. It’s carrying over to other parts of his game. Watch him in his own zone tonight — if it’s anything like he’s been playing, he’ll cruise in from the blueline, with one, maybe two, strides and stop in the slot. HIs stick is near his waist, parallel with the ice. He’s waiting for a puck to pop out, but he’s rarely involved in getting it. I don’t know how much of that is system and how much of that is The Change (such as it may be), but it’s a jarring difference from a player who’s known for playing 100 mph.

Ovechkin isn’t going to stay young forever. We all know that and I think we’re more or less braced for it. That means that if he wants to remain a maximally effective hockey player, he needs to evolve his game. With his frame, skating ability and power, I could see him transitioning to a Marian-Hossa-style-wing; a sniper who outworks the opposition at both ends of the ice. That’s the transition I hope he makes; he’s got more talent than Hossa ever did (and Hossa is one of the very best players in hockey. Seriously underrated because he’s not popping your eyes with numbers, but he’s as defensively dominant as you can be on the wing). Because he could also simply keep trying the same things when his body simply can’t do them anymore. He could just fade away when his awesome physical abilities do.

I hope you’re right. I hope his hunger drives him to greater heights and the team to the promised land.

Questions will become answers, but they can’t become answers until April. Or 2014.