2009-10 Rink Wrap: Alex Ovechkin

Score 50 goals, MVP consideration, this is all standard Ovie. We expect this now.

70 goals or Conn Smythe’s the only way for him to get 10s.

Rate Ovechkin below on a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) based on his performance relative to his potential and your expectations for the season – if he had the best year you could have imagined him having, give him a 10; if he more or less played as you expected he would, give him a 5 or a 6; if he had the worst year you could have imagined him having, give him a 1.

I had very high expectations for AO this year. 60 goals, a Richard and a Hart, continued maturation (hopefully to be reflected in shorter shifts, among other things), and leadership of a deep playoff run. 50 goals, no Richard, likely no Hart, continued looooooong shifts, continued 1 on 4 rushes, and a playoff fizzle…very disappointing season for him.

Maybe unfairly, but my expectations of Ovie have less to do with personal statistics and glory than with team success. He had a great regular season, and that is what I expect. Unfortunately, the greatest player in the world needs to be able to will his team to one win in the final three against an 8th seed.

6. He did what I expected of him (around 50 and 50, I’d say) and managed to improve statistics we maybe didn’t expect him to improve (+/- and PlayerGA/60), and Captained his way to a Presidents’ Trophy. That gets him an 8 or a 9 from me. For about 20 games, though (Olympics and Playoffs incl.), he was a completely different player, and that knocks him down. I just hope he can figure out why and not let it happen, again.

He’s the captain. A Stanley Cup.

Anything less, it can’t be a 10, even if he scores 93 goals, gets 216 points, and goes plus-125.

6. he did what i expected in the regular season, but did it in fewer games and did it with the unexpected addition of the C on his chest.

next year, clearly a stanley cup gets him a 10. he can clearly improve his two way play and be better at picking his spots when being physical. shorter shifts and not playing 25 minutes in meaningless end of season games.

I originally intended to give him a 5, but like BP said, JP’s final paragraph put things in perspective.

That being said, he was better offensively than I expected. He would have had the best offensive season of his career if it weren’t for his injuries, and the Hart Trophy wouldn’t even be a discussion. His playoffs were disappointing in that he sputtered out at the end of the series, but I was happy that he didn’t start slow, as he’s tended to do in years past.

I would still like to see him improve defensively. While he’ll never win the Selke, he has the potential to be a great two-way forward, not just a great power forward.

Regular season if he didn’t miss games would get an 8 from me. Missing games, no Ross or Richard gets a 7. Playoffs make it a 6. In retrospect, should have been a 5.

What would you like to see Ovechkin improve on in 2010-11? What will it take for him to earn a 10 rating next year?

Seriously, a Cup and 55 goals-120 points (Ross and Richard) in the regular season and a solid playoffs will get a 10. Nothing less.

Improvements? Getting on the PK and skating shorter shifts is all I can think of.

What will it take for him to earn a 10 rating next year?

Don’t get suspended. Don’t get suspended. Don’t get hurt. Don’t get suspended.

The Conn Smythe would earn him a 10.

Produced great numbers through less games, stepped it up and became the C and all in all played well. All the suspension were garbage that played to the media narrative instead of having any grounding in reality.

10 next year? Echoing Ghost of Bebop. Conn Smythe or bust.

He did what i expected him to do. (with an extra point added for the missed games)

What do I want to see him improve? First, shorter shifts. I know it’s on BB but some of it comes from AO. They both need to cut down his shift length. Second, play closer to the net and use his teammates more; specifically I’d prefer to see someone other than AO carrying the puck up ice (and if Knuble is the RW on that line it leaves one option…). I don’t want to see him leading a rush up ice without any support

We are on the same wavelength.

Over expectations: Captainship and the streak that followed, 50-56-109 (only 1 pt less than last year, in 7 fewer games), an incredible +45, and showed up in the playoffs more than any other player on the team.
Under Expectations: Suspensions, Injury, and post-Olympics play (though the last two were really not under his control).

Next year for a 10? A trophy he doesn’t have – Cup, Conn Smythe, Selke – in that order.

Great improvement on assists and +45 is +45, no matter how you slice it.

Had to dock him for the suspensions and the slightly uneven play. What he did as captain was great but also somewhat mitigated by the first round collapse.

Slightly off topic, but do we do a Rink Wrap for BB and GM?

He has to do a better job of getting others into the play next year during the playoffs. If they are going to shut him down on the rush, it’s time to pull up and let the trail catch up. This may be coaching that needs to figure this out as well.

Otherwise, he gave me every penny’s worth this year as a STH.

I gave him an 8, because he can and will be even better.

The statistics are about what I would expect on a per-game basis and that he received an injury is not a surprise, the injury bug had to catch up with him sometime. What was unexpected for me (postives first):

1) His being named captain of the team after Clark was traded, and the team taking off from that point and surging their way to the top of the standings.

2) His lead by example attitude. When the Caps fell behind to the Penguins in the Sno-vechkin game, he (and Eric Fehr) grabbed the bull by the [Balsillie]s and won the game. He did the same thing in Edmonton as well. In both games the Caps were down 2 going into the 3rd and came out with wins.

3) More goals for the highlight reel.

4) Being more of a “team guy”. He doesn’t need to lead the league in shots by a wide margin, although more shots are always welcome.

5) Now the negatives: the biggest had to be the fact that the NHL finally had to suspend him. The slew foot was bad, Kaleta was worse, and Gleason just two games later. He forced the NHLs hand, and they showed Ovi the back of it, hard. If he hadn’t been through this before, then I doubt there would have been a suspension (or perhaps not even an ejection) for Campbell. The discipline system in the NHL is pretty haphazard at best, but once you get called to the principal’s office regularly, the suspensions get heavier.

5) Sure he had 10 points in 7 games, and that followed a 14 point effort in a series against Pittsburgh in the previous season-ender. Great numbers. But the Caps lost those series, and unlike 2009, in 2010, the Caps were expected to win…no, they were expected to curb-stomp the Habs. And once again, for the 4th time in team history, the Caps lose a series after being up 3-1. Ovechkin is the captain of this team, so he has to take some of the heat for this.

No doubt he is the best player in the world, but there are some intangibles that need to be addressed. He needs to clean up his play a little. No more little nonsense shoves and hits that wipe out someone, no more loafing while on the ice when the puck is in the Caps end. He doesn’t do it a lot, but it’s often enough, and it cost the Caps dearly this season. I think know he can get that out of his game. If he does that, I’ll give him a 9 next year.

To get to 10…well, there is that silver trophy that’s going to be played for in the next 2 weeks…

Could have gone with 5.

I have very high expectations for Ovie. Having a Hart-worthy season is something I expect. Maybe that’s unfair, but I don’t think I’m alone in thinking that. He improved greatly in two stats, +- and assists. Minus 1for the injures and suspensions, he gets a 6 for the regular season.

As the captain, he takes some responsibility for the team’s playoff performance. I admit that I don’t know what he could do, but he needs to do something. His own performance, while solid, was a small step back from his normal level. 10 points in 7 games is fine for Ovie, but not noteworthy. He was a non-factor in game 1 and had the blown defense in game 5. And no matter how hot a goalie is, over three games, Ovie is capable of scoring more than one goal.

For next year, 10 is Stanley Cup or Conn Smythe.

His raw points were about at expectations. He gets bonus points for leading the team as captain to a great record, his greatly improved defensive numbers, reaching the totals he reached in just 72 games, and for his play through the first 5 playoff games. He gets knocked for the suspensions and his inability to elevate himself and the rest of the team in the last 3 playoff games. Rightly or wrongly (I personally think “rightly”), a lot of the responsibility for getting the team to dig down a bit more and MAKE IT HAPPEN has to fall on the captain of the team. Not a SINGLE cap elevated his game in those final 3 games, and a fair bit of the blame for that has to fall to the captain (as well as, of course, the individual players).

The Discussion: What would you like to see Ovechkin improve on in 2010-11? What will it take for him to earn a 10 rating next year?

Pretty easy questions. Cut down on the shift length, continue to improve his play without the puck, and avoiding suspensions/game misconducts are the improvements I want to see. To get a 10, he needs to do those things, lead the league in goals and points (regular season AND playoffs), and lead the team to at least an Eastern Conference Championship.

He did pretty much what I expected in the regular season, but he gets docked a couple of points for the suspensions, “only” getting 50 goals, and the fact that he bears at least some of the blame for the horrendous PP and lack of scoring in the last 3 games of the playoffs. I’m once again stunned by the voting. I can’t believe expectations were so low that so many people are voting 8 and up for this season.

A 10 next year involves 75+ goals, sweeping the Art Ross, Hart, Pearson and Richard again, and getting the Conn Smythe. As far as improving his game, I think I’m in agreement with everyone else that I’d like to see him make his game less predictable by entering the zone with his linemates (or better yet, letting Baxter carry it in more often) instead of leaving them in the dust and rushing in 1 on 3. Hopefully the Montreal series was a bit of an eye opener in that regard.

He can be a little smarter with his hits to avoid suspensions/injury, but I prefer the reckless AO to the more timid post-Olympics version. Really he just needs to tune out the haters and the disappointments of the past year and be himself. Then show Mike Green how to do the same.

Sheesh. 3s? 4s? Are you people just looking at goals? Or just joking.

Having played much less games and still tying for 2nd in scoring, 6th in ASSISTS not good enough for ya? I think he did a hell of a job at finally learning how to use all the opponents attention on him to free up space to let other people score.

I went 9. I think this season was a step in the right direction for him (minus he suspensions… at least one of which was definately not deserved). Coming within 3 points of his career best minus the games he missed… He made his whole team better and he was way better than his stats indicate.

Best production in the league, and barely losing both goals and points titles this year with 10 fewer games. Kept it exciting no? Arguably Ovechkin’s hardest playing season but the obvious drawbacks are obvious. Thrown out of big games, first hat trick in february, seeming lackadaisical attitude in important games. May of had the most GWG but it certainly didn’t seem so.

His overall performance was on the high end of my expectations (I’ve probably developed low expectations as a defense mechanism), if not the high end of pre-season hopes (or hoped-for outcomes). He gets a +1 for the improvements he did make from the previous season, like increasing his shooting percentage and upping assists. Still, there are areas of his game he needs to work on, especially discipline. He can’t let the PIM get higher, nor can suspensions be repeated. If he could reduce his giveaways, even better — but this really goes along with being a little more disciplined on the ice.

Ultimately, Caps’ fans are incredibly lucky to have a player like Ovechkin on board — someone who gives the impression of near-endless potential for brilliance. He hasn’t yet maxed out his capacity and as he continnues to mature (on and off the ice, his game will be refined, assuming he is given appropriate direction and boundaries. Motivated as Ovie is, BB cannot rely on this alone to set a corrective course or polish skills. As highlighted by the overlong shifts and ‘optional’ practices, he still needs a strong coach. I really hope BB can step up his game in this area.

Knew what I was getting.

3 years ago I put this team on pace to have a Finals appearance in 4 years, the last two seasons has made me think they were a year ahead of schedule, guess not.

Ovie’s biggest challenge next year will be to get his mojo back by being a physically dominating player that other teams fear. Post Campbell push Ovie was just not the same physical force that he used to be and the team needs to feed off that energy.

Ovie’s good. But he can be better. Cindy showed more depth in his game his season, next year it would be nice for Ovie to do the same. As good as he is, there is no need for him to ‘freelance’ as much as he does. That being said, it was far from Ovie’s fault that the Cap season ended before its time …

This one is tough. Because, if we’re ranking him on his season and how awesome he is, he’ll always get 8s, 9s, and 10s. But now the expectations are so high for Ovechkin, that it will take some monumental efforts for him to get anywhere close to that. But, it is what it is.

I gave him a 6 (high end of meeting expectations) for the following reasons: His points were right in line with what you would expect; his play was, more or less, right where you would expect it to be; his playoff performance was right where you would expect it to be; and had that GTG of his in game 7 not been waived off due to some serious bs, this is a whole different narrative right now. He took over the C, and the team took off afterwards…was it his doing or not? I dunno, but you can definately make a case that it showed leadership. He went ice cold late in the Habs series…along with everyone else…but again, his goal is allowed to stand in game 7, who knows what happens. At least he was still threatening.

All in all, he gave us exactly what we expected out of him, with a slight bump for taking on the C, and not skipping a beat.

And I’ll have to agree with those above: a 10 will be earned with a Cup and/or Conn Smythe. Or maybe if he puts up some Gretzky kinds of numbers…obscene.

I agree we overcame the neutral zone trap but we weren’t much good in the offensive zone. Halak could see where the shots were coming from. We looked too desperate flinging the puck from everywhere. i would like to have seen OV find Knuble more often. I think Backster was seriously effected by his game 3 shoulder seperation causing OV to go solo too much, forgetting that he still had a healthy Knuble to work with. Give Montreal D credit. They smothered us and the shot blocks were ridiculous.

5, because nothing about his season surprised me.

7 – I thought Ovechkin had a strong year. While he has put up higher goal totals before, I felt his game shifted more to a playmaker than just a pure goal scorer. The improvement of Backstrom and the acquisition of Knuble certainly helped. On many occassions when in years past Ovechkin would have shot he was looking for Knuble and Backstrom. To me this is growth. What kept him from higher rating was the major penalities and the sputter in the last two games of the Montreal series. For a 10 – similar scoring stats and leading the team to a Stanley Cup.

The Boss liked your Ovi Wrap.