Why doesn’t Ovechkin score, but Washington still wins?

Why doesn’t Ovechkin score, but Washington still wins?

Dmitry Storozhev November 24, 2023, 09:30 Moscow time Audio version: Your browser does not support the audio element.

An explanatory team for those who follow the NHL only through the news.

Before the start of the NHL regular season, people who did not abandon Washington’s prospects could be counted on one hand. The lack of reinforcement of the team, which even last season could not enter the top eight teams in the East, literally screamed that the capitals would have absolutely nothing to catch here. The team’s main goal this season was to help Alexander Ovechkin achieve his cherished goal: Wayne Gretzky’s sniper record. Before the start of the regular season, the captain of the capital was separated from the “Big One” by 72 goals: if Alexander maintains last year’s level, which is 42 accurate shots, he will surpass the legendary Canadian in less than two championships without problems .

Ovi is close to another achievement

Live

Another great achievement awaits Ovechkin. Ovi’s quest for 1,500 NHL points. Online

But so far everything is turning out exactly the opposite: after 16 matches, Ovechkin has scored only five goals, while Washington, after a failed start, picked up the pace and has already won five victories in a row. Thanks to this, the Capitals remain in fifth place in the conference with 22 points, and in terms of points lost they are among the three best teams in the East.

Surprisingly, the capitalians achieve results with the most ineffective attack in the conference. The players of Spencer Carbury, who is spending his first season as head coach of the NHL club, scored only 43 goals; In terms of average goals per game, the worst indicator is only for the Islanders, who were not particularly famous for their high performance.

Ovechkin’s share of the team’s goals is now only 11.6%: Alexander has never finished a season with such a low figure. This bar dropped twice to 12.6% at the end of the regular season, but it didn’t drop as low as it does now.

SeasonThe ratio of Ovechkin’s goals to Washington’s goals2005/200621.9%2006/200719.6%2007/200826.9%2008/200920.6%2009/201015.7%2010/201114.3%2011/201217.1%2012/201321.5%2013/ 201 421.7%2014/201521.9%2015/201619.9%2016/201712.6%2017/201818.9%2018/201918.4%2019/202020%2020/202112.6%2021/202218.2 % 2022/202316.5%2023/202411.6%

One of the reasons for such poor performance by Ovi standards is poor implementation. This season, Alexander scored on 8.1% of his shots, again the lowest of his career. Only once in his career has Ovechkin converted less than 10% of his shots in a season: 8.7% in the 2010/2011 regular season, and his career average conversion rate is 12. 9%. At the same time, the Washington captain’s shooting activity remains at a high level: Alexander makes almost four shots in each match, 62 in 16 games this season. He only has to hit the target beyond the goalkeeper.

And, despite this, Ovechkin is today the team’s second sniper: in Washington he is ahead of Dylan Strome, who managed to fulfill a third of the quota from the previous season, scoring eight goals. His personal best is 23 goals and, at this rate, the Canadian will rewrite his achievement book shortly after reaching the halfway point of the season.

Alexander Ovechkin

Photo: Mark Schiefelbein/AP/TASS

This regular season, 16 different players scored for the Capitals, two of them, Alexander Alekseev and TJ Oshie, doing so for the first time in the last game against Buffalo alone. Otherwise, sniper efficiency is lacking for almost the entire team: only nine hockey players scored more than once, and only Ovechkin and Strome scored five or more goals.

However, so far this has not largely prevented the Capitals from taking a place in the playoff zone, because the team’s defense and goalkeeping line are perhaps the ones that have lost the least in the East – the same 43 goals who were in the Caps’ goal. ‘opponents. Only Boston (38) and the Rangers (40), who occupy the top two spots in the conference, allowed their opponents to score less.

Related materials

Washington is in action! There they found a replacement for Bäckström and Ovechkin discovered a new side of talent.

If Washington continues to play with the same reliability on defense and tap into untapped reserves – including the sniping exploits of Alexander Ovechkin, who so far provides more assists than he scores – things in the American capital may turn out better than they did in the end. from the previous season.