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Is the pressure getting to Alex Ovechkin?

Image (1) Ovi4-thumb-250x166-8833.jpg for post 965

Aside from the story of how Tomas Plekanec actually backed up his big words -- something you don’t see everyday in professional sports -- the story this morning is surrounding Alex Ovechkin and his zero shots on goal.

The Capitals were foiled by much more than just Ovechkin being a non-factor for much of the game, but for their captain -- and someone who is supposedly Hart Trophy worthy -- to disappear for long stretches has to be concerning. It’s much more so than just looking at the numbers and determining that he didn’t have a good game; anyone watching could see that Ovechkin had a tough time being his normally high-energy, dominant self.

Bruce Boudreau pulled no punches, saying after the game “He didn’t play good. The gapped on real well on him but I don’t think Alex played very well.”

So what was it? Was Ovechkin just not good, or did the Canadiens just do one heck of a job taking away the Capitals’ best player?

Jaroslav Spacek is happy with how his team played Ovechkin, but had nothing but praise for the man everyone is asking about today. From Dan Steinberg of the D.C. Sports Blog:


“He was playing good,” Spacek said. “His shots didn’t get through, that’s the problem, but I think we did a great job against their first line all night long. We didn’t give them too much space. If he will be shooting from the blue line, he’s probably not that effective. And we had the guys to step up on him all the time. So when you see the third guy, fourth guy coming back, that’s even better for our defensemen.”

It’s worth noting that Ovechkin wasn’t exactly shotless. He had five blocked shots and three that missed the net, the most total attempts on the team aside from Mike Knuble and Alex Semin.

That being said, there’s no doubt that something just isn’t right. He had the second most ice time on the team last night (26:26), but it certainly didn’t seem like he was on the ice for that amount of time while watching the game. He wasn’t pushing the play, wasn’t aggressively attacking the defense up the wing like we’ve seen time and time again, and instead seemed intent on trying to continuously take the puck across the slot as he looked for an opening. There never was one.

Is Ovechkin hurt, or is this something mental? He just hasn’t been the same since the Olympics disappointment, and you have to wonder if the pressure is starting to get to him. He’s no longer the free wheeling, aggressive, fun-loving hockey player that has dominated so many games. He was calm, quiet and a bit off during practice leading up to last night’s game, stating he was saving his emotions for the game; that emotional side of him never showed up.

This isn’t to pin the loss on Ovechkin; far from it. As David Getz of Japers’ Rink noted last night, Ovechkin, Semin and Mike Green all had off nights with just eight shots on goal between the three. The Capitals will need the entire team to step up, but in the end it’s Ovechkin that can make the difference.

He’s supposedly the best player in the NHL, one who has the ability to completely take over a game. If the Capitals are to avoid one hell of an upset, they’ll need him to find that emotional core that he’s used all season long.