Tarik's article: "Ovechkin has been limited to less than 19 minutes 12 times this season, less than 18 minutes on seven occasions"
"Yet he's 16th in ice time per game among forwards, behind players such as Carolina's Brind'Amour, Atlanta's Marian Hossa and Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson,"
All three are playing short-handed.
Something is fishy here. I’ve seen only one game, and it was last game they lost to Panthers, where it was clearly Ovie’s fault on one goal. The stats argument is pathetic. Hanlon doesn’t play Ovie short-handed. As an example Forsberg never played short-handed and he had similar time around 19 minutes per game. I once compared Fedorov’s huge ice-time to Forsberg and it turned out Forsberg had more ice-time counting 5 on 5 and power play. So the time (18-19 minutes) is quite normal for Ovechkin.
Something else is going, something is brewing there, in Caps locker room. The guy is carrying the whole team, Semin is good, but it is he who really sucks in d. Leonsis could’ve trade for a good d-men and or a good center, but he won’t.
Alex looks really tired, he sucked in all-star skills as well. On the other hand he looked very tired last year, but after he scored that big goal vs. Canada, he came back rejuvenated. I am not sure if it will happen this year, but Alex can do unthinkable. This guy is overachiever. I still believe he can finish ahead of Crosby on goals and points.
All three of those guys - Hossa, Brind'Amour and Alfredsson - are also at least a half-dozen or more years older than AO.
Right now, Hanlon is going primarily with four penalty-killing forwards - Gordon, Clark, Pettinger and Sutherby - all of whom are much better-suited for that role than AO, so I would hardly blame the coach for playing his best players in a given situation.
But here's the bottom line (Faux style):
1. AO wants to win. 2. To win, AO has to become a more complete player. 3. The coaching staff feels that discussing this publicly is the best way to motivate AO.
As for locker room concerns, I would never assume that something's amiss, especially when all you hear is how great the room is. Sure, there's gonna be frustration when the team's not winning, but I wouldn't read more into it. Hopefully the whole team comes back from this break recharged and ready to make a big push.
3 comments:
Russian hammer never break.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/23/AR2007012301458.html?nav=rss_sports
Tarik's article:
"Ovechkin has been limited to less than 19 minutes 12 times this season, less than 18 minutes on seven occasions"
"Yet he's 16th in ice time per game among forwards, behind players such as Carolina's Brind'Amour, Atlanta's Marian Hossa and Ottawa's Daniel Alfredsson,"
All three are playing short-handed.
Something is fishy here. I’ve seen only one game, and it was last game they lost to Panthers, where it was clearly Ovie’s fault on one goal. The stats argument is pathetic. Hanlon doesn’t play Ovie short-handed. As an example Forsberg never played short-handed and he had similar time around 19 minutes per game. I once compared Fedorov’s huge ice-time to Forsberg and it turned out Forsberg had more ice-time counting 5 on 5 and power play. So the time (18-19 minutes) is quite normal for Ovechkin.
Something else is going, something is brewing there, in Caps locker room. The guy is carrying the whole team, Semin is good, but it is he who really sucks in d. Leonsis could’ve trade for a good d-men and or a good center, but he won’t.
Alex looks really tired, he sucked in all-star skills as well. On the other hand he looked very tired last year, but after he scored that big goal vs. Canada, he came back rejuvenated. I am not sure if it will happen this year, but Alex can do unthinkable. This guy is overachiever. I still believe he can finish ahead of Crosby on goals and points.
Go Alex!
All three of those guys - Hossa, Brind'Amour and Alfredsson - are also at least a half-dozen or more years older than AO.
Right now, Hanlon is going primarily with four penalty-killing forwards - Gordon, Clark, Pettinger and Sutherby - all of whom are much better-suited for that role than AO, so I would hardly blame the coach for playing his best players in a given situation.
But here's the bottom line (Faux style):
1. AO wants to win.
2. To win, AO has to become a more complete player.
3. The coaching staff feels that discussing this publicly is the best way to motivate AO.
As for locker room concerns, I would never assume that something's amiss, especially when all you hear is how great the room is. Sure, there's gonna be frustration when the team's not winning, but I wouldn't read more into it. Hopefully the whole team comes back from this break recharged and ready to make a big push.
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