sibiriak

 

I know the man in the crease was not his assignment, but on the replay you can clearly see down the ice what Ovechkin is actually doing.  He is not covering his man at the right point. 

 

If that play happens against say the Coyotes and that's Shane Doan in Ovie's spot,  Doan hussles back as he sees the play develop and knocks the Rangers player into next week as he's shooting the puck. 

 

I'm not expecting Ovechkin to save a goal.  I'd expect him to at least keep skating and be a part of the play, and try to help out his teammates when it's clear they're scrambling down low. 

You are probably right about Doan.

But I watched the clip and I watched that NYR-Was game. On that play, it looked for a second like Was had control of the puck in their zone. OV released up ice in anticipation of a pass, like he always does, and like 9 of 10 scoring forwards in the league would do. When the puck was turned over, he started back, but didn't hassle because his defensmen (his check) was even farther away than he was. When he saw how the play developed, it was too late to hassle back because he knew he was too far away to do any good. Doan would have, Datsyuk or Zetterberg would have, if only in case of a miss or a rebound. But not many other forwards would have. In this clip it looks bad, but if OV hassled the result would have been the same, it would just have looked cosmetically better.

Imagine a line with Ovechkin and Kovalev.  I don't know who the 3rd lazy ass would be, but I'd love to see a line with 3 forwards that hang out between center ice and the oppositions blue line.

OV and Kovalev played on the same line in Turin in 2006 vs Canada, IIRC the result was 2-0 Russia and they both scored.

He was that far behind the play because he didn't bother backchecking at all. He didn't even have to go full speed, had he at least participated in the play and been skating back towards his own end he would've been there in time to at least try to stop the shot on the wide open net.

I forgot he was the captain. Good lord. I used to be a fan of Ovechkin when he came into the league.

So much talent but so little heart.

He was covering his man at the right point. Covering the man in the crease was not his assignment. When the pass to the goalscorer was made, OV was too far away to do anything and he new it. He did not anticipate the need to come down and help out the D, but that play was a result of a turnover in their own zone, so he'd have to have the defensive hockey sense of a Datsyuk or a Guy Carbonneau to be able to anticipate that.

He ain't a threat to win the Selke any time soon, true, but on this play he was not lazy. Just looked that way because of how quickly the play happened.

Nice win

Great poise, especially from the less experienced guys, absolutely awesome work rate, stellar goaltending.

Chicago is still a favorite, but they will have to really work for it. I'm much more optimistic about facing the Hawks after tonight's game.

General rule of thumb for the "official" NHL players measurements:

height is 1.5'' less than listed,

weight is 15 lbs less than listed.

I think they are weighted and measured in skates and full gear on