Alex Ovechkin’s pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s goal record resumes Friday when the Washington Capitals host the Pittsburgh Penguins in their season opener.
As he enters his 19th year in the NHL, Ovechkin is 72 goals behind Gretzky. If Ovechkin plays a full season and scores at his career rate of 0.61 goals per game, he will cut the deficit by 50 and set himself up to break the record in 2024-25.
For that to happen, the Capitals will have to revitalize their power play, which has lost its luster over the past few years. Ovechkin scored 14 power-play goals in 73 games in 2022-23, his fewest in a non-shortened season since 2011-12, when he had 13 in 78 games.
New Capitals coach Spencer Carbery, who oversaw the Toronto Maple Leafs’ highly successful power play from 2021-23 (26.6 per cent over that span), and veteran assistant coach Kirk Muller have emphasized the importance of freshening up the scheme.
“It’s something that we’ve talked at length about,” Carbery told reporters during training camp. “Penalty kills now are so dialed in with their pre-scouts. … Teams have heavily pre-scouted (Ovechkin), and they’ve figured out ways to neutralize that or take certain things away. It’s important that we’re trying to find ways to stay ahead of penalty kills, keep them off balance, give them different looks.”
Ovechkin is going to get his looks from the left circle no matter what; he fired 110 one-timers on the power play last season, fourth most in the league behind Steven Stamkos (126), Mika Zibanejad (123) and David Pastrnak (115). Some variety would certainly help, though. Ovechkin accounted for 207 of the Capitals’ 677 power-play shot attempts last season (30.6 per cent) — the highest percentage of any player in the league.
It should be noted that the Capitals’ No. 1 unit was unavailable for basically all of last season because of injuries to Nicklas Backstrom (43 games missed), John Carlson (42 games missed) and T.J. Oshie (24 games missed). The combination of those three players, Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov appeared in only four games together and none before March 23. All are healthy entering this season.
The Capitals ranked 20th last season in shot attempts per two minutes on the power play and 26th in the percentage of shot attempts that came from the slot. Carbery and Muller’s plan is to incorporate more movement onto the power play, which they hope will lead to an increase in scoring opportunities and pull defenders away from Ovechkin’s office.
For example, Oshie, who has been stationed in the slot, will be more active around the goal mouth. Backstrom, who orchestrates the power play from the half wall, will have more freedom to roam around the offensive zone as well. The goal is to be more proactive about generating scoring chances as opposed to waiting for them to develop.
“It may look a little more fluid and a little less stationary,” Oshie told the Capitals’ website. “Before, we could let our passing do the work, and that was enough to open it up. Now, we might need to move a little bit more. … We’re going to make more reads and maybe play a little more hockey.”
Ovechkin is at the doorstep of history, and a less predictable Capitals power play could help him chase down Gretzky faster.
All stats via Sportlogiq
