Against the backdrop of a bad start and injuries in the team: how Ovechkin breaks records, despite the problems of "Washington"

For Alexander Ovechkin, the beginning of this season turned out to be ambiguous.

The captain of "Washington" harnessed for a long time and moved from the mark of 780 goals only in the fourth match of the regular season.

However, then he came to his senses and began to churn out goals in almost every meeting, thanks to which he is one step away from the top 5 best snipers of the tournament.

The Russian even surpassed the owner of the Maurice Richard Trophy for the last two years, Auston Matthews.

Star American spent the same number of games, but has only six accurate shots.

And this is in an all-star-filled Toronto, which, in terms of offensive performance, is noticeably superior to the Capitals, who are in distress due to numerous injuries.

Perhaps it is with the absence of a number of key performers that Ovechkin could not be connected with the most successful start of the championship.

After all, the Russian was left without both of his partners.

Niklas Beckström continues to recover from left hip surgery, Tom Wilson from left knee surgery, and Capitals coach Peter Laviolette is shuffling the links in an attempt to mitigate the damage from losing them.

As a result, in a month Alexander managed to play with three centers and in six different combinations.

He was assisted by Evgeny Kuznetsov and Connor Brown in the opening game of the season against Boston, but the trio didn't last long.

After a couple of meetings, the Russian was replaced by Dylan Strome, the injured Canadian was replaced by Conor Sheary, but the results did not suit the coaching staff.

Subsequently, Lars Eller and Anthony Mantou were tried with him, but the experiments also turned out to be short-term.

As a result, Laviolette opted for the trio of Kuznetsov - Ovechkin - Shiri, who went on the ice in the last four matches.

And although victory was achieved only in one of them, Alexander seems to be quite comfortable in such an environment.

During this period, he distinguished himself three times and gave two assists.

And two points fell on the confrontation with Edmonton.

First, the striker helped the Capitals to realize the majority with an unusual wrist throw, and then gave a phenomenal pass to his compatriot, thanks to which he was awarded the title of the first star of the day in the NHL.

True, even this spurt did not allow him to radically improve the situation.

In terms of scoring, the current start of the regular season was the worst for Ovechkin in the last six seasons.

This time he scored eight goals and five assists in 14 meetings, although he has never dropped below 15 points since 2017.

A year ago, he did demonstrate a phenomenal rate of fire, and by this time he already had 24 (12 + 12) points for performance on his track record.

In addition, Ovechkin is one of the last places in the league in terms of utility.

While he was on the ice, Washington conceded 11 goals more than they scored.

Worse in this regard, the situation is only with three St. Louis hockey players - Tory Krug, Ryan O'Reilly (both -12 each) and Jordan Kayru ("-17").

Yes, in the presence of Alexander, the team often conceded a little more, but not that much.

If we take into account the same five-year period, then things were the worst in the 2020/21 season (“-5”), while usually this figure fluctuated around “-3”.

Last year's tournament stands apart, when his bright attacking game was combined with confident defensive actions (“+12”).

But this cannot be blamed solely on Ovechkin.

He never concentrated on defense and rather did not interfere with teammates than help, while the same Beckström and Wilson did the dirty work.

It is obvious that Kuznetsov, Shiri and Strome are not able to do this at the same level, which is why the sniper's weaknesses become visible to the naked eye.

But you need to understand that Alexander was always famous for something else, namely the ability to hit the opponent’s goal at the right time.

And with this he still has no particular problems.

If we discard the first eight meetings of the championship, which obviously took a while to get used to new partners and get in shape, then Ovechkin's productivity cannot but impress.

He is still deadly on the powerplay, as evidenced by five goals and three assists.

In terms of the number of accurate shots in unequal lineups, he is second only to the elite strikers - Connor McDavid (seven), Leon Draisaitl and Mika Zibanejad (both six each), and shares the seventh line on points.

And that only goes to show that his fantastic shot from the faceoff circle is still kryptonite for most goaltenders in the league, helping him move towards being the greatest scorer in NHL history.

In the course of the championship, Ovechkin has already managed to register a number of achievements: he became the record holder in goals for one club (788), came in second in the number of winning goals (122), and also climbed into the top 20 in career points (1423), surpassing the results Doug Gilmour and Adam Oates.

And if he continues to upset goalkeepers with the same regularity, then before the end of the year he can catch up with Gordie Howe in the list of snipers.

Now Alexander scores an average of 0.57 goals per match and, if he doesn’t stall, then by January 1 he will score 13 more times.

That's how much he needs to catch up with the Detroit legend.

By this time, his long-term partners in the link may already be back in operation.

According to CBS Sports, Wilson will return to the ice in December, and Beckström in January.

Other players should also recover, including forwards T.J. Oshie, Carl Hagelin and star guard John Carlson.

In this case, only Connor Brown, who is out for the entire season, will remain in the infirmary.

And while this is unlikely to allow Washington to claim the President's Cup or a high place in the Eastern Conference, the chances of making the playoffs can be quite high.

In the meantime, assessing the prospects of the team is quite difficult.

Washington is one of the leaders in the NHL in terms of the number of injured, and in the Eastern Conference table it occupies an unusual 12th place for itself, inferior in additional indicators to Buffalo, which is not the strongest team in the championship.

Of the last four meetings, the club has won only one.

However, if Ovechkin manages not only to regularly score and assist colleagues, but also bring the most important points to the Capitals, he can not only compete for the tenth Maurice Richard Trophy, but also for the prize of the most valuable player of the regular season.

During his career, he received the Hart Trophy three times, and the last time this happened in 2013.