Years earlier than it grew to become apparent that Alex Ovechkin was going to smash the NHL’s all-time objectives document, he had an unbroken five-season run main the league in power-play objectives.
The 101 pucks he pumped dwelling with the person benefit over that stretch, from 2012-13 to 2016-17, prompted opponents to considerably alter how they gameplanned round him. And the way the Washington Capitals famous person adjusted again presents a reasonably good window into why he now finds himself knocking at historical past’s door.
“His recreation, it actually modified inside that interval as a result of groups began on the penalty kill simply standing a man by him,” former Capitals coach Todd Reirden tells The Athletic. “The penalty kills have been simply saying, ‘OK, if we’re going to lose, we’re not dropping to him.’”
Besides Ovechkin didn’t stand idly by and permit that to occur.
As Reirden remembers it, Ovechkin seen the then-assistant coach placing his defenseman via a drill the place they have been one-timing pucks and inquired about becoming a member of in. Earlier than lengthy, they discovered themselves recurrently engaged on increasing the realm the place Ovechkin might get his deadly shot off within the offensive zone as a option to fight the man-to-man protection.
“He used to at all times be on the highest of the circle in that space the place his workplace was for the one-timer,” Reirden says. “So shifting him greater and decrease, and sort of increasing his wheelhouse, I believed he grew so much within the time we have been there. He tailored in order that he might nonetheless one-time pucks and ‘pure’ them (catch and launch them cleanly) or catch them at 100 miles an hour, however with the distinctive trajectory of his puck.”
What could be most instructive about that anecdote is how pushed Ovechkin was to search out new methods of breaking via and the way receptive he was to taking recommendations from a coach who didn’t have a taking part in resume remotely near his personal. Earlier than stepping behind the bench, Reirden was a well-traveled defenseman who appeared in 183 NHL video games and scored 11 objectives — 878 fewer than Ovechkin sits at at present.
“Nobody can shoot the puck like him or rating the objectives that he has, however if you happen to gave him some little tidbit that may assist him rating one other objective, then he’s all in,” Reirden says.
Alex Ovechkin and Todd Reirden in 2020. (Patrick Smith / Getty Photographs)
Barry Trotz was a former defenseman who didn’t advance past the WHL as a participant however noticed a equally malleable tendency in Ovechkin after being employed to teach the Capitals in 2014.
They sat down collectively for the primary time over a dinner in Las Vegas. Trotz arrived with 40 ice-breaking questions designed to get to know his star participant higher. That kicked off a four-year run the place Ovechkin added 185 objectives to his profession complete and culminated with an epic Stanley Cup elevate at T-Cell Enviornment in June 2018 — not removed from the place they first broke bread.
Alongside the best way, Trotz discovered Ovechkin to be the uncommon famous person who didn’t thoughts listening to criticism. He additionally noticed a change the place the captain took measurable strides in his preparation, focus and buy-in whereas feeling the elevated pressure of Washington struggling to recover from the hump.
“There have been occasions that we might butt heads slightly bit,” Trotz says. “However the factor that I used to be impressed with Ovi, he’s at all times had that zeal and love. Not just for the sport, however for all times.
“He might take exhausting teaching, and that’s very, very distinctive. Gamers of his magnitude generally go ‘pffft’ as a result of they’re not used to it, however he might take it. You might be actually refined with it and one-on-one, you can be within the movie room or you can be within the group.
“You might problem him and he’d go, ‘Yeah, you’re proper, and I’ll get it completed.”‘
That may-do perspective was evident proper from his early days within the league. Ovechkin scored twice in his first NHL recreation in October 2005 and rocketed to a 52-goal rookie marketing campaign — exceeding even the best of expectations reserved for a No. 1 draft choose.
“It’s actually exhausting to color the image, however for no matter motive, it wasn’t such as you have been coping with a junior hockey participant,” Glen Hanlon, his first Capitals coach, advised NHL.com not too long ago. “There was one thing about him that he was prepared for the second.”
Bruce Boudreau took over early in Ovechkin’s third NHL season and located him to be the “good famous person.” A participant who was seemingly oblivious to exterior criticism or commentary, and one who continued to point out a zest for all times even because the highlight grew.
By the point Trotz arrived in Washington — following stints by Dale Hunter and Adam Oates behind the bench — he found a participant effectively on his option to the coveted 500-goal milestone however one in contrast to he’d ever encountered earlier than.
“Coming from Russia, the place each Russian was slightly bit quiet, and but this man wasn’t,” Trotz says. “He was loud and noisy and distinctive, and your eyes have been on him. To today, your eyes are at all times on him. He’s obtained that ‘it.’ That ‘it’ is fairly particular.”
Throughout the lengthy expanse of time, there have been quite a few NHL gamers who’ve used their dimension to dominate a recreation or their shot to idiot goaltenders. However Trotz doesn’t assume there has ever been a single participant who mixed these attributes within the method Ovechkin has.
Once you couple that with a power of will that has seen him solely hardly ever sidelined by damage — “He’s a man that simply doesn’t cease,” stated former coach Peter Laviolette — whereas persevering with to search out unmatched pleasure within the goal-scoring success of teammates, not simply his personal, then you can begin to know why those that have watched Ovechkin closest imagine he’s put himself in place to surpass a Wayne Gretzky document that was as soon as universally thought unassailable.
“It’s an incredible life lesson for anyone: If you happen to take pleasure in what you’re doing, you’re at all times going to be higher at it,” Reirden says. “It hasn’t at all times been good for him, and he’s gone via occasions once we needed to work via slumps. We’ve completed various things to get via slumps throughout that six years (working collectively).
“He’s very, very coachable and needs to do something to get higher.”
It’s considerably telling that the Ovechkin objectives most appreciated by his coaches are ones that gained’t find yourself counting towards a record-setting complete. Trotz remembers one he scored towards Tampa Bay within the 2018 Jap Convention remaining most fondly. Reirden’s favourite objective is the “objective” Ovechkin set to change into the primary Russian captain to win a Stanley Cup earlier than doing it.
Alex Ovechkin fingers the Stanley Cup to Barry Trotz in 2018. (Isaac Brekken / Getty Photographs)
In hindsight, that championship might have freed him up for the torrid run that’s come since.
Trotz believes the burden of not having a championship was a large burden for Ovechkin. Since celebrating with the Stanley Cup in a D.C. fountain and blowing out the candles on his thirty third birthday cake, he’s scored one other 281 objectives and now sits six shy of breaking Gretzky’s document.
“After I met him, he was annoyed that he didn’t have a Cup, and I stated ‘You’re not going to be outlined by a Cup. Consider all the youngsters that needed to be Alexander Ovechkin, the entire those who pay to observe Alexander Ovechkin,’” Trotz says. “As a result of he’s totally different. You by no means noticed something like this earlier than.
“He’s previous a generational expertise. You won’t see one other one.”
(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Images: Geoff Burke / Imagn Photographs, John McCreary / NHLI, Patrick Smith / Getty Photographs)