The History of the Washington Capitals(Est. 1973)
ALEXANDER OVECHKIN--ALEXANDER THE GREAT
ALEXANDER OVECHKIN CAPITALS STATS
GOALS: 558 (1ST)
POINTS: 1035 (1ST)
POWER PLAY GOALS: 212 (1ST)
GAME WINNING GOALS: 95 (1ST)
ASSISTS: 477 (2ND)
GAMES PLAYED: 924 (4TH)
PLUS/MINUS: 84 (5TH)
Alexander Mikhailovich "Alex" Ovechkin, the captain of the Washington Capitals, is quite simply the greatest player ever to wear a Capitals uniform.
Prior to entering the NHL, Ovechkin played for HC Dynamo Moscow of the Russian Superleague for four seasons, from 2001 until 2005, and returned to play for them briefly during the 2012–13 NHL lockout. A highly touted prospect, Ovechkin was selected by the Capitals first overall in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. With the 2004–05 NHL lockout cancelling the season, Ovechkin remained in Russia until 2005, joining the Capitals for the 2005–06 season. He won the Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year, scoring 52 goals and 54 assists to lead all rookies with 106 points and finishing third overall in league scoring.
Ovechkin has led the NHL in goal scoring, and won the Rocket Richard Trophy six times in his career. He first did so in 2007–08 season, when he recorded 65 goals and 112 points. He led the league in points, winning the Art Ross Trophy, and also won the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's most valuable player and Lester B. Pearson Award as the best player as voted on by the NHL Players' Association. Ovechkin would again win the Hart Trophy and Pearson Award in 2009, along with the Richard Trophy, and won the Ted Lindsay Award (the renamed Pearson Award) for a third consecutive year in 2010; it also marked the fifth straight year that he was named to the First All-Star Team. After a couple years of decreased scoring, Ovechkin again led the league in goals, earning the Richard Trophy, in 2013, again winning the Hart Trophy. He would repeat as the Richard Trophy winner from 2014 to 2016, scoring at least 50 goals each season, becoming the first player to win the award six times, and the third to lead the NHL in goals that many times, as well as the third player to score 50 goals in a season seven times. He marked 500 career NHL goals in the 2015–16 season and has also led the league in scoring for the past four years; as such, Ovechkin is considered by many to be one of the greatest goal scorers in the history of the NHL. On 27 January 2017, in a ceremony during the All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles, Ovechkin was part of the second group of players to be named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history.
Internationally Ovechkin has represented Russia in multiple tournaments. His first IIHF tournament was the 2002 World U18 Championship. The following year he made his debut at the World Junior Championship, helping Russia win the gold medal. He played two more years at the World Juniors, as well as once more at the World U18 Championships. Ovechkin's first senior tournament was the 2004 World Championship, and he also played in the World Cup that year. Ovechkin has also played for Russia at the Winter Olympics in 2006, 2010, and 2014. Overall Ovechkin has represented Russia at eleven World Championships and three Olympics in his career, winning the World Championship three times.
Ovechkin began playing in the Russian Super League (RSL) in Dynamo Moscow at the age of 16. Making his professional debut in the 2001–02 season, he scored four points in 21 games. He would spend three seasons there prior to being drafted by the NHL, and he would rack up 36 goals and 32 assists in 152 career games.
The following off-season, Ovechkin was selected first overall in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft by the Washington Capitals. He had been projected as the first overall pick for nearly two years and had earned comparisons to Mario Lemieux. He was so highly regarded that the Florida Panthers attempted to draft him in the 2003 NHL Entry Draft in the ninth round, even though his birthday was two days after the cut-off (15 September 1985). Rick Dudley, the general manager of the Panthers, claimed the pick was legitimate, claiming that Ovechkin was old enough with leap years taken into consideration.
Due to the 2004–05 NHL lockout, Ovechkin remained with Dynamo for one more season. He recorded 27 points in 34 games in 2004–05, while missing nearly two months of play because of a shoulder injury sustained in the gold medal game against Canada in the 2005 World Junior Championships. In the playoffs, he helped Dynamo win the RSL title.
With the threat of the lockout cancelling another NHL season, Ovechkin signed a contract with rival Russian team Avangard Omsk. In order to maintain his eligibility for the NHL in the event that the lockout ended, the contract contained an out clause with a 20 July 2005, deadline. Although a new NHL collective bargaining agreement (CBA) had not yet been reached between players and owners, Ovechkin decided to opt out and signed with the Capitals on 5 August 2005. The deal was a three-year, entry-level contract worth the rookie maximum of $984,200 per season with performance-based bonuses to inflate his annual salary to as much as $3.9 million.
Two days after signing, the lockout ended with a new CBA. Ovechkin played his first game with the Capitals on 5 October 2005, scoring two goals against goalie Pascal Leclaire in a 3–2 victory over the Columbus Blue Jackets. On 13 January 2006, in Anaheim, Ovechkin scored his first career hat trick against Jean-Sébastien Giguère of the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim to help
Washington win the game. Three days later, on 16 January, he scored a goal that veteran hockey reporter Bill Clement called "one of the greatest goals of all time." Knocked down by Phoenix Coyotes defenseman Paul Mara and sliding on his back facing away from the net, Ovechkin was able to hook the puck with one hand on his stick and slide it into the net past goalie Brian Boucher for his second goal of the night. It became referred to as "The Goal." On 1 February, Ovechkin was named NHL Rookie of the Month for January 2006 as well as being named Offensive Player of the Month, becoming only the third player in NHL history to earn both honors simultaneously.
Ovechkin finished the 2005–06 season leading all NHL rookies in goals, points, power-play goals and shots. He finished third overall in the NHL in scoring with 106 points and tied for third in goals with 52. His 425 shots led the league, set an NHL rookie record and was the fourth-highest total in NHL history. Ovechkin's point total was the second-best in Washington Capitals history and his goals total tied for third in franchise history. He was also named to the NHL First All-Star Team, the first rookie to receive the honor in 15 years. After the season ended, Ovechkin received the Calder Memorial Trophy, awarded to the NHL's best rookie.
He was also a finalist in his rookie season for the Lester B. Pearson Award. EA Sports made him one of the cover athletes for NHL 07.
The following season, Ovechkin appeared in his first NHL All-Star Game in Dallas on 24 January 2007. He completed his second NHL season with 46 goals and 92 points.
2007–08
Playing in the final season of his rookie contract, in 2007–08, Ovechkin signed a 13-year contract extension worth $124 million with the Capitals on 10 January 2008. The contract, which averages $9.5 million per year, was the richest in NHL history. Working without an agent, Ovechkin negotiated with Capitals owner Ted Leonsis and former general manager George McPhee.
Late in the season, on 3 March 2008, Ovechkin notched his 50th, 51st and 52nd goals of the campaign for his fourth career NHL hat trick and to hit the 50-goal mark for the second time in his career. Later that month, on 21 March 2008, Ovechkin scored his 59th and 60th goals of the season against the Atlanta Thrashers, becoming the first NHL player to score 60 goals in a season since Mario Lemieux and Jaromír Jágr in 1995–96[19] and 19th player overall.[20] Four days later, on 25 March, Ovechkin scored his 61st goal of the season to break the Washington Capitals' team record for goals in a single season previously held by Dennis Maruk. He also went on to break Luc Robitaille's record for most goals by a left winger in one season on 3 April 2008, by scoring two goals for his 64th and 65th of the season. He also became the first NHL player to score at least 40 even-strength goals in one season since Pavel Bure in 1999–2000.
Leading the league in scoring with 65 goals and 112 points, Ovechkin captured both the Art Ross Trophy and the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy in 2007–08. It was the first time in 41 seasons that a left-winger led the NHL in points since Bobby Hull led the league with 97 points in 1965–66.
Ovechkin helped lead a rejuvenated Capitals team back to the Stanley Cup playoffs with a stronger supporting cast that included countryman Alexander Semin, rookie center Nicklas Bäckström and defenseman Mike Green. He scored the game-winning goal in his NHL playoff debut with less than five minutes left in Game 1 against the Philadelphia Flyers. He scored nine points in seven games against the Flyers as the Capitals were eliminated in the opening round.
In the off-season, Ovechkin was awarded the Lester B. Pearson Award as the top player voted by the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) and the Hart Memorial Trophy as the league's MVP, becoming the first player in the history of the NHL to win all four major awards, including the Art Ross and Rocket Richard Trophies. Ovechkin was also awarded his third consecutive Kharlamov Trophy, named after Soviet hockey star Valeri Kharlamov and presented by Sovetsky Sport newspaper, as the best Russian NHL player as voted by other Russian NHL players.
2008–09
In late October of the 2008–09 season, Ovechkin returned home to Moscow to visit his ailing grandfather, missing only the second game of his career up to that point, snapping a consecutive streak of 203 games played. On 5 February 2009, Ovechkin scored his 200th goal, against the Los Angeles Kings, becoming only the fourth player in the NHL to reach the milestone in four seasons, joining Wayne Gretzky, Mike Bossy and Mario Lemieux. On 19 March, he scored his 50th goal of the season, becoming the first Washington Capitals player to reach the 50-goal mark three times.[28] He finished the campaign with 56 goals to capture his second consecutive Rocket Richard Trophy, joining Jarome Iginla and Pavel Bure as the third player to win the award twice and the second player after Bure (2000 and 2001) to win the award in back-to-back seasons. With 110 points, he finished as runner-up to countryman Evgeni Malkin for the Art Ross.
Ovechkin and the Capitals repeated as division champions en route to meeting the New York Rangers in the opening round. After advancing to the second round in seven games, Ovechkin notched his first NHL playoff hat trick on 4 May 2009, in Game 2 against the Pittsburgh Penguins to help Washington to a 4–3 win. The Capitals were eventually defeated by Pittsburgh, the eventual Stanley Cup champions, in seven games. Ovechkin finished the 2009 playoffs with a post-season career-high 21 points in 14 games. He went on to win the Hart and Pearson Trophies for the second consecutive year, becoming the seventeenth player to win the Hart multiple times.
2009–10
Just over a month into the 2009–10 season, Ovechkin suffered an upper-body injury during a game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on 1 November 2009, after a collision with opposing forward Raffi Torres. After returning, Ovechkin was suspended by the NHL on 1 December for two games (one for the action, and one for a second game misconduct penalty during the season) for a knee-on-knee hit to Carolina Hurricanes defenseman Tim Gleason during a game the previous day. Both Gleason and Ovechkin had to be helped off the ice, although Gleason later returned during the game, while Ovechkin did not. Ovechkin was assessed a five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct at the time. Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau commented that Ovechkin's style of play was at times "reckless." The suspension was Ovechkin's first of his career, causing him to forfeit $98,844.16 in salary.
On 5 January 2010, Ovechkin was named captain of the Washington Capitals after previous captain Chris Clark was traded to the Columbus Blue Jackets. He became the first European, second-youngest and 14th overall captain in team history.
On 5 February 2010, at a game against the New York Rangers, Ovechkin, with his second goal and third point of the game, reached the 500-point milestone of his NHL career. He is the fifth player to achieve the milestone in only five seasons, reaching it in 373 career games.
On 14 March 2010, at a game against the Chicago Blackhawks at the United Center, Ovechkin sent 'Hawks defenseman Brian Campbell into the boards after Campbell had dumped the puck to the blue line. Ovechkin was called for boarding, receiving a five-minute major and a game misconduct, and was suspended for two games (for a third game misconduct of the season, a two-game suspension is automatic). Campbell suffered a fractured clavicle and fractured rib, and was expected to be out seven-to-eight weeks. Ovechkin won the 2009–10 Ted Lindsay Award, becoming only the second player in NHL history to win the award in three consecutive years. He also led the NHL in goals per game & points per game for three straight seasons, from 2008 to 2010) Ovechkin currently ranks third in Capitals history in goals (only Peter Bondra and Mike Gartner have tallied more goals) and is seventh in total points.
In 2009–10 Ovechkin surpassed the mark of Montreal Canadiens Hall of Fame goaltender Bill Durnan (first four seasons from 1943–44 through 1946–47) and became the first player in NHL history voted a First Team All-Star in each of his first five seasons.
2010–16
In 2011, Ovechkin and the Capitals took part in the New Year's Day NHL Winter Classic, facing the Pittsburgh Penguins. Ovechkin did not score any points, but the Capitals won 3–1. On 8 March 2011, in a 5–0 victory over the Edmonton Oilers, Ovechkin recorded his 600th career point. On 5 April 2011, Ovechkin scored his 300th career goal, becoming the sixth-youngest and seventh-fastest player to do so. On 12 December 2011, Ovechkin registered his first NHL major fight against Brandon Dubinsky of the New York Rangers.
On 23 January 2012, Ovechkin received a three-game suspension for a hit on Zbyněk Michálek of the Pittsburgh Penguins. The following day, Ovechkin announced he would not attend the 2012 NHL All-Star Game due to the suspension.
Ovechkin's numbers dipped in the 2011 and 2012 seasons, but in the lockout-shortened 2013 season, he led the NHL in goal-scoring with 32, earning him his third Rocket Richard Trophy. He combined his 32 goals with 24 assists, giving him 56 points, good for third most points in the League. He was also awarded the Hart Memorial Trophy for the third time in his career. Ovechkin only scored two points in a first round exit of the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs against the New York Rangers, during which he played with a hairline fracture in his foot. After the 2013 season, Ovechkin made history by being named to both the 1st and 2nd NHL All-Star Teams due to a voting error; he was voted the 1st All-Star Team's right wing and the 2nd All-Star Team's left wing.
On 20 December 2013, in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes, Ovechkin scored his 400th career goal. He became the sixth fastest player to ever reach that mark, getting it in 634 games, one less than Pavel Bure.
At the conclusion of the 2013–14 season, Ovechkin had the strange distinction of winning the Rocket Richard Trophy, scoring 51 goals, while going −35, one of the League's worst, in the plus-minus stat. The Capitals, however, missed the playoffs for the first time since 2006–07.
On 4 November 2014, in a game against the Calgary Flames, Ovechkin recorded his 826th point, a franchise record, surpassing Peter Bondra, who previously held the record with 825 points. The Flames, however, won the game 4–3 in overtime. On 31 March 2015, in a game against the Carolina Hurricanes, Ovechkin scored his 50th goal of the year and became the sixth player in NHL history to have six 50-goal seasons, joining Guy Lafleur, Mike Bossy, Wayne Gretzky, Marcel Dionne and Mario Lemieux. On 2 April, Ovechkin scored his 51st and 52nd goals of the season in a 5–4 shootout win versus the Montreal Canadiens, surpassing Bondra as the franchise leader in goals scored. It was also his 15th multi-goal game of the season, none of which were hat-tricks
During the 2015–16 season, in the second period of a game vs the Toronto Maple Leafs, Ovechkin scored his 8th goal of the season to tie Sergei Fedorov's tally for the most goals among Russian born players, with 483. On 19 November 2015, Ovechkin scored his ninth goal of the season in a 3–2 loss to the Dallas Stars; that goal broke Fedorov's record. On 10 January 2016, Ovechkin scored his 500th and 501st goals in a 7–1 victory over the Ottawa Senators, becoming the 43rd player to reach the 500-goal plateau, and the fifth-fastest player to do so, as well as the first Russian. On 9 April 2016, Ovechkin scored his 50th goal of the season and became the third player in NHL history to have seven or more 50-goal seasons.
During the 2015–16 season, Ovechkin, for the first time in his career, did not lead the Washington Capitals in points, although he still led the team in goals with 50, and finished second on the team in points with 71, behind fellow countryman Evgeny Kuznetsov, who finished with 77.
In the second round of the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs the Washington Capitals lost the series to the Pittsburgh Penguins in game 6 after a 4–3 overtime defeat.
On 11 January 2017, Ovechkin scored his 1,000th career point. Ovechkin is the 37th player in NHL history to reach 1,000 points with only one team.
Off the ice
The day after he received his first Hart Memorial Trophy as league MVP, he was given the key to the city by Washington Mayor Adrian M. Fenty for being the first Washington MVP winner in a major sport since Joe Theismann of the Washington Redskins in 1983.
Ovechkin was reportedly involved in a feud with Pittsburgh Penguins forward Evgeni Malkin, who was drafted second behind Ovechkin in the 2004 NHL Entry Draft. Though the two were reported to be good friends when they roomed together during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, this friendship quickly cooled.] There is no definitive information on what caused the feud, but the most popular theory is that it began in August 2007, when Ovechkin supposedly punched Malkin's Russian agent, Gennady Ushakov, at a Moscow nightclub. Ovechkin has denied that version of events, while Malkin confirmed it, although he was not certain whether this was the precipitating event to the feud. The most notorious event took place on 21 January 2008, in Pittsburgh, when Ovechkin took a run at Malkin, which would have seemingly resulted in a devastating hit had Malkin not ducked out of the way just in time. The two would also not make eye contact at the 2008 NHL Awards Ceremony. Despite these incidents, Ovechkin has repeatedly denied "having it out" for Malkin.
Though the feud raised many concerns as to its effect on the league, and the Russian national team at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, it apparently dissipated as mysteriously as it started. On 24 January 2009, at the SuperSkills Competition, Malkin assisted Ovechkin in his stunt during the Breakaway Challenge. Malkin handed Ovechkin his props for the stunt as well as handing him his stick and pouring some sports drink down Ovechkin's throat. Though there is no final word on the nature and status of the feud, considering their past interactions, this incident appears to show that the feud has effectively ended. It has been reported that Ilya Kovalchuk, who was then the Atlanta Thrashers' captain and is also teammate of Ovechkin and Malkin on the Russian national team, brokered the peace between the two.
On 24 January 2009, Ovechkin won the Breakaway Competition at the SuperSkills Competition for the second consecutive year in Montreal after emerging in the final few seconds wearing a hat bestowed with a Canadian flag and white sunglasses. On 25 January 2009, Ovechkin scored one goal and notched two assists, as well as scoring the game-ending shootout goal in the 2009 NHL All-Star Game, as the Eastern Conference won 12–11.
Late in the 2008–09 season, Ovechkin garnered some criticism over his exuberant after-goal celebrations. In 28 February 2009, segment of Hockey Night in Canada's Coach's Corner, Canadian hockey analyst Don Cherry likened Ovechkin's celebrations of jumping into the boards and his teammates to that of soccer players, concluding that this was not the Canadian way and advising Canadian kids to ignore Ovechkin's example. Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau came to Ovechkin's defense, stating Cherry "doesn't know Alex like we know Alex", and Ovechkin himself stated that he "doesn't care" about Cherry. The next notable incident happened on 19 March 2009, in a game against the Tampa Bay Lightning. After scoring his 50th goal of the season, Ovechkin put his stick on the ice, pretending to warm his hands over it because it was "hot." The incident sparked an immediate response from Tampa Bay coach Rick Tocchet, who said that "[Ovechkin] went down a notch in my books." Boudreau had also stated that he would discuss the incident with Ovechkin, and teammate Mike Green, despite being the first to celebrate with Ovechkin afterwards, commented that he did not wish to join in the pre-meditated celebration. Ovechkin himself was unapologetic, and said about Don Cherry in particular, "He's going to be pissed off for sure...I love it!."
Ovechkin is the cover athlete of 2K Sports hockey simulation video game NHL 2K10, as well as the cover athlete of EA Sports' NHL 07. On 11 June 2008, Ovechkin launched his own line of designer streetwear with CCM. On 6 July 2009, Ovechkin was named an ambassador for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. In late 2009, he was named GQ's 48th most powerful person in Washington, D.C.
During the 2010–11 season, Ovechkin has been featured in one of ESPN's This is SportsCenter commercials, in which he laughed off a question by ESPN personality Steve Levy accusing him of being a Russian spy before being pulled upward by a line through an open ceiling tile by countryman and then-Capitals teammate Semyon Varlamov.
In August 2011, Ovechkin's agent made an announcement that he would no longer be endorsed by CCM and had made the move to Bauer Hockey. This was a major move in Ovechkin's career, as he had used CCM most of his career. As his point production went down in the 2010–11 season, he made the decision to switch to Bauer. His current equipment includes a Bauer Supreme 1S stick, Bauer Vapor APX2 Pro gloves, Bauer Re-Akt Helmet and Bauer Vapor 1X skates.
Ovechkin is a dedicated car enthusiast, owning many fine automobiles, such as a Mercedes-Benz SL65 AMG Black Series and a custom Mercedes S63 AMG. At the 2015 NHL All Star game, Ovechkin lobbied Honda for a new car, and brought an element of fun silliness to the "draft" where he was chosen third to last; the last two players selected, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and Filip Forsberg, each received a new car, but Ovechkin would not give up. When Honda representatives asked his agent why he wanted a car so badly, they were told that he planned to donate it to the American Special Hockey Association, and at the end of the event, he was handed the keys to a new Honda Accord. That Accord will be auctioned off, and the proceeds used to benefit the charity Ovechkin highlighted and brought attention to with his antics.
Ovechkin was formerly engaged to tennis player Maria Kirilenko. On 21 July 2014, Kirilenko announced that the wedding was called off and that two were no longer seeing each other. On 11 September 2015, Ovechkin announced via Instagram his engagement to Nastya Shubskaya whom he subsequently married.
From Russia With Love
ALEX OVECHKIN FOUND A NEW COMFORT ZONE OFF THE ICE (HE'S ENGAGED TO TENNIS STAR MARIA KIRILENKO) AND BROKE OUT OF ONE ON IT (HE MOVED FROM LEFT WING TO RIGHT). THE RESULT: HIS GAME IS REVITALIZED, AND THE CAPITALS SOARED INTO THE POSTSEASON
By Sarah Kwak, Sports Illustrated, 5/6/13
IT'S SPRINGTIME in Washington, D.C., where the streets are bustling once again with men in loosened ties and suit jackets draped over their forearms. Women have traded in earth tones for bright colors and begun to exercise their right to bare arms on the wide walkways of the capital, which are now crowded with outdoor cafés and lively conversation. With its white stone architecture gleaming under a cloudless sky and the cherry blossoms bursting forth, the city feels refreshed. Last week Congress even agreed on something, an accord to end the furloughs for air-traffic controllers. The Nationals are just 2½ games back in the NL East. Bryce Harper is batting .360. The Capitals are in the playoffs, against the long odds set by their dreadful start, a new coach and a short season. And their superstar, Alex Ovechkin, is in love.
It began in September of 2011, when Ovechkin was in New York City on a preseason press junket for the NHL's biggest stars. After his interviews and promo shoots were done, he was invited to go to the U.S. Open. Having never been to a tennis match, Ovechkin went to Flushing Meadow on a lark. "Destiny," he said last week through his signature gap-toothed smile at Washington's practice facility in Arlington, Va. "I believe in destiny."
Ovechkin wandered over to a practice court where Maria Kirilenko was warming up with her doubles partner, Nadia Petrova. They were fellow Russians, so Ovechkin struck up an easy conversation. He insists he wasn't nervous about approaching the blonde beauty, but Kirilenko thinks he was, a little. "When are you guys playing?" he finally asked.
And so Ovechkin sat in the grandstand at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center and watched the women's doubles semifinal. (Kirilenko and Petrova lost to Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova 6--7, 6--2, 3--6.) He and Kirilenko exchanged numbers, untroubled by the inconvenience of living thousands of miles and an ocean apart—he in D.C., she in Moscow.
"Our connection was over the phone, over Skype," Kirilenko said last Thursday in Russian through SI reporter Anastassia Smorodinskaya. "For a long time we didn't actually see each other, but even with the distance between us, it felt like we had known each other for a long time."
The long-distance love affair has helped the 27-year-old Capitals captain change his old ways. "I don't think [the relationship] changed my personality, but it's changed my lifestyle," he says. "No more crazy stuff like I did in the summers."
What kind of crazy stuff?
"You don't want to know," he says with a smile. It's the same grin captured in photographs taken during the 2010 offseason, when the two-time Hart Trophy winner was snapped at a bikini- and beer-fueled party on a yacht in Turkey. A year later the hockey world debated whether the paunch he sported in a July interview for the team website was a video illusion or a beer gut. But this past summer, the pictures were different. The most embarrassing shots of Ovechkin were the PG-rated selfies he and Kirilenko posted to Twitter from the London Olympics, where she, with Petrova, won a bronze medal in women's doubles.
"I don't want to do [the crazy stuff] because I know she's going to be not happy about it," Ovechkin says. "Now I know if I'm going to do something stupid, she's going to find out, and it's going to be over. And I don't want that."
Ovechkin proposed to Kirilenko on New Year's Eve while he was playing for Dynamo Moscow in the KHL. They have yet to set a date for the wedding, but since the NHL began its lockout-shortened, 48-game season in January, Kirilenko has spent much of her time between tournaments cheering on her beau in Washington. "I feel he's always looking at me, at where I'm sitting," she says. "So we're connected like that, and I'm certain that it helps him."
After putting up relatively modest numbers in each of the last two seasons—in Ovechkin's case, 32 and 38 qualify as modest goal totals—the Great Eight exploded in the second half of this season, scoring 23 goals in his last 23 games and earning his third Rocket Richard Trophy with an NHL-best 32 goals.
His resurgence ignited the Capitals, who won the Southeast Division despite being in last place in the East as recently as March 2. Ovechkin's revival has, of course, been fostered by his trusting relationship with first-year coach Adam Oates, who took over after Dale Hunter stepped down last summer and who stunned the league (and Ovechkin) by moving his star from the left wing to the right in training camp. But some within the organization also point to the positive influence Kirilenko has had.
"Your priorities kind of line up a lot easier [after you've settled down]," center Matt Hendricks says. "You don't find yourself saying, All right, what am I going to do today? Where am I going to go tonight? You get into a routine, and I think [Ovechkin] has that. I think he's happy and he's playing well and all these things have been coming together for him."
GENERAL MANAGER George McPhee is sitting in a large conference room in the Capitals' offices atop the Ballston Common Mall in Arlington. Leaning back in a chair with his arms crossed, he slow-blinks as he shakes his head. A shrewd hockey mind, McPhee sees cause and effect play out within the confines of a rink. "I mean, you never know," he says when asked if Ovechkin's improved play has anything to do with love. "But the real [cause of his] transformation has been the coach and the change of position."
When Oates interviewed for the Washington job, the Hall of Fame center—his 1,079 assists rank sixth alltime—had a plan: He wanted to shift Ovechkin from his usual spot at left wing to the right. "Adam was convinced he could make [Ovechkin] a better player," McPhee says. "And he had the evidence to back it up. He had done it with a couple of other players."
As an assistant with the Lightning in 2009, Oates helped left wing Martin St. Louis move to the right side, and St. Louis has thrived, finishing second in points in '10--11 and scoring a league-best 60 this season at age 37. Last year, as an assistant with the Devils, Oates also engineered leftwinger Ilya Kovalchuk's move to the right, which spurred the Russian sniper to score 37 goals and helped New Jersey reach the Stanley Cup finals.
As Oates explains it, the move was about increasing the righthanded Ovechkin's touches. "I wanted my best player to have the puck more," Oates says. "And I felt playing on his off side, there's only so many times he can get the puck. I thought on the other side, I could double the opportunities he could get touching the puck."
From the right Ovechkin can take passes on his forehand and handle pucks along the boards more easily. Playing on the left, he often had to corkscrew his body to the right in order to receive a pass or to shoot. Coming out of the Capitals' zone, his body is in better position to make the rush up the ice.
Ovechkin understood hockey almost exclusively through the lens of a leftwinger; a move from left to right wouldn't be simple or smooth. With just six days of training camp to acclimate, he was wary of the change. "I was not really [thinking] it was going to work," Ovechkin says. "I was not that happy about it because I played my entire life on the left side."
Three games into the season Ovechkin had no goals and just one assist and looked uncomfortable. He asked Oates to move him back to the left. The coach did so without question, but he continued to show his star game tape while explaining how a move to the right could work. About a week later, Ovechkin asked if he could make the move in baby steps, alternating a shift on the left and then a shift on the right, like a swimmer easing into cold, unfamiliar waters. "You're talking someone who has had unlimited success over there [into moving to the other side]," Oates says. "It was going to have to be his idea. I presented it to him, but it was still going to be [him saying] yes or no."
Handedness wasn't the only reason the move made sense; the biggest impetus for change was Ovechkin's predictability on the ice. When he broke into the NHL in 2005, he was able to carry the puck from blue line to blue line down the left side, then cut to the middle and shoot for the corners of the net. But the league's defensemen picked up on the pattern and began to take away his time and space in the neutral zone while blocking his favorite skating lanes to create turnovers. Says McPhee, "The league had figured [him] out."
Oates wanted to diversify Ovechkin's game by giving him different looks at the net. He still scores the majority of his goals from the left side: 16 of his 32 this season came on the power play, when he hovers around the left circle looking for one-timers. But he has scored in more ways than he used to—tips, deflections, even sweeping backhanders. Down 1--0 midway through the third period against the Senators last Thursday, Ovechkin picked up the puck near the right half-wall after Ottawa blueliner Chris Phillips whiffed on a chance to clear his zone. With a step on the defenseman, Ovechkin drove to the net, and the air in the Verizon Center filled with anticipation. "When he has the puck on his stick, everybody on the bench starts to stand up again," Hendricks says. "His confidence, his swagger is back."
Ovechkin muscled through and backhanded the puck into the net, sending the crowd into frenzied chants of "MVP!" In the old days, he might have pulled up at the face-off circle, but this time he had powered his way through the slot to the front of the crease. "The way he can score makes him so dangerous," Ottawa coach Paul MacLean says. "They do a nice job of hiding him and sliding him and moving him around. It's a very complex thing to get organized against."
IT IS easy to see the goals and declare the old Ovechkin is back, but to those who know his game best he's a new man. "This guy is better than he's ever been," McPhee says. "Better than when he scored 65 [in 2007--08]. Better than he was in his Calder season. Because he is a more complete player."
Ovechkin isn't exactly a candidate for the Selke trophy as the league's best defensive forward, but McPhee sees a better all-around player who learned to commit at both ends of the ice under Hunter, who became coach last season when Bruce Boudreau was fired in November 2011. Under Boudreau's freewheeling system, Ovechkin was barely asked to enter the defensive zone. Hunter installed a system that emphasized goal prevention over goal scoring, and insisted that even his biggest offensive star play with the defensive grit of a third-liner. Ovechkin admits now that absorbing those lessons was hard. Hunter slashed his minutes because he felt Ovechkin was a defensive liability, and the two men never seemed to develop a deep trust in each other (against the Rangers in Game 2 of the second playoff round last year, Ovechkin played just 13:36). "He wants to be that marquee guy that's playing in important situations," Hendricks says. "Now, he is."
In Oates the Capitals have an effective communicator, a hockey scholar and an on-ice legend, someone who can relate to Ovechkin's life under the microscope. "Adam's sort of the perfect guy to pull it all together," McPhee says.
For three years as a center for the Blues, Oates rode shotgun with one of the greatest scorers of his generation, Brett Hull. And now, Oates is setting up this generation's best.
Is it destiny? Alex Ovechkin certainly believes in that.
