Can the Caps maximize Ovi’s production?

Max Bultman (0:24)

Hey, everybody, welcome to another live episode of The Athletic Hockey Show. I'm Max Bultman, here in Detroit, with Sean Gentille in Pittsburgh, and Shayna Goldman in New York. We got a busy show coming. Harman Dayal is going to stop by later to discuss seven players who could make or break their team's season, a great piece he did that you can read on The Athletic today.

But Sean, I want to start with you and with Washington, because you have spent this week in the nation's capital, what became a very busy week in the nation's capital. Alexander Ovechkin announcing that this is his last season. I don't think we're surprised that it's his last season. I am a little surprised he announced it and announced it this early. What was the reaction to that in DC?

Sean Gentille (1:04)

Yeah, you guys almost got Sean Gentille live from the Pennsylvania Turnpike, or from a rental car office.

Harman Dayal (1:11)

Yeah, just back from DC, like minutes before we hit record on the show.

Sean Gentille (1:14)

It was a narrow escape.

Here's what I'll say, and I think we touch on this, just like Mackendoo and Frankie and I. I was in DC for reasons unrelated. I was pretty psyched to go right about, or do some reporting on Pierre-Luc Dubois and Ilya Protas and other things going around that team, other than Alex Ovechkin. But the tweet of the news dropped literally while Barry Zverluga, our colleague and I, were hanging out and watching practice. Spencer Carbery was working the whiteboard with Alex Ovechkin and the rest of the players surrounding him. And I was like, huh, all right. They just announced that he's done after the season. So it was wild timing. I don't think from the conversations I had with Chris Patrick and some other people around that team, of course it wasn't unexpected. I think there was plenty of reasons to assume that this was going to be it for him. I think the amount of time it took him to decide to come back for this season in the first place was a pretty good indicator.

In the timing of it, yeah, he felt it necessary to inform the team beforehand, right? And his teammates and whatever else. So it sets up this scenario now where we get the full season goodbye. We get the entire, you know, 82 games that are left on the schedule after this announcement to, you know, fet him and criticize him and do as we played with them. So yeah, the timing was interesting and it was certainly unexpected for it to come down specifically on that day.

Max Bultman (3:06)

It sets up this great moment where his sons kind of get to introduce him for the last time at home. And that's all well and good. He plays 14 minutes, less than 9 at 5 on 5 in that game, Sean. Second fewest 5 on 5 minutes on the team. I think Dylan McElrath had more 5 on 5 ice time than Alex Ovechkin last night.

Sean Gentille (3:22)

There were three legit shocking moments in terms of his ice time, and in terms of his deployment. And I mean, actually, the two of you guys should vote on which of these three was the craziest.

We had him drop, like it was a drop pass in the low slot, basically, that from him to nobody. I don't know how many times he's passed up a shot there over the course of his career. It's certainly, it's certainly, it's between one and 15, let's say. And he was not out there for the back half of a five on three.

And then he was also not out there with an empty net, with two, with, I don't know, in a two goal lead for like three minutes, he was stapled to the bench. So I think that's indicative of a couple things. But the most important one and the most relevant one, as it relates to the Capitals, is how Spencer Carbery is going to use him moving forward. Like what we saw last year was still full on trying to maximize whatever's left of Alex Ovechkin. He didn't get a defensive zone start until the 72nd game of the season or whatever it was, on and on and on.

He's gonna play less, he's gonna see less power play time. That is an absolute necessity based on the state of his game at this point. And the Capitals are going to be a better team for it. And I think it's clear that there was some kind of organizational decision that was made over the last little bit that we're not playing around anymore. This is a team that's capable of winning one, two, three rounds of playoff games come spring. And we're gonna figure out what we have in the Alex Tucks and the Pierre Louie, like that combination, the Dubois-Wilson tuck line. They need to figure out what they have in those guys. They need to figure out how Jordan Kairou meshes with the Protas. They need to figure out what their power play looks like without Alex Ovechkin just stationary in the left circle. And I think it was a good reminder last night on national television in the United States of what that could look like.