Alex Ovechkin needs to be considered for the Hart Trophy
Alex Ovechkin has put the Washington Capitals on his back this season as usual, but just because we’ve seen it before doesn’t mean he doesn’t deserve to be recognized for it.
It’s time to give Alexander Ovechkin the appreciation he deserves, because he is once again dragging the Washington Capitals into the postseason whether they like it or not.
Monday night, Alex Ovechkin scored twice against the Winnipeg Jets in a 3-2 overtime win and became the 20th player in NHL history to score his 600th career goal, and just the fourth to do so in less than 1,000 games. Ovechkin solidified himself as one of the greatest goal scorers in league history, and there is no sign that he’s slowing down anytime in the near future.
Ovechkin’s case for the Hart Trophy has little to do with leading the league with 42 goals, but more so how his production has carried the Capitals to be a much better team than they really are.
Right now, Washington sits in first place in the Metropolitan division with 85 points in 69 games and is 5-5-0 in its last 10 games. The Pittsburgh Penguins sit just one point behind, and the Philadelphia Flyers trail by four.
But don’t let its place in the standings fool you; this team is being carried by the will of Alex Ovechkin.
At 32 years old, Ovechkin has scored 42 of Washington’s 206 goals this season, for 20.4 percent of the team’s goals.
The next most dominant player is Tyler Seguin with 18.8 percent of Dallas’s goals. When Ovechkin scores a goal, Washington is 24-5-2, and when he doesn’t they are 15-18-5. But this is hardly anything new; this is just another example of a year where Ovechkin has carried an underperforming Capitals team into the postseason, and the majority of the Capitals this season are seriously underperforming.
Every single Capitals forward at some point this season has gone some kind of a long goalless drought, all except Ovechkin. When one player breaks a slump, another player goes into one. A prime example is T.J. Oshie, whom the Capitals locked up for the next eight years this past offseason. Oshie has scored one goal since the beginning of 2018, and his last goal in five-on-five play came just a few days before Christmas. This is the same T.J. Oshie who was tied with Ovechkin for 33 goals last season and was expected to come somewhat close to that margin this season. Instead, he sits now with just 12 goals, a whole 30 behind Ovechkin.
Ovechkin has picked up the slack for more players than just Oshie. Andre Burakovsky was scheduled for a breakout season to replace the depth scoring lost in the offseason until an injury threw him off, and only recently has he finally begun to pick it back up. Nicklas Backstrom went 22 games without a goal early on in the season; Jakub Vrana just broke a 26-game goalless drought; Brett Connolly is still riding 14 game goalless drought — and that’s just scratching the surface. That’s just what Ovechkin has been able to pick up the slack for this offense. The Capitals defense is inconsistent and full of holes, most notably Brooks Orpik, and Ovechkin has managed to cover up those holes to the best of his ability by simply outscoring the opposition.
If any other player was carrying a team at this rate, like Taylor Hall for the Devils for example, he’d be a near-lock for Hart Trophy candidacy. Ovechkin is invaluable to the Capitals, and taking him away like some suggested they should’ve in the offseason could’ve put them out of the playoffs.
Removing Ovechkin from this team makes the Capitals an absolute trainwreck. Maybe they’re fighting to sneak into a playoff spot, maybe they’re selling off pieces like the New York Rangers, because taking Ovechkin away and replacing him with a league average winger makes the Capitals slightly better at goal scoring than the lowly Ottawa Senators.
However, Ovechkin is not the only one deserving of Hart consideration this year. The race is wide open. Nathan MacKinnon should at very least be a finalist regardless of whether or not Colorado makes the playoffs, and Hall only recently had a 26-game point streak snapped that kept New Jersey afloat during an overall team drop-off. Connor McDavid as well should not be forgotten no matter how bad Edmonton has been; he’s the only reason the Oilers have looked even remotely respectable this season.
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Whether you love Ovechkin or hate him, you cannot deny all that he has done for Washington this season and in his career. Whether he should win the Hart is purely subjective, but excluding him from the Hart conversation is criminal.