“He stands still and does not move. Ovechkin burned out in the playoffs, the coach removed the Russian star

Ovechkin raised doubts at the beginning of the season. At one point it looked like he would be happy for double-digit goals. He, the gunner, who was used to 40 or 50-goal years even in his thirties.

But eventually he came to his senses.

In the last 36 games of the regular season, he collected 36 points, including 23 goals. In total, he ended up with 31 hits. It was an eleven-goal drop year-on-year, but the impending disaster did not happen.

Thanks to the respectable excitement of its captain, Washington slipped into the fight for the Stanley Cup at the last moment.

But he did not last long in them. He clearly lost the first round series against the favored Rangers 0:4 per games.

This time, Ovechkin was not the team’s driving force as in the exciting end of the regular season, but rather a burden. He went scoreless in four starts, his first ever in an NHL playoff series, took just five shots (none in games one and four) and finished with two minus points.

“He looks like he’s not in his skin, he’s struggling,” Washington coach Spencer Carbery said bluntly during the series.

Ovechkin was eventually “cleaned up” to the sidelines. The Russian winger played his fourth contest outside of the first two lines and spent just 11 minutes and 22 seconds on the ice in five-on-five play, which was good enough for him to rank ninth among forward-teammates. Something unusual for Ovechkin, especially in a key match.

But anyone who saw the grizzled striker against Rangers could hardly object.

“He’s a very smart player, but he stands and doesn’t move,” one of Ovechkin’s former coaches, Bruce Boudreau, told the website The Athletic. “It was similar at the beginning of the season when I had the urge to go to him in the dressing room and talk to him because he was really just waiting for the play to come to him instead of finding and creating it himself.”

The highlight was the moment in the second race when Ovechkin, showing no signs of movement,

https://twitter.com/HockeyDaily365/status/1782934654309326888?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1782934654309326888%7Ctwgr%5E021ea1e52cab92c05eba401c04a69d0935e8d041%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Ftheathletic.com%2F5442233%2F2024%2F04%2F25%2Fcapitals-alex-ovechkins-playoff-struggles%2F on his own power play, which resulted – as it turned out – in the decisive Rangers goal.

“Not only was Ovi slowed down, he had no idea what to do after the puck was lost,” Boudreau shook his head. “Instead of going back to the player who eventually scored (to K’Andre Miller – editor’s note), so he chased the guy who took the puck from him all the way to the goal. This is Ovi’s 19th year in the league. It doesn’t work that if you lose control of the puck, you go after it.”

Ovechkin himself did not make any excuses after being eliminated, he was said to be in good health. “The fault is mine. I didn’t play well and it’s no use that we end like this,” he declared.

He has two years left on his contract in Washington, but with the club dying, it is questionable whether he will ever play in the NHL playoffs again. And if it actually has anything to offer.