At 33 years old, Alex Ovechkin is having the best season of his career. He leads the NHL in goals scored with 29 (six ahead of second-place Patrik Laine), and has 17 goals and six assists in his last 14 games, including a six-game goal streak. He also recently became the first player in 17 years to score consecutive hat tricks on multiple occasions.
Ovechkin has shown absolutely no signs of slowing down. His goal-scoring methods might not be what they were in his early 20s, but he’s been able to adapt to an incredibly fast league with the improvement of basic fundamentals. Take Saturday night’s regulation goal against the Buffalo Sabres. There’s not a lot of trickery involved; it’s just Ovechkin finding open space and absolutely blasting the puck to kingdom come.
On top of all of this, his goal-scoring production is leading to meaningful results for the team. The Washington Capitals sit at the top of the Metropolitan and are riding a five-game winning streak. In all 20 of their wins, Ovechkin’s mashed the puck into the net 25 times. His scoring is so infectious that everyone’s getting involved.
Although the Caps might’ve been hungover for a while after they won the Cup, it hasn’t hindered their followup season. In honoring their captain’s rallying cry, the team’s post-championship slump has been converted into a campaign where Ovechkin can focus on individual accolades that could put him well into the conversation as the greatest of all time.
That being said, Ovechkin appears to not notice just how great he’s been this season. He was critical of himself to reporters after last night’s 4-3 win over the Sabres. Apparently he forgot that he scored a goal in regulation, and the game-winner in the shootout.