It’s been a horrid start to the season for the Capitals, who sit at the bottom of the Metropolitan Division with a 1-2-0 record and just four goals scored. Only the Kraken have potted less while playing in as many games. A fair bit of this poor performance has been precipitated by the unusual early-season struggles of captain Alex Ovechkin – as multiple people have pointed out over the last 12 hours, Ovechkin has now failed to record a shot on goal in back-to-back contests for the first time in his 19-season, 1,350-game NHL career.
Ovechkin had four shots on goal in the team’s season-opening loss to the Penguins last week, and it took him until Wednesday night’s 6-1 defeat at the hands of the Senators to record a point – a primary assist on John Carlson’s goal. While head coach Spencer Carbery shuffled around some lines ahead of the Ottawa game, Ovechkin had spent the first two games of the season on a line with Nicklas Bäckström and T.J. Oshie – one that expectedly lacked speed in the year 2023 and struggled heavily to limit defensive opportunities. Ovechkin does, however, lead the team in Corsi share at even strength with 54.5%, and he’s likely been a tad unlucky over the past few contests. Still, the scoring will need to kick into high gear soon for Ovechkin to resume his quest of becoming the NHL’s all-time goals leader.
Other items of interest this Thursday morning:
- Senators head coach D.J. Smith does not believe defenseman Artem Zub will be out long-term after taking a puck to the jaw in last night’s win against the Capitals. Early in the third period, a shot close in from Ovechkin rocketed up Zub’s stick and hit him in the face, a concerning incident for a player who missed 12 games last season with a broken jaw. Zub has been outstanding in the early going, recording a goal and two assists in four contests and laying a team-high eight hits. The Sens are on a decisive three-game win streak, outscoring opponents by 11 goals in the process. Possession numbers suggest some team-wide regression may be incoming, but it’s a huge improvement over their poor starts to the past few campaigns, derailing hope and chemistry while trying to return to the playoff picture.
- The Flyers have activated forward Jon-Randall Avon off season-opening injured reserve and assigned him to the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms, per CapFriendly. The 20-year-old center prospect sustained a PCL sprain while preparing for rookie camps that was expected to sideline him for four to six weeks, and he’s returned at the early end of that timeline. A free-agent signing of the Flyers almost immediately after going undrafted in 2021, Avon has put up over a point per game during his past two campaigns with OHL Peterborough and he’s beginning to look like a diamond-in-the-rough type pickup for the Flyers organization. He’ll report to the Phantoms for his first pro hockey experience.
It’s a bad Capitals roster. Broken-down aging stars backed up by spare-parts and nobodies. Feel bad for Kuemper, his SV% will be lucky to get above .900 this season. Ovechkin will be one cranky boy.
They have looked completely lost so far basically continuing where they left off last season. They have no identity and a core that is no longer capable of being a core on a contending team. It’s unfortunate to see the wake up call have to come this way, but the bottom line is the team needs a complete rebuild. This includes MacLennan who needs to go as well. Player development needs an overhaul. MacLennan is next level delusional and it’s going to cost the team several more years of rebuilding once they’re forced to do it which may be coming soon.
Ovechkin can be grumpy all he wants, he didn’t want to rebuild as if he’s the GM. The GM is supposed to be able to make the tough decisions even when they’re not popular because it’s what’s best for the team and organization and he has failed. The Vrana trade was horrible. Mantha may have felt like playing for a dozen games total since he’s been here. I said before that Kuemper wouldn’t see a single playoff game during his time here.
Yes, I realize it’s only a few games into the season, but when you look at it in context with the patterns from the last couple years, this is just a continuation of the disintegration of this team and it will hurt Ovechkin’s goal chase as well as the organization long term. There’s certainly still time for Carberry to get something out of these guys, so I am still looking forward to every game… but so far it’s been more of the same. This team and organization is lost.
Looking forward to what Avon can do with Lehigh this season.