Prior to Wednesday evening’s plexiglass-smashing showing, Alexander Ovechkin had been the focus of increasing criticism and hand-wringing within some quarters of the Capitals’ fan base. And among some media mischief-makers. The Caps’ Mike Vogel most recently addressed this in his blog, and on the CapsReport Wednesday, he noted that one of the two major beat reporters for the team even approached him recently asking, “What’s wrong with Ovy?”
The answer — if it wasn’t abundantly clear in the Rocky Mountains Wednesday — is nothing.
For better or for worse (worse, in my judgment), we are the products of our soundbite, klieg light, hit-and-run-image/impression and instant-analysis-and-information-processing culture. Meaning: we’re quick to judge, slower to contextualize. ESPN informs us that Ovechkin, three games into the new season, is lagging behind his debut three games of a year ago in goals and hits, the soft-minded loudmouths there render adverse judgment, and the viewing lemmings in their living rooms nod their consent. Lazy beat reporters ever seeking the quick and superficial to file approach the coach and GM and ask, “What’s wrong with Ovy?”
(Perhaps I take to task too severely the fans and their angst in light of the caliber of press leading them to their conclusions.)
In our information compression chambers we approached the 2006-07 NHL season knowing that Ovechkin tallied 52 goals and 54 assists on a talent-starved Caps’ roster last season, and with that experience, the addition of North American off-ice training, and more offensive help this year, he’d necessarily be the fantasy league player’s all-time delight. But in point of fact, Ovechkin not only didn’t score points in every game he played last season, he competed in more than 30 of them without scoring a goal. Why? Because he was playing hockey, and not bowling.
Moreover, while the league’s arenas went dark over the summer the film rooms for the coaches didn’t. Defensive adjustments by coaching staffs with 24 or 48 hours to prepare their charges in mid-winter are, predictably, well educated guesses and patchwork. Less so with the leisure of summer. So in the autumn of 2006 it should surprise no one that Ovechkin’s opponents are better prepared to defend him. This, it seems to me, is no sullying sentence against Alexander the GR8. If Brian Sutherby shuts down Sidney Crosby on Tuesday and Scott Mellanby follows suit on Thursday, I won’t shout “Sidney stinks.” I’ll raise a pint to those selfless efforts, knowing that in the long-range scheme of things, Sir Sidney is going to win more than his fair share of such showdowns.
Ovechkin, it turns out, is the victim of his own breathtakingly early success. He didn’t just have a killer great All-Star first season, but truly — in light of the meager support surrounding him on last season’s roster — one of the finest debut seasons by a professional athlete ever.
More than that, though: in the league’s return from the lockout, it launched the high-drama, individual-showcasing shootouts to remedy its kiss-your-sister tie games. There, Ovechkin instantly seized the throne of Unstoppable Force, not merely succeeding on his first four shootout shots but razzle-dazzling with tongue awagging, scorching wicked wristers by helpless-looking netminders, a couple of them of the household name variety. It was theater tailor-made for the evening news. Even in Washington.
But shootouts — and I’m guilty of guilty-pleasure liking them — are sui generis satisfiers; what’s accomplished in them in no way is translatable to the games proper themselves. Hockey the team sport is divorced from its cohesion by them. These early highlight reel tallies, followed just weeks later by “The Goal,” created a hockey monster we in D.C. gleefully embraced. As we should have.
(I think it bears mentioning that Ovechkin’s early shootout sticks were almost certainly of the illegal curve variety. And subsequently banished.)
But when goalies and their coaches had footage of him to peruse, they, too, made adjustments. And Alex, as his shootout success faded, predictably and understandably suffered some loss of confidence. Which will eventually be replaced by success and confidence. It’s cyclical. Because it’s hockey.
How quickly we forget. Peter Bondra scored more than 400 goals in a Caps’ sweater — he was rightly identified as one of his generation’s premiere goal scorers — but during the prime of his career he regularly endured seven- and eight-game stretches of goal-less performances. Peter wasn’t a wretched hockey player during these games, just as Ilya Kovalchuk wasn’t in his first five games of goal-less play this season; hockey was just being hockey for them.
Isn’t the fundamental allure of sports — the very reason all rinks and stadiums are filled with partisans for both teams, both with the expectation that this will be their night — the time-honored uncertainty of outcome . . . including individual accomplishment? The greatness of great athletes, it seems to me, rests less with any preordained guarantee of point production and rather in their adaptability and durability of dominance across years.
Not weeks.
9 Comments
Cheers, good article.
AO is on pace for 51.25 goals. That doesn’t sound like a slump to me….
: )
It is indeed the uncertainty in the theatre of sport that keeps us coming back to watch. Total predictability is what leads to boredom in sport (or pretty much anything else). Which is why I couldn’t understand the excitement of Yankee fans (well, until it looks now like the mighty are stumbling - ha!) who got a playoff contender or even world series winner almost every year.
Anyway, I think the consternation over AO’s performance has been due in large part to the fatalistic outlook of many Caps fans, going back to perhaps even before Tony K’s choking dogs label (and so query whether we feel that pessimism because we kept reading MSM articles content to emphasize the team’s failures).
I recall my friends and I used to describe the phenomenon that seemed to befall players traded to the Caps - who fell into a slump immediately upon pulling over the starred and striped sweater -as Capitalitis. And so there’s this sense that we can’t possibly have a consistent star on our hands, a true megastar of the hockey world, not in Washington.
Just like many of us were all in shock when the enigmatic [and insert your choice of insulting adjectives here] Jagr came to wear the Caps colors, and thought “this is too good to be true” and then, behold, it was.
But good reality check about Bondra.
Caps’ fans as battered wife syndrome afflicted. . . an apt observation, pepper, and one I’ve thought about before. The MSM surely does us no favors in this regard.
I agree that questioning Ovechkin’s performance to date, and basing their criteria stictly on numbers, is missing a large part of the picture. Wondering about his health, however, is definitely valid, though I could see if people considered them related.
Ovechkin’s first step and overall acceleration haven’t been there, particularly early in the season, and that caused some of the concern, I’ll warrant. Luckily, Ovechkin looked to be his usual, blindingly-fast, self on Wednesday night, so hopefully we can put the whole thing to bed.
There is nothing wrong with Ovechkin. He shoots, he hits, he passes, and he scores. He is a true magician on the ice. He will keep proving it every game.
Ovechkin is just getting warmed up! It is a long season and he will be there in the end with the best of them.
At least he has the juice to play physical and work himself into a game if he is struggling.
The best thing about Ovechkin is that he genuinely loves the game…it’s obvious.
That alone will carry him further than any of his peers in the Sophomore class. IMO.
“Because he was playing hockey, and not bowling.”
Rarely is so much said with so few words!
I love it…
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