On Frozen Blog

Of Alexander Ovechkin’s Friday night performance, Bruce Boudreau on Saturday morning said, “He made the strongest case you can possibly make for MVP.” He also said that the 22-year-old ”hasn’t reached his potential” yet.

Imagine.

You may have heard that just last week none other than the Great One himself claimed that 90 goals could be in one of Ovechkin’s future seasons.

“Ovechkin has the release and hands that Bossy had. He’s got the quickness that Kurri had. And he’s got the toughness that Messier had. He’s the whole package,” Gretzky told Canadian media while his Coyotes were up North.  

“He just loves to score. The thing about scoring goals is some guys enjoy it more than others. That’s Ovechkin. It’s like he wants to keep the puck for every one of them.”

“I think he could score 90 in a season.”

But what may be more impressive than Ovechkin’s offensive prowess, which will shatter team and league records, and what may ultimately prove more important to the welfare of his hockey team, is his arrival in the second half of the 2007-08 season as a Messier-like leader. It’s the broadcast stuff of Ovechkin Ovations.

So much attention Friday was focused on his scoring a 60th goal, and yet the goal proved less the turning point in reversing Friday’s 3-1 deficit to Atlanta than Ovie telling his teammates on the bench, “Just get on my back and we’re going to go.” Moments after that sentiment was expressed the Caps unleashed a 23-2 shot barrage the rest of the way. 

Saturday morning Brooks Laich said of Friday’s triumph, “it could be a season-changer.” Would the season have been changed if AO was merely a super sniper?

Like many of our readers who left us comments Friday and Saturday about the endearingly jubilant, third-period Caps, the head coach Saturday morning was impressed by the camaraderie he saw in Atlanta.

“I talked to Mike Green and Brooks [Laich] after the game, and I said it was like a Hershey win. Everybody was for each other, everybody was jumping up and down, and that’s how we were when we were winning series [in Hershey] and winning the [Calder] Cup.

“It was a really close feeling as a team,” he added.     

Likely the team didn’t feel quite so close at the end of the second period Friday. Asked if he’d delivered a message of motivation of any sort during the intermission, with his team’s season hanging in its competitive balance by a worn skate lace, Boudreau yesterday said, “I said a word or two.”

Care to share that word, or two, coach?

“No,” he replied with a smile.   

The surging Caps are 7-3 in their last 10 games, and 9-4 since the deadline day deals that delivered Sergei Fedorov, Cristobal Huet, and Matt Cooke. They appreciate the three-day break they’re immersed in now, as they’ve bumps and bruises and travel fatigue aplenty, but they also can’t wait to get down to Raleigh for Tuesday night’s next “biggest game of the year.”

Saturday’s was an optional skate, and coming off three tough road games, and with Sunday being declared a day off, a good many Capitals could have enjoyed a pleasant two full days off. Instead, 19 dressed for the 11:00 a.m. session, including all three goalies. Alexander Ovechkin (nearly 26 minutes of ice time Friday) and Sergei Fedorov took the morning off, as did the injured Donald Brashear, Dave Steckel, and John Erskine. Chris Clark skated by himself prior to the practice session and then went in for treatment.

Out on the ice there were smiling skaters but also some hard drills and a general seriousness of purpose. Even with three days off before resuming the second of Boudreau’s “two road trips,” it was all business. Afterward in the dressing room, Matt Bradley and Brooks Laich and Shaone Morrisonn were quick to shift the focus of their comments away from the feats of 14 hours earlier and toward next Tuesday in Raleigh. The team has had the game “circled” on its calendar for quite some while. Their last visit to Carolina included four power play goals surrendered in a 6-3 wipeout — a loss that moreso than any other in 2008 may have motivated management to make the moves it made three days later.        

A small band of reporters Saturday asked Boudreau if he was satisfied with the points results from road trip no. 1. He was, and he intimated that, while the Caps certainly want to win all three road games ahead, a comparable performance in the week ahead would be dandy. Success this past week was assured in large part because the Caps won the opening toughie in Nashville. 

“Tuesday is huge in the standings, but it’s also huge for momentum” for the rest of the trip, Brooks Laich said, speaking in a unified voice for a surging hockey team.