Russia's Alexander Ovechkin (8) decks Slovakia's Lubos Bartecko in the first period of Russia's shootout loss.
I've made it clear in many, many blog posts how big of an Alex Ovechkin fan I am. (Like every other Capitals fan, I wear the red No. 8 to Verizon Center.)
But when the game is on the line in a shootout, he is not the player I'm turning to.
Ovie made one of them.
"It's hard to do something when the ice was so bad," Ovechkin said. "It was the third game of the day and the puck was jumping." But let's face. He's just not a shootout player.
He's one for six in shootouts in the NHL this year.
He's a power forward. He delivers hits (like the one above), he skates fast and hard, he drives to the net and shoots hard. He's not the best stickhandler in the world (probably the fourth or fifth best on the Capitals), but he wills his way to the net and scores. And that quick release on his shot is killer.
Russian coach Vyacheslav Bykov should have gone with more Pavel Datsyuk, Victor Kozlov, Ilya Kovalchuk or even Alex Semin.
"It was our decision [to give him three attempts]," he said. "It was based on the fact that Ovechkin was one of the few players who battled hard."
Maybe so. But you've gotta win the game.
Give me 2 minutes left in the game and I want Ovechkin on the ice. Give me an offensive-zone faceoff, and I want Ovechkin on the point ready for the game-winning slapshot.
Give me a shootout, and I'll pass on Alex.
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