I still have to believe he is fighting an injury. Sure he is slowing down but your game just doesn't fall off a cliff.
* Teams really stepped up their focus on Ov on the PP. Much more one on one coverage and assigned PK players standing in his shooting lanes.
* Ovechkin is shooting the one timer less and catching and wrist shooting more often.
* He is passing in shooting situations as he did with Oshie last game. In the past he shoots that 100% of the time.
point one had to come at some time and results show that slowing Ov down is not slowing the pp down.
points two and three could be sign of an injury and could be the result of him trying to evolve his game.
He did the Oshie goal pass in the middle of an 11 shot on goal full court press to score a goal. 11 shots on goal including one timers seems to indicate now that it doesn't hurt him to shoot the puck anymore. Even with that he still passed up a great shot for a pass.
I am thinking that he is working on reworking his game. When opposing PK assigns him one on one coverage, he doesn't fight it and skates that player out of the play. When the pk stands a player in his shooting lane, he is no longer forcing the shot.
Isabelle points out that the first line ice time is ramping up. Trotz has his season long programs and Ov might be working a Trotz program. Less ice time. Less shooting. More passing. More defense.
Tonight might just be an Ov kind of game. Backstrom and Oshie should be stoked