HTFN
Registered User
- Feb 8, 2009
- 12,305
- 10,999
He can take them, but it's not the same.Ovie slapped a one timer that registered 96mph and he didn't seem to be in pain from it. That doesn't mean he's not nursing something, but he can physically take a hard shot.
Look, I'm no NHL pro by a f***ing long shot but I was in a charity game and bounced off somebody and did the thing you're not supposed to do: was falling in a seated position and put both my arms behind me, did something weird to my top hand's wrist.
It was never so limiting that I couldn't play, but virtually every shot that I took with effort hurt. Not quite enough to stop, just enough for it to be something you rub and generally experience on any strong wrister, and it lasted for a few months. Way more months than you want something like that to last, but it wasn't limiting so I kept playing because I loved it.
Ovechkin's not the dude to let that keep him out, never has been, but if there's anything lingering right now I really think we're seeing it manifest in all the shots he isn't taking that he normally would because a lot of his return passes to Carlson on the PP are unexpected and kind of keep screaming "I don't want to do that right now please", because we've seen him absolutely blast knuckle pucks before.
Put it this way: last year's Ovechkin would take a borderline okay pass and at least backpedal into a long wrist shot instead of the slapper to get around the challenging D. I don't honestly think I've seen that once.