Could you apply similar criticisms to Bobby Hull's playoff career? Hull also only won a single Cup.
That's not the takeaway that I got from my viewings, but it's a great question. I found Hull less bound up in his carries for a couple of reasons, he was able to take the puck with more speed (in part because of his own timing, but also because of threat of Pilote), and he established the ice that he wanted which allowed him more freedom to attack the useful part of the ice more often.
So what do I mean by that, it's tough to illustrate in words and I don't have the luxury of going through and editing hours of tape, so I'll pick the first instance I could readily find...if it doesn't start there, we're 33:26 of this video...
Even in open space, there's this horsepower style to him, this play-with-your-hair-on-fire style that is alluring to some but is actually sometimes more clever by half...and this is really what slowed down the Caps in my opinion on those dynamic offensive teams is that they always met a defenseman with positional integrity that could get just enough of him (sometimes holding on for dear life, like when it was Rob Scuderi in '09 ECSF) to be enough...
So, you freeze it on the pass catch. He's got the dot line, and he's got space. One thing that really helped me become a better scout is seeing how players perform in the dots and how they get back into the dots if they're outside of them. I'm not going to give it away now (proprietary, not because I'm some weird conspiracy theorist haha), but I can name you quite a few NHL draft picks for this draft that are "highly skilled" that are going to fail because they cannot work in the middle. There's a huge difference between outside skill and inside skill. Now, of course, Ovechkin has both, he's a beast. But part of what made it easier to defend him is the situation that he put himself in in the NZ. The NZ is a great space. I call it the runway for offense. The more speed you can generate behind the puck in the NZ the more deadly of an attack you have.
So the two points I make there are about attacking the interior and also speed behind the puck. I'll cut the Caps some slack here because head-manning the puck was still alive here (it died in the 2013 ECF very graphically, every coach worth his salt changed his game if he had head-manning still in his playbook after Claude Julien ripped the guts out of the Pittsburgh Penguins on a big stage)...but watch at the pass acceptance. Freeze it. You have the pass catch, good catch on his backhand, he's got the dot line, he's got space...there's no speed behind the puck.
So what I'd want here, is I'd want to establish the dot line as mine. I teach defense these days, we talk about the dot line all the time. You could play on a soccer field, but that doesn't change the area where you can score from. The dot line for those that don't know is if you extend a straight line through each left side faceoff dot (DZ, NZ x2, OZ...same for the right, of course). As a defenseman, you want to establish that as yours and manage that line. As a forward, if you have it first (which Ovechkin does), you want to maintain it and not be pushed into what I call the "gutter" of the rink. The gutter is where things die.
So Ovechkin catch and carry. We're now at 33:29. The defenseman still has not established the dot line, but Ovechkin has conceded it. Now, it's ok to concede it if you are going to generate speed behind the puck. Meaning you really rev it up...and Ovechkin of all players in this era, can really make a defenseman fill his diaper real quick if he starts those yellow laces chuggin' towards you. So what happens when you extend that speed and that dot line established, you put a defenseman on his heels and he has to play with a looser gap. You have the puck and you have taken control of the defenseman now, you dictate the terms. So, where I'd be ok with the dot line concession is if you push that d-man back, get the gap, then pull up and generate speed behind the puck so that this play has support. Support on the zone entry with what I call "new speed" or support through layers in the offensive zone (lanes are vertical, layers are horizontal, each zone is 3x3 in terms of lanes and layers). Let's see what happens...
We're at 33:30 (18.4 on the 1st period clock)...Ovechkin is now well outside the dot. And the defenseman has regained control of the situation because he owns the dot line, Ovechkin offered no real speed differential, no gap to exploit, and as a result, there's really no one around to help him. He gains the line clean and with speed, so that's a plus. But now he has to work back to the inside, which means he has to change his skating rhythm and body direction to do that, which means he has to make almost a pure skill play to get back inside to the ice that was once his...let's see...
At 33:31 (17.5 on the 1st period clock), he actually does a pretty damn good job...as most players wouldn't get that respect. That's why he was good enough, even in these disadvantaged positions, to produce. But ultimately, here is the problem that plagued him and this team. I am right on the trigger pull of the shot. It is just inside the dot line by a hair, there is a defenseman with tight gap and good stick positioning right on top of him, we already know he didn't allow for help and there's still none as Joel Ward at the bottom there has developed Stockholm Syndrome it seems...and now we're talking about a wrist shot from well out on the best goalie of the era...and hell, even sometimes, that goes in...because he's just about the best goal scorer ever...and that's the appeal. But at the same time, this is an illustration of what I talk about and what I look for and how the Kuznetsov effect factors into this and all that...
And I know it's one clip, you don't have to believe me that this happened a lot for a decade, that's your choice. I don't know what other disclaimers you need because it's the internet here...uhhh...I'm not saying this is the only reason I don't have him in the top 15, I'm not saying this didn't also happen to Hull sometimes, or Richard, or Crosby, or Maxim Afinogenov, or anyone...I'm not saying the Capitals would have been better off without him or anything of the sort...the disclaimers are more exhausting than the game film stuff haha...
