ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Alex Ovechkin isn’t exactly being taken for granted. Overlooked a little, maybe, thanks to his continuing to make the extraordinary seem routine. Still, Saturday night’s Stadium Series game at the Naval Academy served as a timely reminder to not take him for granted.
That goes no matter how much material he provided in the Capitals’ 5-2 rout of the Maple Leafs. He needed one goal for 40 on the season, which would be his ninth, the fourth-most ever, and which would make him the first player to get there for the seventh time in his 13-year career (12 full, non-lockout seasons). He got it six minutes into the game, 59 seconds after the Leafs had tied things a 1, putting the Caps up for good.
Phenomenal. Also expectation-raising, because he went into the game needing three goals to join just 19 others with 600 in their careers … and the buzz going into the marquee game, beamed in prime-time on national TV in both nations, was that locking that down on the big outdoor stage was completely reasonable to believe.
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It was reasonable to the Caps’ T.J. Oshie, who before the game admitted — sort of — that Ovechkin’s brilliance comes off as almost commonplace even to him. (See below starting at the 1:35 mark.)
A couple of minutes of the #Caps @TJOshie77 on the pageantry of tonight, playing in front of family, the budding #Leafs rivalry and @ovi8 approaching a milestone #StadiumSeries pic.twitter.com/iT0Fww3Wge
— David Steele (@David_C_Steele) March 3, 2018
“When I first got here I would be surprised by some of the things he’s able to do, some of the goals he’s able to score,’’ he said. “That surprise factor isn’t there for me anyone after being here a couple of years. He’s able to do stuff that pretty much no one else, really, is able to do as far as scoring goals.
“So would it be surprising for him to be able to get, what, three, he’s three away? No, no, it wouldn’t.’’
Speaking of surprises, it wouldn’t be a surprise if Ovechkin won his fourth Hart Trophy, but it wouldn’t be a surprise if he didn’t, either. Again, there are teams and players who have moved into the spotlight, while he’s having another very good year for another very good Caps team whose regular-season and postseason reputation precedes it.
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That may have contributed to Ovechkin’s low-key reaction after the game — not during, of course, as he whipped out his signature fist-pump when he scored — to another 40-goal season and to taking another step toward 600. He was so nonchalant about it that he forgot to turn his phone off, chuckling as he did so in the middle of his postgame interview.
That's now 40 goals for @ovi8... for the ninth time. #StadiumSeries pic.twitter.com/3uLFZJiGyR
— NHL (@NHL) March 4, 2018
“I would say that my linemates, my teammates, did a great job of finding me over there,’’ he said of his goal. “I just have to do my part to put the puck in to keep working ... (pause to silence his phone) ... I just have to put the puck in and do my job.’’
As for his milestone score, he said, “Forty is nice, but 50 is a lot better.’’ The Caps have 17 games left, and making it to 50 would give him four in the last five years and eight overall, one behind all-time leaders Wayne Gretzky and Mike Bossy. It’s been six years since anyone other than Ovechkin scored 50.
As usual, for any of it to mean anything, to him, the Caps and their unfortunate playoff legacy, everything else has to click around Ovechkin. It did Saturday; not so much in the two weeks leading up to it, as they went 3-4-0 with two ugly road losses in Chicago and Columbus. Runs like that just as the final month-plus approaches can cool the passion about goal-scoring milestones and MVP awards.
It shouldn’t. Nothing should. It’s still far too soon to take Ovechkin and his accomplishments for granted.
