Washington Capitals: Is Alex Ovechkin’s hot start sustainable?
By Ernie Mudd
Can Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin continue his red-hot start? The answer might surprise you.
It’s pretty difficult to find much to criticize in Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin‘s play in the first two games of the season. Back to back hat tricks to open an NHL season for the first time in 100 years. That pretty much says it all.
Except it doesn’t.
Ovechkin is about as hot as a hockey player can get. Back to back hat tricks in consecutive periods of consecutive games, with another goal thrown in for good measure. Simply put, Ovechkin scored seven goals in under 60 minutes.
Meanwhile, his center Evgeny Kuznetsov has quietly racked up seven assists in two games. Something only possible when your linemate is a three-time Hart and Pearson Award winner, a six-time Rocket Richard winner and former Calder Trophy winner.
That’s not all. The third member of the Ovechkin line, Jakub Vrana, has racked up three points with a +4 rating through two games. He could easily have added a layup goal against the Montreal Canadiens, but a bouncing puck denied him. What Vrana’s brought to the line doesn’t show up in the stats to the same degree as his linemates, but it’s an excellent start by any measure.
The line obviously gets A’s across the board, but why is it working so well? There’s a lot more than meets the eye. So let’s take a look and see why the Washington Capitals first line has been dominant. To the point where it’s borderline historic.