Washington Capitals Are Running Out Of Time With A Prime Alex Ovechkin

The Washington Capitals looked prime to make their first Eastern Conference Finals since the 1997-98 season when they took a 3-1 series lead on the New York Rangers. Now, one week later, they have gone home once again. There are going to be fingers pointed many directions for the loss, but one thing is becoming clear.

It has been a decade since Alexander Ovechkin made his presence known in the league. He burst on the scene, winning the Calder Trophy as the NHL’s top rookie in 2006. From there, he has won the Rocket Richard Trophy five times (including this season). He is a six time All-Star and won the Kharlamov Trophy (most valuable Russian player) six times, and he’s close to assured to winning it this season as well. He was even a three time Hart Trophy winner as the league’s MVP. Despite all that hardware, he hasn’t even sniffed Lord Stanley’s Cup.

That is what is becoming clear. The Capitals are running out of time during Ovechkin’s prime. There is only so much time in which they can lean on him as a superstar. Even Mario Lemieux had Jaromir Jagr towards the end of his career to circumvent his diminishing skill. Ovechkin has Nicklas Backstrom to help him out, but he is only two years younger than him. He is starting to get up there in games played. Obviously Lemieux had a different career, having to retire for the first time at 31 years old. It doesn’t look like that will be an issue for the Caps.

The issue is, can they win without Ovechkin being at his best? He is currently in a contract that will pay him $10 million through 2021. That means he needs to be a superstar that entire time.

It is becoming an issue that this team looks so good on paper, but can’t get it done when the lights shine brightest.

Barry Trotz was supposed to instill a different mentality into this team. It looked as if the new head coach was going to bring different results, but the end result is once again the same. The Capitals are not one of the four best teams at the end of the season. If Ovechkin’s time in the NHL is going to be considered a success, then he needs to go further in the playoffs. He felt like he was confident enough in his team to guarantee a Game 7 win against the Rangers. Unfortunately, it seemed like goaltender Braden Holtby was the only one who received the message. It became clear that while the team can win with Ovechkin as their centerpiece, he cannot do it alone. It is time to stop pointing our fingers at Ovechkin, who scored the team’s only goal in their overtime loss in Game 7, and start wondering how to build a championship team around him.