After a slow start, Alex Ovechkin is cooking and having a simply sensational year once again.
The 40-year-old Ovechkin has 29 points (14g, 15a) in 30 games this season. Ovechkin recorded 22 of those points — 12 goals and 10 assists — during a 16-game stretch from November 5 through December 3, which was highlighted by a hat trick and four-point night against the Montreal Canadiens on November 20.
Incredibly, Ovechkin now sits second on the Capitals in goals — three behind Tom Wilson’s 17 — and is tied for 26th in the NHL, 10 goals behind Nathan MacKinnon’s league-leading 24.
While Ovi’s not currently in the running yet for his tenth Rocket Richard Trophy, Ovechkin is dominating in another statistical category. One could even say he has an iron-like grip on the top spot.
Per Money Puck, Ovechkin leads the league in fewest defensive zone starts at five-on-five this season. He is the only NHL regular to receive 0 this season.
Ovechkin has received 119 of his five-on-five starts in the offensive zone (23.2 percent) while he’s gotten 80 in the neutral zone and 313 on the fly (i.e., a shift change at the Capitals bench while play is ongoing). Meanwhile, Ovi’s received absolutely none in the defensive zone from head coach Spencer Carbery, a strategy employed by the NHL’s reigning coach of the year to great effect.
Ovechkin is scoring at a clip where he’d have 38 goals by season’s end. At five-on-five, his line with Dylan Strome and Anthony Beauvillier had the 13th best expected goals percentage in the NHL as of December 7.
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When Ovechkin is on the ice at five-on-five, the Capitals have outscored their opponents 26 to 12 and out-attempted (53.2%), out-chanced (55.4%), and out-high-danger-chanced (52.9) them by pretty large numbers.
So Ovechkin may not win the Selke this season, but his career is getting another shot in the arm from great coaching.