Are Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom Better off on Separate Lines?
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You’ll remember a few months ago back in July, Stanley Cup-winning goaltender Jonathan Quick made a similar statement to The Player’s Tribune:
Guys like Ovi shoot it so hard that it’s almost like you’re a batter in baseball. You see the blur of the puck coming at you in frames. One frame, two frames … by the third frame it’s already hitting you. If you’re trying to make a reaction save against Ovi, you’re already beat.
Even if Backstrom’s off-season hip surgery delays the reunion– the team suggested he may miss up to the first ten games of the season (Oct. 31) — Ovi will likely continue to terrify goalies because of that hard slap shot.
It was a beautiful partnership, but for the time being at least it appears to be at an end. And while the duo played some marvelous hockey together, in the early going it appears that Ovechkin, Backstrom and the Capitals are all better off for the separation.
As it often is, necessity was the mother of invention here. Backstrom had surgery on his hip in May, and head coach Barry Trotz told the Washington Post’s Isabelle Khurshudyan at the start of October that the Caps’ No. 1 centre would not be available to begin the season.
Washington Capitals coach Barry Trotz
“He won’t start the season,” Trotz told Khurshudyan. “I know that for sure. I wouldn’t think that’d he’d play through those first four games.”
As it turned out, Backstrom missed the first three games of the season. Trotz promoted 23-year-old sophomore Evgeny Kuznetsov to the top line in his absence, slotting him between Ovechkin and newcomer T.J. Oshie. There were some bumps early, as Oshie adjusted to a new team, as Kuznetsov adapted to a feature role and Ovechkin battled his alarm clock.
But Ovechkin was producing when he played, and in the game before Backstrom returned the trio had a big night against Chicago. Kuznetsov set Oshie up for a power-play goal to open the scoring, and then Kuznetsov and Ovechkin closed out the night with a lovely goal after Oshie sent them up-ice with the puck:
Trotz decided to keep his top unit intact, instead starting Backstrom on the team’s second line, between Marcus Johansson and another newcomer, ex-Los Angeles winger Justin Williams.
The results have been breathtaking.
Kuznetsov now ranks fourth in NHL scoring, with 12 points in eight games. The NHL named him the first star of the week on Monday, noting his five-point effort against Edmonton, his three assists against Calgary and his set up of Ovechkin’s game-winner against Vancouver as Washington swept a Western Canada road trip. Ovechkin has points in six of seven games and nine points overall, while Oshie has seven points in eight games on the season.
Backstrom, meanwhile, hasn’t looked anything like a player coming off significant offseason surgery. He has seven points in his first five games with Washington. Johansson and Williams have five and six points, respectively.
By Jonathan Willis,
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Hockey is a family of sports in which two teams play against each other by trying to maneuver a ball or a puck into the opponent's goal using a hockey stick. In many areas, one sport (typically field hockey or ice hockey is generally referred to simply as hockey.
