Thursday, October 04, 2007

Season Preview: Alexander Ovechkin

Who? Oh, yeah. Alexander Ovechkin has completely lit up the NHL since his arrival after the lockout, starting with 2 goals in his debut. He won the Calder his rookie season, and finished 3rd in the scoring race. A slump in the middle of his second season left him with a "measely" 94 points last season, but he had to adjust to linemates being traded, and the team generally sucking in the second half. Now the Caps have increased Ovy's support cast, but not necessarily his linemates. A lot has been said about the Caps adding offense to help Ovy, but not much of that will be playing on Ovy's line. Sure Kozlov was a nice signing, but I don't think you'll find too many people out there that will say that Kozlov and Fleischmann are better players than Chris Clark and Dainius Zubrus. The real help will be in the Caps having a third line that can score, and very potent second line to play between the two lines. Will that help Ovy learn that he can't do it all by himself? Will Ovy have a "breakout" year and win the Richard trophy like everyone knows he can? Will I keep asking rhetorical questions?

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