The Washington Capitals GM spoke some words of wisdom this week when he met the press and made some comments. Washington Post beat reported Isabelle Khurshudyan quoted him as follows:
MacLellan said Tuesday that no major changes are coming for the Capitals. The coaching staff is expected to be mostly intact going into next season, and while several free agent departures are expected, there likely won’t be a significant roster overhaul.
Now, I appreciate what he is saying here because it would be madness to rip apart the best team in the NHL due to some bad luck in the Playoffs. It seems that McLellan is well aware of what realistically happened, and while he acknowledged the history of the team plays a part in what he's doing, I think it's clear that he understands the role that luck and randomness plays in sports.
I have to question why he'd want to bring Trotz back.
After the elimination game Trotz complained about Ovechkin in a way I thought was both disrespectful and wrong. I think Trotz was the one who removed Tim Connolly from the lineup, put Ovechkin on the third line and didn't fully take advantage of what Kevin Shattenkirk brought to the team.
I think Trotz is perhaps the most overrated coach in the NHL and that the Capitals should look for someone to coddle Ovechkin, not oppose him, and certainly not blame him for things he had nothing to do with.
Ovechkin wasn't the problem or the reason the team lost. In fact, had his tying goal not hit the skinny part of Marc-Andre Fleury's goal-stick, the Capitals in all likelihood are the ones currently up 2-0 on the Predators.
That said, it's not like Trotz is a bad coach, and I don't really have a problem with him coming back.
What I do take issue with is when McLellan said (again quoting from Khurshudyan) that Ovechkin "Has to think of ways he can evolve.....I think he had a down year.....he's going to have to make adjustments to stay relevant in the game."
If taken at face value, these words are ridiculous.
Here's Ovechkin vs the other top goal scores in the NHL this year (all stats 5v5 and from the now defunct Corsica.hockey)
Other than Matthews, Ovechkin had the most shots.
He had the third most scoring chances.
And his shooting percentage was 7.25%, not only the lowest, but about 3 percentage points lower than his career.
If you think Ovechkin is declining, consider that 5 season ago, he also shot around 7% and scored only 2 more 5v5 goals that year than he did this year. In that year, he had more ice time too.
This season Ovechkin's 5v5 time on ice was down about two minutes. T.J Oshie shot 26% and scored 35 goals which greatly decreased the amount of touches and opportunities for Ovechkin.
If you look at the stats, he didn't decline at all. His shooting percentage, which he has zero control over, went down, his ice-time went down, and his line-mate scored more.
So what does Ovechkin need?
-More ice time
- A winger whose job it is is to get him the puck
- Better luck on the shooting % side.
If you dig into the numbers - which the freaking GM of an NHL team should be able to do - you see that Ovechkin is the same amazing player he's pretty much always been.
I don't expect casual fans to see a 20 goal drop-off and not be concerned, but people who work in the game should damn well know better.
Washington Capitals Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»