Kings looking to deny Ovechkin, effective power play

In Washington’s 4-3 home loss to St. Louis on Sunday, Alex Ovechkin registered 10 shots on goal. He scored twice – once on the power play and once at even strength – and of his 14 total shot attempts, four came with the man advantage.

In terms of supplying offense, Ovechkin is as gifted as a try-er and a finisher as they come in the NHL.

His 31 goals and 14 power play goals tie him for the league lead – he’s now one of only five players ever to record at least 30 goals in each of his first 10 seasons – and his 248 shots through 50 games are 44 more shots than any other player in the league.

In vying to limit Ovechkin’s opportunities, especially while Los Angeles is killing penalties, how is it possible to limit his time and space while also being wary of supreme distributor Nicklas Backstrom, whose 37 assists are tied for second in the league? Backstrom registered assists on both of Ovechkin’s goals on Sunday and averages better than a point per game.

“Obviously when Ovechkin gets it, he’s a shooter,” Dwight King said. “The way you kill against the other – basically the other three or other two on the half wall and the high guy – affects if he gets the puck or not. It’s a matter of just kind of eliminating their time and their decision making because they’re obviously great players that make plays against almost every team. Besides that, it will probably take a lot of shot blocking too because they do have a volume power play. Other than that, mechanics don’t change. You try to pressure when you can. You try to take away options, lanes with your sticks. Just try to limit them to plays you know you can defend a little easier than the high percentage play.”

Though the Kings’ penalty killing has struggled on the road to the tune of a 72.7% success rate, the amount of penalties they’ve taken has been on a decline since around Thanksgiving. Though Los Angeles was shorthanded more than three times in 17 of their first 28 games, they’ve been shorthanded more than three times in only four of their last 21 games.

Is that because the team has become more disciplined, or is it a general league-wide trend that games in January and February are less sloppy than those in October and November?

“I think it’s both,” King said. “Probably last game, the refs just wanted to let a looser game go on. That’s something you try to tighten up as you build towards playoffs. In the playoffs, you can’t take penalties. I think it’s been a mindset. Like you said, we have improved and we’ve got a little bit of work to do here. It’ll be a good test tonight because they have such a potent power play.”

Ovechkin scored twice on the power play within the first 10 minutes in these teams’ last meeting, a 5-4 Los Angeles shootout win at the Verizon Center last March 25. One shot came from off a deflected pass from the left wing hash marks, the other from his more familiar power play office space within the left circle following some slick puck movement.

How will the team look to limit his opportunities today?

“I think winning faceoffs and doing a good job up the ice,” Jarret Stoll said. “Once, if they do get in our zone, I think pressuring the right way, smart. Try not to let them get set up. If they do get set up, you’ve got to take away their best options. Obviously [Ovechkin] is one of them. We’re not going to change our structure system of the PK just because he’s out there, but we’ve got to [have] extra added focus. We know where he’s at. He doesn’t move very much out there on the power play, so we’ve just got to make sure we’re spot on with our reads.”

Perhaps the Capitals’ opponents are on to something: they’ve limited Ovechkin, Backstrom and company to three power play goals in their last 19 opportunities, and the Capitals are 1-4-2 in their last seven games.