Alex Ovechkin has Returned to His Scoring Throne

Alex Ovechkin is back. In thirty-seven games this season Ovechkin has thirty-seven points and twenty goals and if he were to play a full regular season (eighty-two games) he would be on pace for forty-four goals and eighty-two points. Currently, he’s playing some of the best hockey since 2010, though no one saw this coming early on in the year.

Ovechkin started off the season slowly with a tumultuous five goals in sixteen games. Pressure was mounting from the media who was all over him for his lack luster play, and his perception around the league was best exemplified in TSN’s NHL Player Rankings which saw Alex ranked 12^th in the league behind the likes of Corey Crawford and Nazem Kadri- quite a drop from the man who was once in the debate for the greatest player in the NHL.

But since March 14^th, when the Caps played the Carolina Hurricanes, Alex has been on fire. Last night was the end of his nine game point streak that saw him tally fifteen points and ten goals, and since his porous start, Ovechkin, has moved up to fifth in goal scoring and is five short of Steven Stamkos’s league leading twenty-five goals.

The Caps have crawled back into playoff position going 7-2-1 in their last ten, and line mate Niklas Backstrom seems to have found his scoring touch alongside Ovechkinand is nearly a point a game player. It’s quite obvious that this team lives and dies with Alex Ovechkin and if he keeps at this pace there might be some Stanley Cup buzz in the Nation’s Capital come playoff time.