I‘ll touch on this subject a little more in Thursday’s print edition of Cheers & Jeers. But this topic has come up enough early on this season I figured I’d share some quotes from a few Caps players after practice today. It’s relevant given Ovechkin won’t play Wednesday night against New Jersey, His “upper-body strain” will keep him out of just his fifth game since he started his NHL career in 2005.
One question reporters have asked all season – starting first with the beat reporters who follow the team on a daily basis and now extending to national writers/analysts – is whether Ovechkin needs to curtail his sometimes reckless style of play to keep his career going well into his 30s. It seems strange to ask about a 24-year-old who has missed just two games because of injury. But isn’t there a way for him to still play the game hard, but just pick his spots? That had nothing to do with his injury on Sunday. But the point stands. It’s entertaining, but isn’t Ovechkin inviting injury playing that way?
“Absolutely. But he’s one of those guys that if he didn’t play that way he wouldn’t be the player that he is,” said Caps captain Chris Clark. “So you can’t tell a guy to go out there and not skate as hard as he can or to check everybody. It’s just not in his makeup,. He wouldn’t be as effective. So you take the good with the bad with him.”
Ovechkin has missed four games total in is career – but two were because of a visit home to Russia to see his ailing maternal grandfather. The others were single games for groin and heel injuries. He also needed injections to deal with wrist and groin injuries in last year’s playoffs. Simply put – Ovechkin does get hurt. He just deals with the pain better than most.
“He has just been an iron man consistently through the last few years that we’ve never really missed him,” said Caps defenseman Brian Pothier. “He’s a specimen, too. He’s sort of a freak of nature. He’s physically different than everybody else. He’s just made up different.”
Added center Brendan Morrison: “Obviously, [Ovechkin] does it night-in and night-out. That’s kind of the secret formula. If guys could do that night-in and night-out there’d be a lot more guys in Ovie’s category. But you can’t teach that. It’s something you have within.”
