When Alexander Ovechkin met with reporters at the Washington Capitals training camp opening last week, he was told his English had improved a great deal between seasons.
"I practice on the girls," Ovechkin replied quickly, before breaking into big grin.
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| Alex Ovechkin is happy to see he will work with a more talented supporting cast. (US Presswire) |
The Capitals weren't all that bad last season, although they didn't really surprise anyone by finishing last in the Southeast Division and missing the playoffs for the third consecutive time. But the end result obscured what had the makings of a pretty good season had a rash of key injuries not hit the team around Christmas. At the time, the Caps were holding down the eighth and final East playoff seed and their record was four games over .500.
"Our big guys, our leaders all got hurt. We didn't have the guys to play," said Ovechkin, who followed his Rookie of the Year season with 46 goals and 92 points. "We called guys from (AHL) Hershey, but it was tough."
Frustrating too, especially on Ovechkin, who was keyed on even more by opponents' top defensemen and shut-down units. When the Caps essentially packed it in at the trade deadline, dealing No. 1 center Dainius Zubrus and veteran winger Richard Zednik, Ovechkin took an out-of-character step by making a public plea for a talent upgrade.
He received his wish over the summer, which was probably to be expected since Ovechkin has become one of the league's most visible players and his contract expires after the season. He'll be a restricted free agent, but with offer sheets apparently no longer being verboten, it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to get a $10 million annual offer or at least a chance to play for a serious Stanley Cup contender if the Caps don't sign him by next summer.
Washington general manager George McPhee won't talk about contracts, and neither will Ovechkin. However the Capitals franchise player did give his stamp of approval to the changes made over the summer, saying he believes Washington is now a playoff team.
"We added experienced guys, good players, and the young guys have two more years of experience in the NHL," Ovechkin said. "We have a very good team now."
Certainly better than the one that finished last season because Washington signed several of the higher-profile free agents in an effort to improve the league's fourth-worst offense. The Capitals added veteran centers Michael Nylander, who was Jaromir Jagr's main playmaker in New York for two seasons, and Viktor Kozlov, a rangy pivot who meshed well with Ovechkin on the Russian team at the World Championships a couple of years ago. They also brought in offensive-minded defenseman Tom Poti.
Another newcomer who is creating a fair amount of excitement around Washington is rookie forward Nicklas Backstrom, the team's first-round draft pick in 2005 who many scouts ranked among the best players in Europe last season. Overall, the Capitals increased their payroll to nearly $38 million, up from a league-low $31 million last season.
McPhee said the timing was right to bump up the payroll with the kind of pieces that could help the team take the next step. The Caps still have one of the league's better goalies in veteran Olaf Kolzig, and McPhee said the younger players who have been nurtured through the last two seasons have grown enough to take advantage of some experienced talents around them.
"There's no need to add free agents unless your base is going to be strong enough, and we think the foundation is good enough now to bring in the kind of players we did," McPhee said. "A couple of years ago we were just looking to fill boots, but now we have a lot of good players."
Enough, it seems, to help ease the pressure on Ovechkin.
Ovechkin has been spending most of his preseason with Kozlov, who trained with Ovechkin and several other Russian players back home over the summer. He says they are comfortable together, but coach Glen Hanlon says he will try to see how Ovechkin fits with Nylander as well.
When you add in Backstrom and 23-year-old Alexander Semin, who scored 38 goals last season, you have some pretty good and balanced firepower on the top two lines. In fact, it's enough to drop someone like captain Chris Clark, who had a breakout season with 30 goals last year, back to a third-line checking assignment.
"You hope that you have balance in your scoring so if one guy is shut down, your whole team isn't shut down," McPhee said. "That's what we've gone through the last couple of years and we're hopeful that we have enough scoring so we don't have to worry about that going forward."
