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Alex Ovechkin ready for another battle with McDonagh, Girardi
At the risk of saying any defense in the NHL can actually tame Alex Ovechkin – oh hi Kirk Muller piece that I wrote – it can be said with some certainty that Dan Girardi and Ryan McDonagh of the New York Rangers have fared quite well against the Washington Capitals star.
He didn’t score against them at 5-on-5 last season, in around 37 minutes of ice time against them. He scored a one goal in about 34 minutes of ice time against them in 2012-13.
Two seasons ago in the playoffs, Girardi and McDonagh held Ovechkin to one goal in seven games, and started to get in his head.
On Wednesday night, the Capitals face the Rangers for the second time this season in what could be – although hopefully won’t be, because they’ve faced each other more than two people playing Battleship – a first-round playoff preview. The Caps have 82 points and are four points in back of Pittsburgh for third in the Metro; the Rangers have 89 points and are trying to hop over the Islanders for first in the division with three games in-hand.
So it’s an important one for several reasons … including Ovechkin facing Girardi and McDonagh, and potentially going head to head with Rick Nash’s line.
From CSN Washington, coach Barry Trotz:
“For you to limit your top players by taking them off the ice to get away from their defensive pair, I think that takes away from your game,” Trotz said. “If they get their top grouping against Ovi I’m not going to pull him off. I’ll just say, ‘Ovi you’ve just gotta be better.’
“Ovi is hard enough to play against and when he’s focused in on the challenge of going against a top defenseman from another team he can make it pretty miserable for that guy. There’s a reason he’s gotten as many goals as he’s gotten in his career. It’s because he’s not shy about going against the top guys. I think he looks at it as a challenge and he can punish guys, too. Sometimes you don’t mind that, if their top [defensive] guy’s getting punished a lot. That’s OK.”
Let the punishments and/or the shutdowns begin this evening …
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