It’s hard to believe that when you look through the current league leaders in points, you won’t find Alexander Ovechkin’s name in the top 10. You won’t find The Great 8 in the top 20, either. Heck, you won’t even find him on the first page on NHL.com’s list of league’s top scorers. Nope, you have to go to the next page and scroll down to No. 43, where Ovi currently sits with just 39 points.
Ovechkin isn’t the only star who has struggled in 2012. Here is a list of the top five underachievers in 2012.
If you can’t wait to see Alex Ovechkin at this weekend’s NHL All-Star Game in Ottawa, well, there’s always next season.
Ovechkin decided to remove himself from the event Tuesday, citing that he will be in the middle of a three-game suspension.
“My heart is not there. I am suspended, so why I have to go there?” Ovechkin said. “I love the game. It is a great event. I love to be there. I am suspended. I don’t want to be a target. I feel like I’m not deserving to be there right now because I am suspended.”
It turns out Bruce Boudreau won’t have to go out and wait in any unemployment lines.
After being fired on Monday by the Washington Capitals, Boudreau was named the Anaheim Ducks new head coach Wednesday night, just hours after the Ducks fired Randy Carlyle following the club’s 4-1 win over the Montreal Canadiens.
The victory was only the second for the Ducks in the month of November, and despite the two points, the Ducks are 14th in the Western Conference and 29th in the overall standings.
The Ducks also relieved assistant coaches Dave Farrish and Mike Foligno, and video coordinator Joe Trotta of their duties.
It turns out Bruce Boudreau won’t get a chance to take the Washington Capitals beyond the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
After four-plus seasons behind Washington’s bench, the Caps fired coach Boudreau and replaced him with former Capitals captain Dale Hunter on Monday.
The 2011-12 season was finally supposed to be the one that saw Boudreau lead the Caps to the Stanley Cup finals, but following an embarrassing 5-1 loss to the Buffalo Sabres Saturday, GM George McPhee decided that his club needed a change to turn around their uninspiring play.
If Nicklas Backstrom hadn’t scored the game-tying goal with less than a minute to go in what eventually led to a 5-4 OT win for the Washington Capitals over the Anaheim Ducks, then Caps coach Bruce Boudreau would still be getting a ton of heat right now.
Instead, he looked like a genius. However, that hasn’t prevented a media firestorm from hounding Boudreau with the same question over and over again: Why wasn’t Alex Ovechkin on the ice at that crucial stage in the game?
The Washington Capitals are the San Jose Sharks of the Eastern Conference: a talented team that has continually fallen short of expectations in the postseason.
After defeating the New York Rangers in five games last season, Washington was unceremoniously swept by the Tampa Bay Lightning in the second round of the 2010-11 NHL Playoffs.
Like the Sharks, the Caps have no more room for excuses heading into the 2011-12 season, and anything short of a trip to the Cup Finals this season will be deemed a failure.
Semyon Varlamov and Jean-Sebastien Giguere and now the men behind the mask for the Colorado Avalanche. The acquisitions of the two netminders were made in order to replace Peter Budaj and Brian Elliott.
The Avalanche knew that a serious change needed to be made between the pipes when their goaltenders combined for league-worst 3.45 goals-against average and .890 save percentage last season. Now with a couple of new faces in the crease, the Avs are hoping that their goaltending situation can do nothing but improve heading into the 2011-12 season.
I am happy to announce a new promotion here at Hockey Tickets Online. Beginning in October 2011, we will giving away way two tickets each month to a regular season NHL game.
To enter, simply leave your name and email address below. Once you are entered into the contest, your will be eligible to win tickets every month.
Congratulations to Eric who is our October ticket winner. Eric gets two tickets to the Panthers v Penguins game in November.
At this point in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the last team that anyone thought would have their backs up against the wall is the Washington Capitals. But after blowing a third period lead in Game 3 and ultimately suffering a 4-3 defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Caps, the No. 1 seed in the East, are now down 3-0 in the series.
Many were wondering when Alexander Ovechkin was going to show up for the series, and in Game 3, he finally did. Ovechkin finished with a goal, an assist and five shots on net in more than 24 minutes of ice time. But despite his best effort, the Caps could not get the victory.
Friday, April 29 at Washington, 7:00 p.m. VERSUS, TSN
Sunday, May 1 at Washington, 7:00 p.m. VERSUS, CBC
Tuesday, May 3 at Tampa Bay, 6:30 p.m. VERSUS, TSN
Wednesday, May 4 at Tampa Bay, 7:00 p.m. NHL NETWORK (US), TSN
*Saturday, May 7 at Washington, 12:30 p.m. NBC, TSN
*Monday, May 9 at Tampa Bay, TBD VERSUS, TSN
*Wednesday, May 11 at Washington, TBD VERSUS, TSN
It’s hard to believe that when you look through the current league leaders in points, you won’t find Alexander Ovechkin’s name in the top 10. You won’t find The Great 8 in the top 20, either. Heck, you won’t even find him on the first page on NHL.com’s list of league’s top scorers. Nope, you have to go to the next page and scroll down to No. 43, where Ovi currently sits with just 39 points.
