Staying Out There. . .for Too Long?

One interesting side note to Game 1 between the Rangers and Capitals was the unusual way in which Washington coach Bruce Boudreau deploys star winger Alex Ovechkin.

Or the way Ovechkin deploys himself.

Ovechkin played 26:07, which is a lot for any forward. But what was really remarkable was that he only took 20 shifts.

That meant Ovechkin's average shift was 1:18, far too long in a league where coaches love the 45 second shift to maximum energy and manpower.

But it gets better.

Ovechkin took one shift of 2:35, and one of 2:08. Sometimes those numbers can be distorted somewhat by penalties and TV timeouts, but they're still long shifts. He also took five others that were 80 seconds or longer.

Hard to imagine any hockey player can maximize his play staying out there that long, although Ovechkin did have 28 shots attempts and 13 actual shots-on-goal.

His improvisitional teammate, defenceman Mike Green, took 30 shifts for a total of 30:47, including one of 4:07. His final two shifts of the game were 2:35 and 2:29 as the Caps tried desperately to tie the game before losing 4-3.

Numbers don't mean everything. But these ones are eye-popping.

Comments

[Dave]

Hi Damien,

I saw Washington play in Ottawa this year and I've never seen anyone take shifts like Ovechkin. Washington had a 4-minute powerplay and he didn't leave the ice. If the puck left the Ottawa zone, he would generally just hang around the Ottawa blue line until his team dumped it back in.

[Sandy T.]

It just might be that a season full of games and shifts like that has rendered them both less effective than they could be at this point in time. As spectacular as they both remain, the question is, are they at their absolute best - and would a small depletion of resources spell the difference in the end?

[Jim Goodwin]

Phil Esposito said he would not be able to play in today's NHL, he said it took him 90 seconds to get warmed up, he took long shifts all the time.