rangers capitals

After last night’s crushing defeat, the strategy for defending Alex Ovechkin came to the forefront (aside from the Backstrom hit). Well, it became more of a priority than before, since he dominated the game. Ovechkin had a goal and an assist, a +10 scoring chance differential, and double up on his USAT/FF and SAT/CF numbers. In short: He was an absolute force.

So the question arises: Do you shadow him? Do you stick someone on him at all time, and basically have someone Esa Tikkanen him? Adam Herman went through why he thinks it’s a good idea, at least on the powerplay. I see the merit in that point of view, but I staunchly disagree.

Shadowing doesn’t work at even strength

Sticking with even strength for a moment, shadowing is relatively pointless. The Rangers play a system that is designed to take advantage of their speed, forecheck, and create turnovers for rushes. If you’re shadowing one guy all over the ice, you eliminate an aspect of your team strength.

In the defensive zone, the Rangers rely on cutting off passing lanes when the puck is above the goal line, and then they switch to man coverage when it’s below the goal line. If you shadow him, which guy gets the assignment? How do the other guys adjust?

This isn’t that simple. It requires a full revamping of the way Alain Vigneault has the guys playing. In all likelihood, you’re going to deal with growing pains of shadowing one guy, and it will lead to more blown assignments.

Also, there are very few players in the league that can match Ovechkin’s combination of speed and strength. Chris Kreider comes to mind, but that’s really it. Do the Rangers have the personnel to shadow him? I don’t think they do.

Matchups are more important

At even strength, especially with home ice advantage, getting your best defensive players out there against Ovechkin is more important. AV doesn’t match up forwards against forwards too often, but he does need to get any two of Ryan McDonagh, Dan Girardi, Marc Staal, and Kevin Klein out there when Ovechkin is on the ice. Dan Boyle was out there for both goals, with Ovechkin on the ice. That can’t happen.

That’s not to say Boyle did a bad job, he was fine on the powerplay goal (which was just a rocket), and he was taken out of the play on the Joel Ward winner. But he’s not your best option.

Shadowing on the penalty kill doesn’t work either

The Rangers penalty kill is a hybrid of a few approaches, but it does mostly focus around one man pressuring the puck with the other three cutting off passing lanes. The one man varies based on puck location, but the idea is that the PK is in good position to cut off the passing lanes, forcing mistakes from the man with the puck.

Now if you shadow Ovechkin, you have to change the entire PK strategy, one that has worked very well. Instead of having one man pressure the puck, you have one man chasing Ovechkin around the ice. The same questions above still apply, but now you have a 4-on-3 on the rest of the PK. A few teams have tried this, none of them worked.

The PK is about positioning

As mentioned above, the Rangers really focus on cutting off passing lanes. What makes the Caps powerplay so dangerous is that they have finishers outside of Ovechkin in Mike Green and Troy Brouwer, and they have an elite passer in Nick Backstrom. Backstrom is the guy that makes this whole thing go. Plus, they actually move, forcing the PK to move. The move the PK moves, the greater chance of a passing lane to Ovi opening up.

Limit him to the outside

The best you can do with Ovechkin is contain him. Limit him to shots from the outside. Yes, things like this will happen sometimes:

But that was a perfect shot. He has the skill to do that. It is what it is, the shot location was from outside the top of the circle, and he just placed it perfectly.

The Rangers are a team that rely on positioning to cut off passing lanes, force the issue, create turnovers, and capitalize. Shadowing one man throws that entire system out the window. Ovechkin is an All World player, but you don’t change your entire system, one that got you to the Cup Finals last season and the President’s Trophy this season, for one player.

Share: 

More About: