Capitals' Alex Ovechkin goes pointless in playoff series for first time in career

Alex Ovechkin is no stranger to making headlines in the NHL, though the ones he made in Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs are not the ones hockey fans have become accustomed to.

Ovechkin struggled to find his footing against the Presidents' Trophy-winning New York Rangers in the opening round, and that continued in Game 4 on Sunday.

The Capitals were swept after a 4-2 loss and Ovechkin wasn't much of a factor once again. Washington's captain was held pointless Sunday and saw just 15:26 of ice time — a series low — in the must-win game.

"I didn’t play well," Ovechkin said after the game. “I don’t have that kind of touches. I try to find a different way to put the puck in.”

None of it worked, either on the power play or at five-on-five. His best chance came in Game 4 with the puck on his stick just outside the crease, but New York's Vincent Trocheck poked it away and Ovechkin was not much of a threat the rest of the way.

“He’s been doing it for so long,” Trocheck said. "He’s arguably one of the best, if not the best, goal-scorers of all-time and you have to pay a little bit more attention to him on the penalty kill. And that can’t be easy for him. Obviously we’re extremely focused on him, so it’s no shot at him. He’s a great hockey player, and we’re just a little bit extra focused on him.”

That focus worked, even though Rangers winger Artemi Panarin said “it's a secret” how he and his teammates shut down Ovechkin to move on to the second round. Suffocating defence made it difficult on the 38-year-old Russian superstar, and Igor Shesterkin didn't have to do much on his own against his countryman.

“The defence was awesome," Shesterkin said. "All four games, they play in front of him and didn’t let him do anything.”

Ovechkin finished the series with zero points in four games and was a minus-2. It was the first time in 24 career playoff series that Ovechkin was held without a point.

He also managed just six shots in the series — a career low. His previous low was 17 pucks on net.

After the Game 4 loss, Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery credited the Rangers' game plan for shutting down Ovechkin.

"They checked him so tightly over there that every time he gets the puck he has a half second to make a play and there's usually a stick and some shin pads on it," Carbery told reporters after the loss Sunday.

Washington's coach also said the last two weeks of the season, where the Capitals were fighting for a playoff berth every night, might have taken its toll on Ovechkin.

"He was scoring consistently every single night," Carbery said. "That was a lot, the second half of the year, especially the last two weeks where every game felt like life and death for our team. ... I feel like that took a lot out of him physically and mentally."

The No. 2 goal-scorer in NHL history came into this year's post-season with 72 goals and 69 assists in 147 career playoff games and has made the post-season in 15 of 19 seasons. He won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2018 when he helped the Capitals hoist the Stanley Cup with 15 goals and 12 assists in 24 games.

But this year things were different.

After Game 2, Carbery said that Ovechkin looked "a little bit off."

Carbery was confident that his team's "struggling" captain would find his groove, but the results never came.

The 38-year-old Russian had another productive regular season, as he registered 31 goals and 34 assists and became the first player in NHL history to score at least 30 goals in 18 seasons.

Unfortunately for the Capitals, that success didn't seem to carry over to the post-season.

The team was back in the playoffs after missing last year, and with an aging core it's not unrealistic to wonder if this might have been Ovechkin's final chance to play in the post-season in the NHL.

“I hope I’m still going to get a couple chances," he said.

-- with files from the Associated Press