Alex Ovechkin's Overlooked Tool

Alex Ovechkin in his first five seasons has taken the NHL by storm. He's the fastest player to 200 goals outside of Gretzky, Lemieux, and Bossy. He's one of three to tally 200 goals and 200 assists in his first four NHL seasons (Gretzky and Bossy). He has, arguably, the second best rookie season in the NHL ever, after Teemu Selanne's crazy 76-56-132 1992-1993. He is already the best player in Caps history and soon enough should hold all major franchise offensive records. He's the only Capital who could ever be said to be the best player in hockey for any extended period of time.

Ask people what makes Alex Ovechkin so special, and they go with his shot, his physicality, his reckless abandon, his enthusiasm, or even his linemates for the skeptics.

One tool that I can't help but feel gets overlooked is his skating. In years past at times it came to the forefront, but his game is so much more than skating that the flashier parts like his hard wrist shot come into the light more than the unflashier, "technical" parts like positioning and skating. A guy like Jason Chimera really has only physicality and skating in his game, so of course skating is emphasized as his biggest asset. Mike Green as a young defenseman in the WHL also was touted as a great skater, but you hardly see that around anymore. Nicklas Lidstrom's skating is always highly touted because he doesn't have any flashy parts to his game, or at least doesn't use flashy stickhandling and his wrist shot often.

Corey Pronman on Puck Prospectus started using the 20-80 scale in hockey, like in baseball, and had this little tidbit on the "70" description.

"70: Significantly above average (plus plus), this skill is one of the best in the game and is in an elite class. This is a grade rarely given out. Steve Stamkos’ shot, Chris Prongers’, physical game, Nicklas Lidstrom’s hockey sense, and Alex Ovechkin’s skating are examples."

(the folks over at Japers' Rink then had an easy time rating Ovechkin's skating, among other tools and other players)

2010 Development Camp Day 4 Videos

I was hoping for more, but oh well. I should have gone up higher and just videotaped the entire thing since I had more than an hour of space, but I didn't realize that until the third when I figured out what that 1:00:49 in the top right corner of the LCD display meant.

In some parts you can hear the conversation of the chatty girls sitting on my left as well as various more familiar sporting sounds from the crowd.

2010 Development Camp Day 4 Scrimmage Photos

Just some of the best. Full album here (well, the pictures that weren't really blurry and actually caught more than part of an arm or leg).