Alex Ovechkin beat the buzzer and scored his 25th goal of the season against the defending champion Florida Panthers, Tuesday night. The empty-net goal was Ovechkin’s 878th career tally and his sixth empty-netter of the year, extending his NHL record in the category to 63.
As Ovechkin approaches Wayne Gretzky’s all-time goals record of 894, his deployment during empty-net situations has become more scrutinized. Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery was asked why he sends Ovechkin out in the ordinarily ultra-defensive setting after the club’s practice on Wednesday morning.
“What I see in the empty-net situations is a player that has an incredible ability to read where the puck is going,” Carbery said of Ovechkin. “People would say, ‘What’s he doing out there? He doesn’t penalty kill. He’s not a defensive specialist. Why would you put him out there?'”
Carbery continued, “There’s a lot of skilled players that play around the league five-on-six that aren’t your quote-unquote defensive specialists or your penalty kill guys that have a ton of value playing five-on-six because they are so intelligent with what the offensive players want to do.”
Carbery isn’t the first coach to send Ovechkin over the boards in the late-game scenarios, as those responsibilities for the team’s captain began more regularly under Peter Laviolette. Ovechkin scored a single-season career-high nine empty-net goals during the 2021-22 campaign.
Ovechkin has since followed that effort up with at least six empty-netters in the following three seasons. He is on pace for a new career-best 11 this year.
“They know where the next play is and where the puck is going, and that’s what you see from O constantly,” Carbery said. “He’s reading where the next puck is going. He has to be careful in some situations; he can’t leave the zone too early, but I remember seeing that with guys like Willy Nylander. He’s reading where the puck is going. He sees that their defenseman is gonna get the puck, and so now he goes because he knows they’re getting the puck and the pucks gonna go north, and it’s the same thing with O. He’s reading where that puck is gonna go. You can see tons of guys that play five on six that barely get one or two empty netters a year.”
Deploying skill players in the high-pressure, third-period moments is not something unique to the Capitals. In fact, Ovechkin is not the league leader in empty-netters this season, as that distinction belongs to fellow superstar winger Mikko Rantanen, who has potted seven empty-net goals.
“Rantanen, I don’t think he penalty killed in Colorado,” Carbery said. “I don’t know about Carolina, but there’s another prime example of a high-IQ offensive player that thrives in those situations. I have to put [Ovechkin] out there knowing that there might be a missed shot block or some type of defensive read that maybe Brandon Duhaime or Connor McMichael would make in that situation. I’m okay with that because I know the reward.
“And [Ovechkin] turns his brain (into a more defensive mode), like him and I talk a lot about when the game is on the line. He has to play underneath pucks, be really, really intelligent, and stay inside a structure. He has no problem doing that. That’s why it gives you comfort putting him out in those situations.”
Ovechkin is not even in the top three league-wide when it comes to total empty-net points as Rantanen (13), Nathan MacKinnon (12), and Adrian Kempe (9) all have more than his seven (6g, 1a). The Great Eight is tied for fourth with Gustav Nyquist, John Tavares, Dylan Larkin, Mitch Marner, Brandon Hagel, and Lucas Raymond.
Last season, the Tampa Bay Lightning’s Nikita Kucherov, a highly-skilled offensive player not known for his defensive exploits, set the NHL’s new single-season record in empty-net points with 14 (7g, 7a). Rantanen is on pace to smash that record this season, if Rod Brind’Amour continues to deploy him in a similar manner in Carolina.
Ovechkin recently said that every goal scored in the NHL is difficult to score, even if there is no goaltender in the net. His head coach was in complete agreement.
“One hundred percent, and I’ve talked about this a little bit – you can say what you want about the record and how it relates to empty-net goals,” Carbery said. “I mean, you could bring up a lot of different things about Wayne’s amount of empty-net goals plus all the things that have quote-unquote hindered O’s pursuit of the record, from lockouts to scoring in the game, all sorts of different stuff. You can go down a bunch of different rabbit holes.”
Gretzky scored 56 career empty-net goals and still holds the all-time record for most career empty-net points (85). Ovechkin was also forced to miss 155 games earlier in his career due to factors out of his control, like two lockouts and the coronavirus pandemic.
