Alex Ovechkin sounds off on his scoring drought

While Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin continues to have his sights trained on breaking Wayne Gretzky's goal scoring record, he's currently going through the longest slump of his career; he's failed to light the lamp in his last 13 goals and has only five so far in 2023-24 season. 

What's behind his jarring slump that now have many questioning whether or not Father Time has finally caught up to him? 

“I don’t know,” Ovechkin told NHL.com on Wednesday. “Some luck. I have chances, I have pretty good chances, but sometimes it’s just a period of maybe you hold the stick too tight because you didn’t score or something. But I think overall, sooner or later it’s going to happen, and everything is going to go in.”

“I think it’s frustration for me, I think frustration for everybody,” he said. “You can see we don’t score as many goals as we used to score, and I don’t know if you’re going to blame the system or whatever. We play hockey. We have to create chances. We have to create opportunities for yourself and for your teammates to set it up and have a good chance.”

But for Ovechkin, who has already tasted the ultimate glory of winning the Stanley Cup, team success is the more important thing. 

“The most important thing is we collect the points, and we win the games,” he said. “I’d rather be in a playoff spot than score 20 goals and you’re out of contention.”

“Yeah. That’s my job,” Ovechkin said about scoring goals. “If I don’t score, then I have do some different things to help the team to win, and I think everybody in this time right now knows who we are and how we have to play.

Ovechkin and the Capitals host the New York Islanders tonight at Capital One Arena. 

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