WASHINGTON, D.C. -- During the recent stretch when the Washington Capitals stopped winning and their star captain, Alex Ovechkin, stopped scoring goals, it became fashionable to wonder if perhaps this was symptomatic of some sort of fatal flaw for the NHL's best team.
Early in the second period of the Capitals' game against the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night, Ovechkin somehow couldn't find the handle on a pass at the side of the Wild goal. He then looked briefly skyward as if to say, "Really? Again?"
And so it seemed, for a brief moment, that there might be something to the notion that the generation's greatest goal scorer and a sure-fire Hall of Famer is starting to decline.