It’s mid-December and two of the biggest storylines of the Washington Capitals’ season so far are the relative lack of goals tallied by the game’s all-time greatest scorer and the unexpected departure from the game of his longtime running mate. It’s hard not to feel as if the latter has had a causal impact on the former because so many of our collective memories over the past nearly two decades have involved that connection.
But the fact remains that we’re 25 games into the 2023-24 season and Alex Ovechkin has five goals, only three of which have come with an opposing goalie in net, and only one of which has come via the Caps’ wretched and unlucky power play.