In theory, it makes sense: play the greatest goal-scorer of all-time with your best playmaker on the top line. Their resumes (and paychecks) practically fill out the lineup card that way themselves. Hell, they’re even fellow countrymen.
But to the extent that it ever did work – and boy did it, for two months at least – Alex Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, together, no longer does. At all.
That’s the Caps’ five-on-five offense on the left with Kuznetsov and Ovechkin on the ice together this season, a cool 18% lower than League average (as another point of reference, without Kuznetsov on the ice, the Caps are at 2.