Sunday, February 24, 2013
Ovechkin ends hat-trick drought
By Tom Carpenter
Alex Ovechkin failed to reach the 100-point mark the past two seasons. And after netting at least 46 goals in each of his first five campaigns, he failed to even reach the 40-goal mark the past two years. He continued his shaky play early this season, tallying two goals and three points in his first eight games. However, Ovechkin showed some signs of life this month, as he had seven points during a five-game stretch before tallying zero points in three games leading into Saturday's skate with the New Jersey Devils when he finally secured a hat trick.
Per Elias, that was the 11th regular-season hat trick of Ovechkin's NHL career but his first since Jan. 22, 2011, when he scored three goals in a game against the Toronto Maple Leafs. The 124 regular-season games that Ovechkin played between his last two three-goal performances was the longest hat trick drought of his NHL career, by far. His second-longest drought was 89 games, between hat tricks No. 2 (Dec. 15, 2006 at Atlanta) and No. 3 (Dec. 29, 2007 at Ottawa).
Despite his bump in scoring recently, Ovechkin still sports an ugly minus-6 rating, which is rough on fantasy teams. On the upside, though, five of his eight goals and three of his six assists this season have come on the power play.
