"It's important that at his age and where he's at in his career, I think I said this early in the season, it's not about quantity. It's about quality with Alex. And sometimes, as someone who's played so much his entire career and been on the ice in every situation, it's not an easy pill to swallow. But that's what we're looking for from O, so I'll try to always manage his minutes and pay attention to it."
"The most apparent way Carbery has prioritized quality over quantity this season with Ovechkin is by making him the sole NHL regular yet to start a single shift in the defensive zone. By limiting Ovechkin's exposure to ice time in his own end, the Capitals can have the league's all-time leading goal scorer play a larger portion of his game-by-game time on ice in the offensive zone."
Alex Ovechkin, age 40, is averaging under 18 minutes per game for a second straight season, including a career-low 17:43 in 2024-25 of his 21-season NHL career. Before the past two seasons, he played more than 19 minutes per game for seven straight seasons and over 20 minutes in five of those seasons. Coach Spencer Carbery monitors Ovechkin's minutes closely, curbing ice time based on game flow and special-teams usage. The coaching approach emphasizes quality of shifts over quantity and limits Ovechkin's defensive-zone starts to increase his offensive-zone deployment.
Read at RMNB
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