Capitals' Alex Ovechkin: Sees season-low minutes as slump continues

Ovechkin went minus-2 with four shots over a season-low 14:12 of ice time in Tuesday's overtime loss to Columbus.

Analysis:

He's now gone four straight games without a point, as though the rest of the Caps' offensive struggles are rubbing off on their star sniper. With coach Barry Trotz looking to shake things up, Ovechkin played on a line with Jay Beagle and Andre Burakovsky, and the results of that experiment weren't exactly encouraging. His should hop back up to normality soon, though; one might reasonably conclude that Tuesday's limited action will send the 31-year-old Russian a message.