Ovechkin non-factor in semifinal loss to Canada
Alex Ovechkin's impact in Saturday's semifinal was non-existent.
Related: Canada dominates Russia to advance to best-of-3 World Cup final
Now, apart from a brief flurry that gave them a 2-1 lead in the second period, the entire Russian team was virtually non-existent, but the captain's minimal output in a must-win game is puzzling.
In 20:15 of ice-time - 4:55 of which on the power play - Ovechkin was a minus-one, and only mustered one shot on goal. He finished the game with a corsi-for of 32% at even strength, which ranked second-last among Russian forwards. (hockeystats.ca)
Ovi had 18 EV shifts; Vlasic and Weber out for all or part of 13, Doughty and Bouwmeester for all or part of 6, Toews for all or part of 16.
— Dan Rosen (@drosennhl) September 25, 2016
Whether a strong performance from Ovechkin could have been enough to knock off the mighty Canadian team will remain speculative, but based on the numbers, the evidence of a disappointing performance is concrete.