Gästebuch » It sure looked as if Alex Ovechkin was slowing down

WASHINGTON (AP) It sure looked as if Alex Ovechkin was slowing down Kevin Shattenkirk Jersey , at least by his standards.This time a year ago, Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals were limping away from another early playoff exit. His 16 even-strength goals in the regular season tied for the lowest of his career. Injuries limited him to five goals in 13 playoff games.Then a funny thing happened. Coach Barry Trotz took time from visiting his son in Russia to meet with Ovechkin and talk about changing and evolving his game at age 32. Time doesn’t stop, not even for the greatest goal-scorer of his generation. Trotz and general manager Brian MacLellan wanted more goals, better foot speed and for their cornerstone player to take care of his body to be able to handle more time on the ice.”That’s just life: You have to change, you have to grow,” Trotz said. ”He was motivated to show everybody that he still is a great player in this league.”Ovechkin led the NHL with 49 goals in the regular season, 15 more in the playoffs as the Conn Smythe Trophy winner and showed in his 13th season he could lead his team to the Stanley Cup. Ordinarily a team would be running out the clock on the final three seasons of a 13-year deal with a player of his age, but now Ovechkin is a Stanley Cup champion and there is no telling how much more the big forward can do in his NHL career.”Was tough time, but we fight through it and we get result http://www.officialhockeyrangersshop.com/authentic-adidas-marc-staal-jersey ,” Ovechkin said. ”It’s just something special. I don’t know. I’m just very excited and I’m very happy right now.”Hours after the Russian superstar lifted the Cup on the ice in Las Vegas, President Donald Trump devoted his first tweet of the morning to Ovechkin and the Capitals.”Congratulations to the Washington Capitals on their GREAT play and winning the Stanley Cup Championship,” Trump tweeted . ”Alex Ovechkin, the team captain, was spectacular – a true Superstar! D.C. is popping, in many ways. What a time!”Ovechkin likely hadn’t gone to sleep when the tweet was delivered at 4:12 a.m. Las Vegas time and he retweeted it. Next week, Ovechkin will be the star in a parade down Constitution Avenue six months after Trump on inauguration day and this summer will take the Cup back home to Moscow.After that, the next challenge starts. Ovechkin last summer adjusted his training methods in Russia, and he seemed rejuvenated when came back to the Washington area.Now he has to do it all over again with a happily shorter summer.”As you’re getting older Authentic Mats Zuccarello Jersey , we’re going to have to train a little different so you become the athlete you always have been, because these young kids can absolutely fly,” Trotz said.Ovechkin looked like he was flying all season, from seven goals in his first two games to one on the power play Thursday night in the Cup clincher against the Vegas Golden Knights. But goal-scorers don’t typically keep up this pace – Ovechkin was already the oldest player to finish first in goals since Phil Esposito in 1974-75.”He was very comfortable and he was very confident,” longtime teammate Nicklas Backstrom said. ”He was really calm. Everything was really good. It’s impressive the way he scores goals and the way he worked out there. He was just a machine there in the playoffs.”Owner Ted Leonsis said recently his only regret about signing Ovechkin to a $124 million, 13-year deal is that it wasn’t longer. With three years left at a salary-cap hit over $9.5 million, Ovechkin has already exceeded the expectations of that monster contract with three Hart Trophies, seven Maurice ”Rocket” Richard Trophies and now the playoff success that had long eluded him.”We worked so hard through all the years and we were together,” Ovechkin said. ”It’s just like a dream.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals— TORONTO (AP) Toronto Maple Leafs coach Mike Babcock stood at the podium and fought back tears Mika Zibanejad Jersey , the grief resonating across Canada and the NHL.A bus crash in his home province of Saskatchewan left 14 dead and 15 injured, three critically. A junior hockey team, the Humboldt Broncos, was headed to a playoff game Friday afternoon when a truck collided with its bus. Among the dead were the team’s coach and captain.”It’s got to rip the heart out of your chest,” Babcock, who grew up in Saskatoon, said at Air Canada Centre. ”We pray for those families and think about them. Horrific, horrific accident.”Added NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman: ”The NHL mourns the passing of those who perished and offers strength and comfort to those injured while traveling to play and be part of a game they all love.”Toronto center Tyler Bozak said he had difficulty sleeping after hearing the news about the crash near Nipawin.”You can’t really put into words, anything Womens Pavel Buchnevich Jersey ,” Bozak said before Saturday’s regular-season finale against the Montreal Canadiens. ”I can’t imagine what everyone’s going through back in Saskatchewan.”Colorado Avalanche coach Jared Bednar grew up in Humboldt. He said a friend’s son plays goaltender for the Broncos and survived the crash.”He went to surgery last night in Saskatoon, and hopefully he’s doing better,” Bednar said from Denver. ”It’s a tough time for that town. It’s a tight-knit community. It’s only 6,000 people.”Former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy well understands the ”state of shock and confusion” people are feeling. Kennedy was involved in a crash in 1986 that killed four players when a bus carrying the Swift Current Broncos hit a patch of ice and crashed.”I think one thing that we underestimate with the impact of trauma and PTSD and going through things like this is the magnitude of the impact,” he said. ”That is what I can’t stress enough.”Patrick Marleau of the Toronto Maple Leafs was a boy in Saskatchewan when the Swift Current crash happened.”It’s something you remember when you’re that young,” he said. ”You see the players wearing the logo on their jersey for the players that were lost. It definitely hits home. Growing up around Swift Current, it was always in people’s mind. There’s memorials. They’re never forgotten.”Babcock has driven the stretch of two-lane highway north of Tisdale where the team was heading to play Game 5 of a semifinal against the Nipawin Hawks.”I know that road pretty good,” he said. ”It didn’t seem like a big spot, it’s not mountains or anything like that Vladislav Namestnikov Jersey , but accidents do happen.”Marleau knows the hold the game has in his country, and how ”hockey is everything in Canada.””But in Saskatchewan, every community’s fairly small,” he said. ”So everybody knows everybody and you try and look out for each other and take care of each other.”—The Canadian Press and AP Sports Writer Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report.