The Washington Capitals will take a 1-1 playoff series against the New York Rangers back to Washington for Games 3 and 4, but the real question for the team lies in the playing time of the team's stars.
Arguably the Caps three most electric players, Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin, saw career lows in ice time in Game 2 against the Rangers. Ovechkin saw 13:36 of ice time while Backstrom and Semin saw 16:18 and 12:27, respectively.
The lack of ice time has been particularly alarming in recent months when it comes to Ovechkin, who is widely regarded as the Capitals' best player. Since interim coach Dale Hunter took over for former coach Bruce Boudreau, Ovechkin has seen a steady decrease in playing time.
Last week Ovechkin admitted that the decrease in playing time was getting to him. "Of course, sometimes you get angry you didn't play a lot (of) minutes. And sometimes you get angry you're not out there," Ovechkin told ESPN. "But if it's good for the team, you have to eat it."
As the season neared an end there was much speculation about what the deal with Ovechkin's playing time was. Some speculated it as a motivat ...
Read Full Article at Bleacher Report - NHL
Article written by Allen Etzler
Alexander Ovechkin Sees Less Ice Time for the Caps as Playoffs Progress
May 1st, 2012 by Allen Etzler Leave a reply »
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