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Alex Ovechkin left plenty of fans wondering how much he has left in the tank following an uncharacteristically quiet year with the Capitals, and people are already questioning how he’ll fare when the next campaign kicks off based on a recent picture that suggests he’s let himself go a bit in the offseason.
At this point, Alex Ovechkin doesn’t really have many things left to prove as he gears up for his 20th NHL season.
The Stanley Cup winner only trails Wayne Gretzky on the list of NHL players who’ve scored the most regular season goals, and while it seemed like he was well on his way to breaking the all-time record (he only needs 42 more), a milestone that was once seemingly inevitable has been cast into doubt a bit based on some worrying statistical trends.
Ovi only scored 31 goals in the 79 games he played last season (he was also an absolute ghost in the playoff series that saw the Rangers sweep the Capitals without really breaking a sweat), and it’s very clear the man who will be 39 years old when the next NHL season kicks off has lost more than a step courtesy of the inevitable passage of time.
It’s worth noting Ovechkin has previously bounced back from a similar slump; he scored 49 goals after recording just 33 during the 2016-17 season, although he wasn’t firmly in the twilight of his career at that point.
It’s obviously not rare for professional athletes to gain some weight while letting loose in the offseason, and while Ovechkin has a few months to get into playing shape, he’s still managed to turn plenty of heads courtesy of the dad bod that was on full display in a photo he recently took alongside former Devils defenseman (and fellow Russian) Egor Yakovlev following a game of padel tennis.
That’s probably not going to make Capitals fans who were already concerned about his performance too thrilled, but there’s probably no real cause for concern unless he’s still rocking a similar physique when he shows up to training camp.