"Key Stat: For the first time in his NHL career, Ovechkin didn't lead the NHL in shots on goal, finishing fifth overall. Interesting Stat: Ovechkin scored 81% more goals than the Caps' second-leading goal-scorer (Alexander Semin, 21), which trailed only Steven Stamkos in terms of the biggest drop-off, percentage-wise, between a team's top and second-place lamp-lighters. (Stamkos scored 60 goals, 35 more than Martin St. Louis.) The Good: Ovechkin - still far and away the NHL's most prolific goal-scorer since the lockout and one of three players to score 30 or more goals in each of those seven seasons - had a bit of a bounce-back season in that department, scoring a half-dozen more goals than he did in 2010-11, and you could point to the power-play as to where he found those six goals (he's now scored 25 even-strength goals in each of the past two campaigns). His goal and point totals were enough to comfortably lead the team (despite playing 36 more games than Nicklas Backstrom, Ovechkin was unable to surpass the Swedish pivot in assists on the season, losing out by a 30-27 count), which ultimately probably says more about the team than its captain. Ovechkin scored at a 50-goal pace over the last 43 games of the season and had a handful of vintage individual performances, including a March comeback win against the Isles, one of eight multi-goal efforts for The Great Eight." Read more:http://www.japersrink.com/2012/6/11/3077071/2011-12-rink-wrap-alex-ovechkin
