What I learned about hockey on Sunday

On Ovechkin, the Stars, and Red Wings.

Sunday was one of those, “where were you when…” moments when Alex Ovechkin scored a power player goal to pass Wayne Gretzky as the NHL’s all-time leading goal scorer.

A record that seemed unfathomable for anyone to touch, fell in storybook fashion with Ovechkin scoring from his typical “office” on top of the circle and on the anniversary of the Capitals winning the draft lottery to select him back on April 6, 2004.

Where was I when Ovechkin scored that goal?

I was watching the Minnesota Blue Ox celebrate a 5-4 overtime victory to win the Tier I 14U National Championship at USA Hockey Arena in Plymouth, Michigan an waiting to interview Joey Cullen, Matt Cullen’s son, who delivered a hat trick in the championship game.

It was the second game I covered that morning, earlier watching the Islanders Hockey Club win the Tier I 13O National Championship against Little Caesars, before I drove to another rink so both my kids could skate.

While my kids skated, I watched the Dallas Stars game against the Minnesota Wild, a 3-2 Wild overtime win, on TV, and then did the post-game show for All DLLS with my pals Owen Newkirk and Sam Nestler.

After that I watched the Detroit Red Wings play the Florida Panthers on TV, a 2-1 win for Detroit.

Long story short, I spent the entirety of Sunday watching or discussing hockey in some shape or form.

Maybe this will all connect, maybe it won’t, but here’s what I learned about hockey on Sunday.

On Ovechkin’s record

One of the cooler things to me about Ovechkin’s game is how it’s evolved. He was always a dynamic shooter, but he played with such a tenacity and physical impact earlier in his career that seemed impossible to maintain.

And instead of cratering offensively as his body aged, Ovechkin became more efficient at manipulating space with and without the puck. He was no longer a bull-rushing forward, but a precise weapon that could pick apart defenses like a well-sharped scalpel.

This season alone has been a testament to his game, he broke his leg, missed 16 games, and is still having this success while the Capitals are one of them set teams in the NHL.

On what we should and shouldn’t be worried about with the Dallas Stars

The Dallas Stars lost to the Minnesota Wild in overtime, they allowed more than 40 shots and have been in a bit of a run, play wise, despite going 7-2-1 in their past 10 games.

On the All DLLS Stars postgame show I got a pretty good taste of the current fan frustration on the show, and the worry for Stars fans about a team that is one of the best in the NHL, but at the same time hasn’t outshot an opponent since March 18 against the Anaheim Ducks.

Here’s how I see things with the Stars….

They are a good team that isn’t playing well. The defense likely also isn’t going to get the reinforcements from Miro Heiskanen for the first round of the playoffs, meaning the group as constructed is the group that will have to figure it out in Round 1 of the playoffs.

I don’t see how the Stars defense can get better at moving the puck without Heiskanen, Dallas knows that and the Colorado Avalanche will know it as well. So if the Stars are going to advance without Heiskanen, it’s not going to be particular pretty.

The Stars also will be a better team once Tyler Seguin returns, potentially on April 14 in Detroit. The Stars have been lacking a true veteran co-captain this season with Seguin injured and Joe Pavelski retired.

Jamie Benn is the Stars undisputed leader, right or wrong, but he’s less effective without a more boisterous lieutenant that can step up in both the public and more private roles a captain typically carries.

Wyatt Johnston could be that leader at some point, and he wears an “A” now at a young age, but the rest of the Stars leadership core consists more of silent leaders, like Roope Hintz and Esa Lindell.

On the Red Wings playoff “chase”

The Red Wings have had a bit of a maddening season.

And it’s really a frustration with perception.

When the team fired Derek Lalonde they were here.

And today they are here after beating Florida.

That’s success, objective success.

But it’s also hard to justify when the Red Wings have had two six-game losing streaks with Todd McClellan and at one point where here in the standings on Feb. 25.

Now with six games to play, the Red Wings likely need to win at least five of them to get to 89 points and then hope Montreal Canadiens somehow only pickup six points or less in their final six games.

Mathematically it’s possible, but it’s incredibly unlikely.

Which of course leads to our typical Steve Yzerman discourse.

If his goal was to build a team that competed for the wild card, played meaningful games in April, well he technically succeeded. The games have meant something and young players have taken some nice strides, particularly Marco Kasper.

But there’s also the reality that Yzerman has a longer runway than nearly any GM in the NHL, and if not for his past history as a player, he likely would have been fired two seasons ago.

This is where multiple things can be true, the Red Wings are, believe it or not, in a better spot than they were four months ago. But they are also several steps away from competing, and it’s going to take some realization from Red Wings management that some assets need to be flipped to do something bold in the offseason.

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I’m running on fumes today, so hopefully this all made some sense. If it didn’t, I’ll make up for it later this week with more things, I promise.