Ovechkin shoulders the ‘blame’ for Capitals’ ouster
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Greg Wyshynski, ESPN
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin took the blame for his team’s opening round sweep at the hands of the New York Rangers, the first time the star winger ever went scoreless in a playoff series.
“It’s always tough to lose a series. We had pretty good chances. We just didn’t score. Our line didn’t score lots of goals,” he said after a 4-2 Rangers win on Sunday night in Washington, D.C. “Blame me. I didn’t play well.”
Ovechkin, 38, played 15:26 in Game 4, his sixth-smallest amount of ice time in a playoff game. That included just 3:22 in the first period — 16 seconds less than New York Rangers rookie Matt Rempe.
Ovechkin said after Game 4 that he was healthy in the series.
The sweep marked the first time in Ovechkin’s 15 trips to the Stanley Cup playoffs that he was held without a point in a series. His five shots on goal were also a career postseason low: While Ovechkin was tied for 19th in the regular season in shots on goal (272), he failed to register a shot in Games 1 and 4 against the Rangers.
It was a rough series for Ovechkin beyond the score traditional score sheet. Washington coach Spencer Carbery said that his captain was “struggling” after their Game 2 loss to the Rangers, which included a critical Ovechkin turnover on a power play that led to a shorthanded goal that gave New York a 4-2 lead late in the second period.
Carbery hoped that home ice advantage in Games 3 and 4 might offer Ovechkin friendlier matchups, but the winger couldn’t get his offense going.
One major issue was the Capitals’ power play, which was humbled by the Rangers’ penalty kill. Washington went 0-for-8 at home in Games 3 and 4, going 2-for-17 in the series.
Ovechkin is tied for eighth all-time in postseason power-play goals (28 in 151 games).
“The power play is such a big part of it, when it’s struggling and he’s not getting opportunities,” Carbery said. “They checked him so tightly over there that every time he gets the puck, he has a half second to make a play and there’s usually a stick and some shin pads on it. I think that played a major role for him in this series.”
But the bigger issues, according to the Capitals coach, was how much energy Ovechkin had to expend just to get the team into the postseason in the final wild-card spot. Ovechkin scored 13 goals in his last 17 games of the season.
“I think that this year, leaning on him down the stretch the second half of the year, he did an incredible job finding his game,” Carbery said. “We were so scoring challenged all season long. In the second half [after the trade deadline] it was even more of a challenge. That was a lot, the second half of the year. Especially the last two weeks where every game felt like life and death for our team. I felt like that took a lot out of him physically and mentally heading into the playoffs.”
Next season will be Ovechkin’s 20th in the NHL. He’s 41 goals away from equaling Wayne Gretzky’s NHL career record total.
Throughout his record chase, Ovechkin has been adamant that he wants to play for a Capitals team that contends for the postseason and not just one trying to service his pursuit of history.
When asked if he’s worried this might be his last trip to the playoffs, Ovechkin said, “I hope I’m still going to get a couple more chances.”
The Rangers, winners of the Presidents’ Trophy for the league’s best record, advance to the second round to face the winner of the Carolina Hurricanes vs. the New York Islanders, which Carolina leads 3-1.
Knight’s Choice has won the 2024 Melbourne Cup, defeating Warp Speed and Okita Soushi in a thrilling finish at Flemington on Tuesday afternoon.
The massive outsider saluted for Irish-born jockey Robbie Dolan, who claimed victory in what was his first ever ride in the “race that stops a nation”.
In what was a gripping 164th staging of Australia’s most-watched thoroughbred race, Knight’s Choice proved too strong in a sprint to the finish, pulling over the top of Okita Soushi and holding off Warp Speed by the barest of margins.
Trained by John Symons and Sheila Laxon on the Sunshine Coast, Knight’s Choice was well down the betting across all markets. It was Laxon’s second Melbourne Cup triumph after she trained Ethereal to victory 23 years ago.
“This is the pinnacle of all pinnacles, this is the Melbourne Cup,” Symons said.
Zardozi rounded out the first four.
As the field approached the final few hundred metres it appeared as though Jamie Kah, aboard Okita Soushi, would become just the second woman to ride the winner in the Melbourne Cup. But Okita Soushi was swallowed up as the winning post neared, with Knight’s Choice beating Warp Speed to the line after a peach of a ride from Dolan.
“We’ll be singing tonight after a few beers,” Dolan, who was a contestant on the 2022 edition of “The Voice”, told Channel 9.
“It is amazing and a lot of people doubted this little horse. Doubt me now.”
Laxon was more than happy with the ride, with Dolan threading his way through the field from near last on the bend.
“He started the race, and he knew how to ride him. We didn’t give him instructions, he knew what to do,” she said.
“I love it being down for the Australians. The Australian horse has done it, and Robbie is Australian now as well, so I’m thrilled to win the Cup, and it is the people’s Cup, and that’s what it is all about.”
Knight’s Choice is just the sixth Australian-bred horse to win since 1993, and the first since Vow and Declare back in 2019.
The five-year-old gelding carried only 51kg to victory and was making its first start over the 3200m trip. It had most recently come off a fifth-placed finish in the Bendigo Cup, but had showed sparing little form this preparation otherwise.
“I watched every Melbourne Cup for the last 40 years. I thought my best chance was to get him to stay the trip and, hopefully, he can run home and do the quick sectionals he can on a good track and he proved everybody wrong,” Dolan said.
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Jorge Castillo, ESPN Staff Writer
Thirteen free agents received qualifying offers from their former teams Monday before free agency officially began at 5 p.m. E.T., sources told ESPN’s Jeff Passan. Among those tendered the offer, which is a one-year, $21.05 million contract for the 2025 season:
The players have until 4 p.m. ET on Nov. 19 to decide whether to accept the offer, which is calculated annually based on the mean average annual value of Major League Baseball’s 125 biggest contracts.
The most sought-after free agents have historically rejected the proposal to enter free agency in search of a multiyear contract. Just 13 of 131 players have accepted a qualifying offer since it was introduced following the 2012 season. Last year, all seven players presented the deal, valued at $20.325 million, turned it down.
Clubs can give a player a qualifying offer only if the player was with the team continuously from opening day and has never received a qualifying offer before.
Dodgers right-hander Walker Buehler, San Diego Padres outfielder Jurickson Profar, and Yankees second baseman Gleyber Torres were among the free agents not extended the qualifying offer.
Teams that lose a player who received a qualifying offer receive a compensation pick. Clubs that sign players who rejected the qualifying offer before the amateur draft the following year must surrender draft compensation and could also lose international bonus pool money. The possible penalties have not affected top-tier free agents’ earning potential, but they have hampered the market for midtier players.
Teams that surpassed the competitive balance tax line in 2024 and sign a player tied to a qualifying offer stand to lose their second- and fifth-highest picks in the upcoming amateur draft. They also lose $1 million from their international bonus pool. Revenue-sharing organizations lose their third-highest draft selection. The others lose their second-highest draft pick and $500,000 from their international bonus pool.
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