Despite his team crashing out of the Stanley Cup Eastern Conference Finals with a 4-3 series loss to the New York Rangers, Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin thinks his team has had the best season since he arrived in 2005.
Late Saturday, Ovechkin's Capitals lost the seventh game of the series 2-1. Ovechkin produced just two shots on goal during his 21 minutes of ice time.
"We tried to do our best," Ovechkin said. "It’s hard and terrible feeling now. But all I can say is we do have the best team - part of the best team I've been on. The group of guys, the atmosphere, it's unbelievable to play."
Ovechkin added that he hoped the squad for next season would not change.
Ovechkin is now available for world hockey championships, where the Russian national team can still add two names to their squad.
His countrymen Evgeni Malkin and Pavel Datsyuk already joined up with the squad after the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings were eliminated from the NHL playoffs. Ovechkin is more favorable candidate to get a Russia call that his team-mate forward Alexander Semin, who scored only 3 goals and made one assist in the last 14 Stanley Cup games.
Ovechkin is expected to play in the second line with Datsyuk and Traktor Chelyabinsk prodigy Evgeny Kuznetsov.
Ovechkin switched to the Capitals from Dynamo Moscow in 2005 to go on to become a 2009 league MVP and five-time All-Star. This season, however, disciplinary problems and lengthy goalless spells have spoiled his record.
