In sports, it’s important to know what prize you’re playing for. Set the wrong goal, and even if you win you may end up a loser.
The Washington Capitals recently set their eyes toward the wrong prize.
A Prize Winner
The Sports Critic should begin by noting that he’s a Capitals fan, and has been for some time. We’ve seen more good seasons than bad, but there’s been some bad along the way. Also, several good seasons that ended badly.
Those bad endings often happened when the team started playing for the wrong prize: Seeking glory for Alex Ovechkin instead of simply seeking victories over NHL foes.
Make no mistake, Ovi’s one of the greatest players in NHL history. However, he occasionally gets distracted. Recently, The Great 8 was closing in on 700 goals, a total scored by only seven other players in history.
At the start of the year, 700 seemed a long way off. Meanwhile, the team was playing well, seemingly over its Stanley Cup hangover and ready to contend again. But a barrage of Ovechkin goals in December left the big number within reach, and the Caps seemed to focus completely on helping their captain reach it.
700 Club
“The Washington Capitals roared into the Christmas break with the most wins in the NHL, and looked poised to make a run at its second Stanley Cup in three years,” Jaspersrink reported.
But the 700 (goal) Club then proved a distraction. The team played .500 hockey in the weeks after the break and suffered some humiliating losses. “The losses have led to soul-searching for the club,” Jaspersrink added. It was a rough six weeks. By trying to set up one player for goals, the team forgot to win games.
Empty Net Goal
Ironically (and I am literally using that word correctly) the Caps seem to have missed the fact that the best way to get Ovechkin’s goals is to be ahead at the end of games. Then he can dump the puck into an empty net, as he usually does five or six times a season. By trailing at the end of so many games, the team kept facing goaltenders right up until the end.
Safety is Our Goal
By the way: sports teams aren’t the only corporations that can lose track of their goals. An insurance company would seem dedicated to safety. But you wouldn’t know it to watch some Liberty Mutual commercials.
The company is trying to sell me insurance to protect me. One way it tries to do that is by having a guy driving at a dangerous speed, handing out business cards. Um, okay. I would hope that if I was seen doing something similar, they’d take away my car insurance, not reward me with a better rate.
Perhaps the Caps have found themselves, now that Ovi has his 700. He scored that tally on February 22nd in New Jersey, as the team lost its fourth straight game. Since then, the team is 3-1 and may be back on track. One certainly hopes the next prize is another Stanley Cup.
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