Dylan Strome was the Capitals’ leading scorer this season until last night, when a pair of Alex Ovechkin goals (against one Strome assist) pulled them into a dead tie with both 23 goals and 31 assists each.
Stromer did get a helper on one of Ovi’s goals and has assisted on 22 of Ovi’s 65 the last two years, an interesting correlation the Junkies mentioned when Dylan joined them Thursday for his weekly hit.
“Last night was a little ridiculous on my part, I probably should have shot that one,” Strome laughed. “I mean, if it goes in, I don't think anyone really cares, but if that would have missed, I think I would have been definitely the laughing stock of the NHL for at least a couple of days. But I got a two-on-one with Ovechkin, he has 850 goals, so I'm gonna pass it over more times than not.”
Ovi had his second straight two-goal game and third straight game with a tally last night, and he has 15 of his 23 in the last eight weeks
“I think just the pucks are just starting to go in. He still had the chances early on – his career shooting percentages are around 11 percent and he was shooting at like 3 percent for the first 35 or 40 games of the year,” Strome said. “Eventually, the odds are gonna bounce, and you’re not gonna keep him quiet for the whole season. Now they’re starting to go in; in Calgary he took a one timer that went off a stick and went top shelf, but maybe earlier on in the season, it would have hit the stick and missed the net. Confidence is a crazy thing, even for someone with as many goals as he has. When things are going good, the puck just seems to find you, and the goals will start to come easy.”
So yeah, about that talk that Ovi is washed up…
“It’s easy to look anytime you have a little bit of lack of production and go, oh, it's over, it's not happening anymore. People just panic,” Strome said. “It’s easy to do, but I think that if a guy is doing it for 19 straight years, I think at some point, it's gonna continue. History suggests he was gonna get 20 goals, and I remember he was sitting at eight goals for a while and everyone's like, ‘oh, is he gonna get 20 this year,’ and here he is sitting now with 23 goals, and I don't know if 30 is out of the question.”
Check out Strome’s entire segment above, which includes thoughts on facing Joel Edmondson for the first time, the Caps’ playoff push, and more!