You just knew Alex Ovechkin was waiting for this moment. The Washington Capitals captain sat for long stretches of Game 2 versus the New York Rangers, seeing just 13:36 of total ice time. To put that into perspective, Jay Beagle played 19:58 on Monday night.
But Ovechkin wasn't sitting in silence, especially 12 minutes into every period. That's when the Madison Square Garden crowd has been counting down to the eight-minute mark, then loudly chanting "Ovi sucks".
In effect, Ovechkin was responding to a lot of critics when he scored the 3-2 game-winner just 30 seconds after the last "Ovi sucks" chant, with seven and a half minutes to go in the third period of Game 2:
Just after curling to the top of the zone, walking the blue line and sniping a wrister past Henrik Lundqvist, Ovechkin headed to the boards and encouraged the MSG crowd to let him have it by cupping his ear to his hands for the Hulk Hogan-inspired "I can't hear you" gesture.
Consider the exuberant celebration a bit of a message to Dale Hunter as well. It probably felt pretty nice to remind the Capitals' coach that Ovi does not, in fact, suck. He's the guy you want on the ice late in tie games, what with his ability to break said ties. Despite his ice time, Ovechkin made the most of it:
Think this was enough for Dale Hunter to find him some more icetime for Game 3?
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