I'll be honest: my first thought when Alex Ovechkin completed this exquisite goal to give the Capitals a 2-0 lead over the Rangers in Game 5 of the first round of the 2011 NHL Playoffs was "Why didn't you do this during that Game 4 breakaway?" Of course, the Capitals won Game 4 anyway, so it didn't really matter, but I'm just being honest here.
↵Anyway, as you can see here, Ovechkin got a great pitch-ahead pass, snuck around Marc Staal and had incredible body control to get to his backhand and beat Henrik Lundqvist. Most players would have crashed into Lundqvist, but not Ovechkin. That's just not how he rolls.
↵If you really think about it, is there any goalie in all of professional hockey who could have saved that shot? Ovechkin switched to his backhand so quickly that you could barely blink before he shot the puck. Just another reason why he's called "The Great Eight."
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