A big fat contract doesn’t instantly turn a 22-year-old into a sure thing in the playoffs, especially when that player had no previous playoff experience. Alexander Ovechkin has plenty of International experience, and that’s important, but he still needs to cut his teeth in this year’s playoffs and some of his other teammates need to step up and come to his aide.

The days of grinding your way to the Stanley Cup are over and the Caps renaissance season is already beyond the team’s expectations but that doesn’t change the fact that one man can’t win a series for a hockey team. It’s one of the last team sports where one-on-one play or great singular moments can’t control a series. Goalies have a tremendous impact on playoff games but until they can score goals without the help of an empty net they will always have to rely on their offense to put up enough goals to win a game.

“I think we didn’t play our game today,” Ovechkin said. “We didn’t play hard. We didn’t play our style….We didn’t score goals.”

The young Russian has two points in two games but he got his goal late in Game 1 and he didn’t score in Game 2 and in that game he was gripping his stick a bit too tight possibly feeling the pressure that he needed to get his team on the scoreboard. That didn’t happen and now his team has to change their game plan so the Philadelphia Flyers don’t shut them out in Game 3.

“It takes a team effort to stop a guy like that (Ovechkin) You just have to contain him you are not going to shut him out completely,” said Flyers forward R.J. Umberger.

Caps coach Bruce Boudreau noticed that “Ovie’s” shifts were a bit too long and that will likely change in his third-career playoff game. The one thing that won’t change is the 24 minutes he has averaged so far. The Caps need him out there hitting and drawing the attention of the Flyers defense so the other talented scorers like Nicklas Backstrom, Alexander Semin, Viktor Kozlov, Brooks Laich and defenseman Mike Green can get some goals. Sergei Fedorov is clearly just a puck distributor at this point in his career so he can’t be counted on and the rest of the team is largely made up of mockers and grinders.

This year’s playoff experience will teach #8 a lot and how he adjusts to the rigors of each game will play into his overall development. Even though he won the Art Ross and the Richard Trophies (with more on the way after the season is over) besides being the top goal-scoring left winger of all-time with 65, they were all regular season accolades and as we all know the playoffs are a different animal.

Ovechkin has transformed the Capitals organization into a winner. His star power has sold a boatload of jerseys that fans wear to every game. He is easily the best athlete in Washington, D.C. and now he is feeling the pressure. Will his postseason breakout occur this year? Only time will tell.