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Don’t ‘flush’ Ovechkin, Capitals away just yet

Washington Capitals v New York Rangers

in an NHL hockey game at Madison Square Garden on March 24, 2013 in New York City.

Paul Bereswill

Alex Ovechkin on Monday had the line of the day. Perhaps even the season, it was that good.

“Right now I’m scoring goals and I’m the king of the world,” Ovechkin said Monday. “A couple weeks ago I was almost in the toilet. You just forgot to flush me.”

It wouldn’t be outlandish to suggest - based on recent events - that Ovechkin, once in the hotly contested debate with Sidney Crosby as the best hockey player in the world, is back.

There was talk early on in the season that the Washington Capitals 27-year-old super star was perhaps washed up - in his late 20s.

He started the season with one goal in the first five games and two goals in the first 10 games. Not flattering numbers for a man who has once in his NHL career reached the 60-goal plateau and done so with incredible flare and determination.

His numbers of late are much more Ovechkin.

He’s scored in six of his last seven games. He has nine points in his last five games. His surge earned him the NHL’s first star of the week. The Capitals have won four of their last five games and are now just two points back of the New York Rangers for the eighth and final playoff spot.

When Ovechkin is going, so too are the Capitals.

“The most important thing for me is the chances,” Ovechkin told the Washington Post.

“If I have like two games, no chances, no shootings, of course it’s something bad with me and maybe our line didn’t work out. But right now everything is working and I feel pretty good.”