Uncomfortable questions about Alex Ovechkin's future

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Alex Ovechkin is usually quiet when he talks to the media, but Wednesday night, after yet another crushing 2-0 Game 7 loss to the Penguins in the Stanley Cup playoffs, the Capitals captain was practically inaudible.

Pressed up against a locker room wall, Ovechkin did his best to suss out what went wrong for the Capitals during the Penguins series and came up with no easy answers.

"I don't think the urgency was there," Ovechkin said. "It's hard to say right now."

When pressed on why the team couldn't find any fire in a do-or-die situation, Ovechkin was at a loss.

"I don't know," he said. "Obviously, we have plenty chances to score, but we make a couple mistakes and it cost us."

For a team to walk away with the Presidents' Trophy but not find any urgency in a Game 7 is unsatisfying and baffling, and it didn't make matters easier when Ovechkin insisted the team tried it's hardest.

"We're trying," Ovechkin said. "We try to do our best."

If this was the best the Capitals could do, there was little doubt it would be good enough to get past Pittsburgh.

The Capitals have made 15 Game 7 appearances in franchise playoff history, with nine of those games happening in the Alex Ovechkin era. The Capitals have gone on to lose six out of the nine Game 7s.

In the first two rounds of the playoffs, Ovechkin had eight points, with five goals and three assists, but was a minus-5 in the series. For a star player, that's simply not good enough.

When asked to assess his captain's play, head coach Barry Trotz admitted he didn't want to answer that question.

"Emotionally, right now, I don't want to answer that question," Trotz said. " 'You win and lose as a team' is probably my best answer right now. Emotionally, I don't think I want to answer that question right now."

It's a hard situation for a coach to be in, when his star player doesn't play like a star.

Trotz had Ovechkin on the ice for 18:22 in Game 7, below six other forwards, and this was after Ovechkin's demotion to the third line in Game 6.

While Ovechkin isn't the only reason the Capitals season is again done in May, he wasn't much of an asset on Monday night. Ovechkin made a huge defensive error in the closing minutes of the third, when, with Washington down a goal, he turned the puck over, leading directly to Patric Hornqvist scoring Pittsburgh's second goal.

NBCSN's Mike Milbury wasted no time in assessing Ovechkin's play, something Trotz wouldn't do.

"He was on the ice for both goals against, one of them very directly involved. The first one, he had a decent chance to get it out, looked a little lazy on it. I think the Ovechkin experiment has to be reviewed, lots of decisions to make. He tries hard, I just don't think he's a heady enough hockey player to get it done in key moments."

Leaving aside accusations of him being "lazy", it hasn't been a stellar playoff series for Ovechkin, who had 33 goals in the regular season, but only managed four shots on goal in Game 7, without delivering a single point.

With this most recent, but, let's face it, not unexpected playoff exit, the drum beat for Ovechkin to be traded will grow loud once again, and while that feels like a nuclear scenario, it's clear that things are going to change in the Capitals locker room.

A large chunk of the team's current roster will be facing free agency (T.J.Oshie, Justin Williams among them), and with the Capitals' Cup window slamming shut, Ted Leonsis will have a long summer to mull over uncomfortable questions about Ovechkin's future and what place, if any, he has in Washington.