

Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin, left, feeds a pass to Jordan Miller of the Montgomery Cheetahs hockey team from Rockville. Ovechkin spent the morning with children who have developmental disabilities from the American Special Hockey Association. (Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

When the Washington Capitals open training camp next Friday, Coach Barry Trotz envisions forward Alex Ovechkin starting at left wing. Then, at some point, Ovechkin will play right wing too.

“There’s no question,” Trotz said Thursday, after the first afternoon session of rookie camp. “I want him to develop to play both sides. He did. We’re going to go into camp, I’m going to say I’d be leaning more to left than right.”

Under former Coach Adam Oates, Ovechkin switched to the right wing to increase an unpredictability in the forward’s game, though his even-strength shot attempts per shift were, in the words of stat-minded colleague Neil Greenberg, “pretty consistent across the board.”

Ovechkin has always been deadly from the left side during Washington’s power play, but at the NHL draft in late June Trotz said he was leaning toward starting Ovechkin on the right. Evidently, something changed over the summer. Or, perhaps, it will shift based on the situation.

“He moves his feet better on that [left] side and he’s able to go laterally better,” Trotz said. “I said I want to play him more on that side, but I want to clean up some things on his own end by allowing him to do that on that side, to play that side. He’s very willing. We had some great conversations today.”

In the brief time Trotz spent with his star player and captain, the first-year coach was able to glean a different personality, he said, at least compared to what he’s been told by folks who have spent more time around Ovechkin.

“I see a little bit of a different Alex Ovechkin,” Trotz said. “I think there’s a quiet calmness and a quiet, sort of, focus. I don’t know him as well as you guys do or his teammates, but I got a little sense of that from just talking to some people that there’s a — he’s got a new focus, which is great to hear.”

Asked whether his perception of Ovechkin has changed since meeting him, Trotz responded immediately.

“Yep,” he said. “Absolutely.… Once you know people and get to know them, and I think get to know what makes them tick and what they’re passionate about, get to talk to them about certain things, you see a different light on people. Absolutely, a totally different perception on that. Everybody’s got an opinion, but you don’t know the situation. I have not coached Alex Ovechkin on the ice, so my perception on every player is probably off a little bit, because we haven’t worked for a long length of time.”

So where does that leave Trotz in answering one of the most pressing questions of Washington’s offseason: How will the new regime handle the club’s biggest star? By leaving alone what Ovechkin does best and coaching up his weaknesses, like while skating without the puck in the defensive zone.

“The things that Alex does as a player, I can’t teach,” Trotz said. “There’s no one really who can teach him that. That’s the special part. The stuff he can get better, so he can get the puck more, so he can do the things that he does, I can teach him that.

“All he has to do is understand there’s some detail that will get him the puck more or his teammates to get him the puck more. Simply, in the simplest form, I think this team can move the puck to do some really good things, and especially Alex. I want him to have the puck. I want us to hang onto the puck. When we don’t have it, I want to have a really good plan and a really good work ethic to get it back quickly so we can have it again and do what I think is a strength for our players.”