PITTSBURGH — By the time you read this, Alexander Ovechkin will have long departed this city, this state, maybe even this country, with the World Hockey Championship his destination, the devastation of another premature NHL playoff exit in his rear-view mirror.

Of course, history shows that, try as he might, he can run but he can’t hide — at least when it comes to his incomplete body of work in the National Hockey League.

As much as the Great Eight is known for racking up multiple 50-plus goal seasons in an era where 20 will get you at least $5 million US per season on the open market, he still carries the burden of having never reached the third round of the playoffs.

In fairness to the Washington Capitals superstar, however, the burden of blame for the disappointing defeat at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins should not be plopped on Ovechkin’s shoulders, as convenient as it might seem.

In the end, Alex Ovechkin was what Alex Ovechkin was supposed to be — one of his team's best players.

He averaged more than a point per contest, accruing seven in the six-game series. He peppered Penguins rookie goalie Matt Murray with 33 shots. He outplayed and outscored Penguins superstars Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin. He did what he needed to do, even if some of his teammates did not.

Perhaps three-time Stanley Cup winner Justin Williams had the best take on Ovechkin and why he thinks the 30-year-old winger should not take any heat.

“Listen, I’m going to stick up for my captain,” Williams said Tuesday after the Penguins series-clinching 4-3 overtime victory over the Caps at the CONSOL Energy Center.

“He did all the right things, said all the right things. It’s certainly not on him. It’s about us as a team not being quite good enough. I thought we were going to do it and to have it end so abruptly like that, it stings.”

Williams did his part, living up to his reputation as one of the sport’s all-time clutch performers by scoring in both Games 5 and 6, with Washington facing elimination. So, too, did T.J. Oshie, who registered a hat trick that included the OT winner in Game 1, then scored the Caps' first goal in Game 6 as they clawed back to erase a 3-0 Penguins lead only to lose on Nick Bonino’s game winner.

Williams and Oshie were brought in last summer by general manager Brian MacLellan to be catalysts, to nudge the Caps over the hump and get past the second round, an accomplishment the franchise has yet to achieve in the Ovechkin era. They, like Ovechkin, didn’t disappoint.

The same can’t be said for a handful of others.

Evgeny Kuznetsov finished the regular season as the team's leading point getter with 77. He had one in the entire series against the Penguins.

Every day, when the media would ask Kuznetsov about it, he would flash his boyish grin and suggest he wasn’t looking at the previous game, only the next one. Under that logic, he’ll have a long time to think, since the Caps won’t play another game for four months when the exhibition season kicks off.

Nicklas Backstrom had his best spurt in the series in setting up a pair of Washington goals in the Game 6 comeback, but he was far too inconsistent until that point. When a player gets more post-season air time acting in television commercials than goal celebrations, something is amiss.

Fellow forward Andrei Burakovsky spent chunks of the series doing his own disappearing act, almost as if he was a member of the Witness Protection Program.

And veteran defenceman Brooks Orpik, while a standup teammate according to Washington players, did not help his club one bit by getting a three-game suspension in Game 2 for his head shot on Olli Maatta. He then took a foolish double-minor for high sticking in Game 6, a regrettable act that resulted in two power-play goals against.

Having said all of that, this was not the same Capitals team that has been branded as chokers over the years in honour of their consistent underachievement. Coming back from a three-goal deficit in the final 22 minutes in a road game Tuesday night is evidence.

Now in his 30s, Ovechkin knows the clock is ticking on his window of opportunity for a Stanley Cup.

At the same time, this is the best Capitals team he has ever been on. A complete blow up would be a mistake.

“I’m proud of my team, I’m proud of my teammates,” Ovechkin said in a sombre Caps dressing room Tuesday night. “We battled through. It doesn’t matter what happened, but in the end we lost in the second round, so it sucks.”

His team, for what it’s worth, doesn’t suck.

But unless MacLellan can do the type of tinkering that finally exorcises the Caps from their second-round demons, Alex Ovechkin’s Cup dreams will evaporate as quickly as he left the country.

PENS-BOLTS SHOULD BE FUN

When it comes to the Eastern Conference final between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Tampa Bay Lightning, speed thrills.

So says Penguins captain Sidney Crosby, who is preparing for a high-tempo matchup beginning Friday night for Game 1 at the CONSOL Energy Center.

“They are a fast team that likes to keep the pace of the game up, just like us,” Crosby said. “It should be fun to watch.”

The Penguins are coming off a six-game elimination of the President Trophy-winning Washington Capitals while the Lightning disposed of the New York Islanders in five.

In three regular-season matchups against Pittsburgh, the Lightning went a perfect 3-0. The Penguins managed to grab only one of a possible six points from Tampa, that coming from an overtime loss.

Email: mzeisberger@postmedia.com

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