Kirk Muller spent three seasons as an assistant coach with the Washington Capitals, overseeing the forwards and the power play, and was standing behind the bench on the April night Alex Ovechkin scored his 895th goal to pass Wayne Gretzky. Speaking on Spittin’ Chiclets, he described the habit that struck him most.
“What was really cool is when you coach him, every time he takes a shot on net, off the face-off, line rush, all-zone play, whatever it is, every shot, I knew that as I was standing there as a coach, he’d say, ‘Hey, Kirk, give me the iPad. I want to look at that shot,'” Muller said.
Every shot. Not the chances he fluffed, not the ones that hit a post. All of them.
“So you imagine, here’s the all-time greatest goal scorer, and every time he shoots, it’s like, why did he save it? Or was that a bad shot?” Muller said.
What he was looking for varied.
“He’ll be like, ‘Oh, I had him, you know what, he made a great save,’ or ‘I didn’t get it up enough,'” Muller said. “Or off face-offs he’ll be like, ‘Tell this winger, see where the guy came from that got through to get to me, pick him now, so I can get that shot.'”
What is Alex Ovechkin like in the dressing room?
Muller’s answer to that starts with something he thinks gets missed entirely from outside.
“People don’t see the passion he has,” he said. “On the day-to-day basis in the dressing room, he comes in, a guy at his age with all these young guys, and he’s excited and having fun and he loves the game.”
He has said versions of that before. While still with the club, Muller described that passion as one of Ovechkin’s greatest assets and an energy that spread through the room.
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Muller himself played 1,349 NHL games across 19 seasons, scoring 357 goals and winning the Stanley Cup with Montreal in 1993, so he isn’t easily impressed. He left Washington at the end of last season to pursue other opportunities, and was replaced by Ray Bennett.
His summary of the man with 929 career goals is the part worth keeping.
“Every shot he takes, he looks at to see why he didn’t score,” Muller said.
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