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Edmonton Oilers: What Alex Ovechkin and Jarome Iginla can teach about winning

By Phil Gretzky

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 12: Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid (97) and Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) in the face-off circle during a NHL game between the Washington Capitals and the Edmonton Oilers on November 12, 2017, at Capital One Arena, in Washington D.C.The Capitals defeated the Oilers 2-1 in a shootout(Photo by Tony Quinn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 12: Edmonton Oilers center Connor McDavid (97) and Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin (8) in the face-off circle during a NHL game between the Washington Capitals and the Edmonton Oilers on November 12, 2017, at Capital One Arena, in Washington D.C.The Capitals defeated the Oilers 2-1 in a shootout(Photo by Tony Quinn/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Patience is the key to winning as here are just a few things the Edmonton Oilers can learn from players like Alex Ovechkin and Jarome Iginla.

With all the folks out there, especially those in the TO media who are trying to cook up a story no matter how small it is, there is one thing that stands out that could actually help the Edmonton Oilers. Everyone seems to be analyzing the facial expressions of McDavid and Draisaitl and determining just how fast they can exodus from the organization due to some mass unhappiness that has no basis in fact – it’s time to bring some context to the conversation in case people actually starting believing their nonsense.

We can do that by bringing up the examples of two players whose careers can definitely teach our dynamic duo a little something-something.

One of those guys is Alex Ovechkin.  Yup, the same 33-year-old guy whose skills are so epic that he’s a six-time 50 goal scorer and one-time 60 goal scorer which explains why he’s won 8 Rocket Richard trophies in his 14-year career.  1,211 points in 1084 games just making it look easy.

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He’s among the elite in the game today, no doubt about it.

It also took him 13 years to win his first Stanley Cup.  In all those years, did we ever hear rumors about how he was unhappy in Washington?  Or that his facial expressions indicated he was ever unhappy to be a Capital?  Or that he had requested a trade?

No – and maybe that’s because the slightly higher profile Sidney Crosby tends to grab the headlines more in in the East so he flies under the radar – but in all that time no rumors have ever dogged Ovenchicken like they have Mcdavid and Draisaitl.

What can they learn from Ovechkin?  One word – patience. 

I had a feeling it would take Ovechkin awhile to win a cup, but there was never a doubt in my mind he would win one sooner or later. And in 2017-18 he did, piling up 27 points in 24 playoff games in the process.

Along the way, those Washington Capitals suffered a fate that arguably is even worse than not making the playoffs at all – getting constantly knocked out in the 1st or 2nd round, year after year.  Looking plateaued and well, being labeled choke artists.

McDavid and Draisaitl are not even close to 13 years yet – five and six years respectively – so they’ve got a ways to go to catch up to Ovechkin, and they’re still multiple seasons away from their PPY.  There’s still lots of time for them to win a cup – and they’ll do it as Edmonton Oilers where it all started, just like Ovechkin got to do it as a Washington Capital where it all started for him.

Now you might be thinking – “Jarome Iginla never won a cup, what can he teach us about winning one?”

Good question.

Six seasons before the end of his career, and right at the end of his last contact with the Flames, they decided that he shouldn’t stick around on a team that was going nowhere, and they traded him to Pittsburgh so he could win a cup there – except he didn’t win a cup there.  Then he signed in Boston for a year, thinking that in Boston he’d win a cup.  Did he?  No.  He never got a sniff at the playoffs again, signing in Colorado for three years before playing out the string with LA from the trade deadline in his final NHL season.

He went to four different organizations in search of the cup, but did he find it?  No.

Leaving your team for greener pastures can work sometimes – just ask Ray Bourque or Dave Andreychuk.

But it involves predicting the future, and no one can do that with any certainty, so jumping ship to another team guarantees nothing.  Ask Dave Lowry or Ryan Smyth – we all remember how that story played out.

And that’s what Iggy can teach Mcdavid and Draisaitl – you might think that jumping ship somewhere else will be the right move for your career, but there are no guarantees in the NHL, and it becomes harder and harder to predict who will win the cup with each passing season.

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It’s better to be an Ovechkin than an Iginla, don’t you think?  Have that superstar on your roster to motivate everyone else and the GM to win a cup for them. Mcdavid and Draisaitl aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.  If they took a look at our prospect pool, I think they’d see there’s nowhere else better for them to be than right where they are now.

I don’t know about you, but I’d say that’s good news for us.

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