[mithrilG60]

The other factor is that offense sells tickets while defense wins games. The regular season is about filling rinks and making the team owners money so ever team plays a different kind of game, which is why entirely offensive orientated teams like the Caps end up in 1st overall. In the playoffs teams tend to play much more a much more defensively cautious style which tends to shut down freewheeling offenses. If your team can't switch from offensive to defense they ll never do well...... and let's face it, both Ovechkin and the Caps are all offense all the time. There's no off switch or defensive fallback there.