The 38-year-old played just 13:49 minutes for the Capitals on Wednesday.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin found himself in somewhat unfamiliar territory in Wednesday's 2-1 win over the Los Angeles Kings, as he spent most of his time watching from the bench.
Ovechkin logged just 13:49 minutes against the Kings, the lowest of his career in games where he's been available the entire 60 minutes of play. There are reasons why, though, and they're not up for concern.
Washington is in the midst of a five-game road swing and is playing its second game of a back-to-back on Thursday against the Anaheim Ducks. The 38-year-old, who took a maintenance day on Tuesday, is getting rest where he can.
In a tight, defensive battle against the Kings, Ovechkin didn't end up logging big minutes. There was a lot of time spent in the defensive zone, the fourth line coming up big and the penalty kill going to work on three separate occasions.
Not only that, but his linemates in Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson logged just a couple minutes more than Ovechkin did, and that's only because they play on the penalty kill. There was also no power-play time, costing Ovechkin at least two extra minutes of TOI.
Overall, ice time was fairly split between the forwards for the most part. There were a number of forwards who had less ice time than Ovechkin, including Sonny Milano (13:01), Aliaksei Protas (12:52), Matthew Phillips (12:07) and Anthony Mantha (11:37).
The Capitals return to action on Thursday against the Anaheim Ducks for the second game of a back-to-back to wrap up a tour of California. After receiving some rest last night, expect Ovechkin to get right back to his usual time in Anaheim.