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Well, it's not as if there's MVP-calibre backchecking being done either... saying Ovechkin's better than Kovalchuk in that regard would be like saying Luke Richardson's a better sniper than Scott Lachance and Ken Daneyko.

Kovalchuk actually isn't that bad defensively. He does back check (and forecheck) but he gets burned on high-risk plays, and by playing with a center who makes boneheaded passes to him that get picked off. On top of that, most of his points come on the PP, so his scoring doesn't get him out of the nice little - hole he got himself into.

Kovalchuk is never going to win a Selke, but he's not as bad as people think.

Ovechkin is +4 on a team that has given up 72 more goals than it has scored. There isn't a player in hockey on a team that has that bad a goal differential who's played half his team's game and has a better plus/minus than that, other than AO's two linemates. I'd say that speaks pretty highly of his team play.

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