Against Tampa Bay on Wednesday night, Alex Ovechkin had more attempted shots blocked (5) than reach the net (2) but he also broke at least three sticks, maybe more, when taking aim for others.

There's no question that Ovechkin, and several other players who were among the Capitals' top scorers last season, are slumping, but after the 3-0 loss to the Lightning, Coach Bruce Boudreau commented on the uncontrollable factors that contribute.

One of the odder moments at St. Pete Times Forum came when Ovechkin came out of the penalty box and had what might have been a clean breakaway into the offensive zone and well, here's Boudreau:

"Ovi comes out of the penalty box, the puck instead of bouncing forward -- I don't know how in the hell -- it bounced backwards on him or he has a breakaway," Boudreau said. Nicklas Backstrom "gets chances in the slot and it flubs off his stick. Ovi breaks sticks when he's shooting. There's a lot of things not going right for them and they're pressing really hard but [their slumps are] not for a lack of want and will.

"it's tough when you've got a team that's used to scoring. There's a lot of guys that's used to scoring a lot of goals, being up at the top in a lot of categories, and when they're not scoring they get frustrated."