Jamie Nye: Ovechkin gives Leafs some sage advice

Who would have thought it would be Alexander Ovechkin giving advice on how to win in the NHL?

Three years ago, people would have spit out their morning coffee hearing Ovechkin tell media how a young Toronto Maple Leafs team needs to win.

Ovechkin said the Leafs have to play a little more selflessly to win. And he’s right. There are a lot of young teams who need to learn how team hockey matters in all zones.

And it doesn’t come from any sort of disrespect from Ovechkin to the Leafs. He’s honestly assessing something his own team needed to learn to finally break through.

Capitals head coach Barry Trotz was able to instil that value into the Caps over his time and it paid off. Trotz got Nashville teams to overperform and did so again with the Islanders last season.

Team before self.

It’s a common theme among so many great teams and programs.

Sometimes there are those who never get it. For those that do, it pays off big time.

We’ll see if the Leafs can learn the lesson faster than Ovechkin did.