Alex Ovechkin gives a message to Maple Leafs on breaking through, and an example of breaking out

Alexander Ovechkin asked the media if it was OK if he sat down; reporters said, sit.

“Thank you guys, thank you,” said Ovechkin, his hair more grey than black. “Old body, you know? Need to rest all the time.”

He has been through the wars, Ovi has. So when he was asked about the Toronto Maple Leafs — about how they sometimes cite his Washington Capitals as a team that went through playoff disappointments, accumulated scars, and finally, finally, broke through and won a Stanley Cup — Ovechkin nodded.

“Yeah, I think it helped a lot that when the core group of guys stay together, and go through that,” said Ovechkin, 34, who passed Luc Robitaille for 12th all-time with his 668th and 669th goals Tuesday night, the latter the game-winner, in Washington’s 4-3 overtime win. “You know, coaching staff, players and you can see, it took us four years with (former coach) Barry (Trotz) to realize what we have to do. You know? And we make mistakes, coaching staff make mistakes, and when we get a chance to take another level we all came together, and it works.

“And I think for them, they still young group of guys and I hope they’re going to learn but, again, it’s up to them how they want to do it: if they want to play for yourself, or if they want to win Stanley Cup, they have to play differently.”

True honesty is so rare in hockey, but welcome. This Leafs team was already off to an up-and-down start when Ovechkin’s Capitals arrived, with people suddenly bellowing about whether they were tough enough. And then Washington’s Tom Wilson ran both Jake Muzzin and Tyson Barrie and only really hurt Muzzin. Toronto responded with a Freddie Gauthier scuffle, and a power play where they won puck battles, and Auston Matthews scored a go-ahead goal, his second of the night. That’s how you do it. When the game got going in the third, and got a little feisty, the Leafs were right there for it. Good stuff.

Of course, Ovechkin’s position is de facto this: how you play in the playoffs is what matters, which you can say when you have three Presidents’ Trophies. Still, Leafs coach Mike Babcock couldn’t wait to weigh in. You don’t become a big-time coach without spotting teaching moments.

“Well, I don’t know if he’s wrong,” Babcock said. “He knows, because he lived it. If you look at Steve Yzerman, he lived it. A lot of guys live it until their 30s. You’ve got to decide whether you want to wait until you’re 30, or do you want to figure it out now?

“It’s a process for young guys. Everybody in Toronto is in a rush all the time. I get it. But that’s not pro sport. That’s not real. You’ve got to keep building and building and building, and steady on the rudder. Keep going through things, and matchups, and learning to play with the lead, and learning how to be patient, not turn the puck over, and shift length, and all the things that you’re just a good player and you haven’t had to deal with. Well, you gotta deal with if you want to win in the National Hockey League.

“Look at the age of St. Louis. That’s just the reality of the situation. But one thing about it is it gets your attention, hurts your feelings.”

He went on, because what Babcock has been asking for from this team for three years has been his vision of hockey: the ultra safety of Team Canada at the Olympics, shutting off everything and then letting skill make the difference. He begs for heavy hockey, which is just hockey that competes at the highest level. Ovechkin found it, and he won.

“Well he knows, he lived it,” said Babcock. “He was the guy. You know, and then figured out, this what we gotta do to win. So I mean, that’s why when he sees us … You know, we talked about this last year, fun to watch, going 100 miles an hour. Gotta learn how to play right.

“He’s just talking about running, gunning, and not being able to play, The bottom line is you got to keep it out of your net. You’re not outscoring anybody at playoff time: you better defend then and your skill comes to the forefront. Is that not a fair assessment?

“It hurts my feelings I can tell you that, I’m the coach, I’m supposed to get all this organized. But we know this. We’re working towards it every day. We’re talking about every single day. Just because you’re talking about it, it doesn’t mean it’s going to change right away. Sometimes it’s just life lessons. But in saying all that, we think we’re on the right process, we think we got good people and we’re going in the right direction.”

Whatever you think of his vision of hockey, this was Babcock getting a chance to deliver his mission statement, endorsed by a Hall of Famer. Afterward, Auston Matthews and Morgan Rielly stonily declined to comment, while Mitch Marner said the Leafs will play for each other and their logo. Defenceman Travis Dermott said “You don’t like things said about your squad. But … he’s a respected player so if he’s saying that, there must be, I guess, a little bit of truth, if any.” He didn’t seem sure. The new guy, Tyson Barrie, struck the right tone.

“I think it’s no secret if you’re going to play as individuals, you’re not going to get any success,” said Barrie, who broke a 10-game pointless streak with an assist on Matthews’s first goal. “And he’s obviously done it over there, but I don’t think I don’t think we have individuals in this room. I think we’ve got a great tight team, and we’re gonna we’re going to find our way here.”

Either way, Ovi’s assessment will hang over the Leafs, become part of their story, until it doesn’t. Ovechkin hasn’t scouted the Leafs, but he has beaten them in a tight six-game playoff series in 2017, which was the first of Toronto’s three consecutive first-round exits. John Tavares and Marner and Zach Hyman played even with Boston’s peerless top line last spring, but this Leafs team also doesn’t have all the good habits it could have, yet.

There’s time. Defenceman Morgan Rielly, who missed three straight practices before playing Tuesday night, said the new faces weren’t a factor in Toronto’s early inconsistency; the heavy early schedule, he said, had a greater impact. This town freaks out, he was told.

“Yeah, we’re not freaking out, though,” Rielly said. “That’s the only difference.” He said they were going to be fine, too.

Still, the gaudy contracts and bumpy start and past failures make for a weight to carry around, until you lift the weight. The Capitals have no such baggage now. Centre Evgeny Kuznetsov talked about how you need the right environment, with coaches who let you get comfortable. Caps winger Lars Eller talked about ghosts and scars.

“Like, you have nothing to lose because you already been there so many times,” said Eller, “and you’ve already been through that pain of losing: that f— it, it can’t get any worse. We’ve already been at the bottom.”

“There were so many (losses). There’s a mental dynamic to it. Yeah, maybe a little less fear of losing.”

Toronto has lots of time before reaching that place. You could say Toronto’s dead response to Boston in Game 6 last year echoed Washington’s dead response in Game 7 against Pittsburgh the year before they won the Cup, and that would be true. There is something to learning how to really, really win. Alexander Ovechkin came to town, and gave the Leafs a poke. Toronto has some issues to sort out before April, clearly. But it’s up to them to prove him wrong.