Unlike some of the NHL's other top scorers like Sidney Crosby, Ryan Getzlaf, and Claude Giroux, Alexander Ovechkin isn't generally used against top lines. Not that it doesn't make perfect sense to steer his usage to more favourable match-ups against second line opponents and in the offensive zone, much like Niklas Backstrom and Mike Green, but rather that his success needs to be kept in the right context. And yes, though the Capitals were greatly outscored when he was on the ice, they weren't outshot.
Brooks Laich, Marcus Johansson, Troy Brouwer, Joel Ward, and Jason Chimera were generally the forwards Adam Oates selected to face top opposing lines, in increasing order of defensive-minded usage. Mikhail Grabovski is a great lesson in player usage. He was a consistent 50-point player, dropped to just 16 points in 48 games when moved to a shutdown role in 2012-13, and then bounced back to his 50-point pace when returned to his proper usage. It was actually quite predictable.
Washington's blue line was hit with injuries, but not to John Carlson and Karl Alzner, who are the team's top defensemen by a considerable margin. They play big minutes taking on top opponents and in both zones. While there were no real top-four defensemen among their remaining options, Dmitry Orlov is the likeliest candidate to play his way up in the near future.