Alex Ovechkin wasn’t having his best night against the Anaheim Ducks. So with 1 minute, 27 seconds left – after a timeout by Bruce Boudreau and with the Caps down 4-3 – Ovechkin remained on the bench while the third line of Brooks Laich , Joel Ward , Jason Chimera and extra skater Nick Backstrom took to the ice instead. Defenseman Dennis Wideman and John Carlson were also out there. Why was Boudreau's star winger on the bench instead of pushing for the tying goal?
“You watched the game. You tell me. I thought other guys were better than [Ovechkin] and I thought there was just a chance that other guys might score the goal,” Boudreau said. “I got to put out the guys that I think are going to score the goal and 99 percent of the time Alex is the guy that I think is going to score the goal. I just didn’t think Alex was going to score the goal at that time tonight. So you go with your gut feeling, thinking that other line is going pretty good. I got lucky.”
Ovechkin didn’t appear at all happy with the decision - as you can see in the TSN video at the 53-second mark. After Boudreau tells him he’s not going on the ice and then turns away with the whiteboard. Ovechkin mutters something under his breath. Could have been a curse directed at Boudreau. Could have been at himself. Who knows? But it didn’t look good. And VERSUS analyst Mike Kennan – a Stanley Cup-winning coach who is no stranger to confrontations with star players - absolutely ripped Ovechkin after the game.
“When is a teacher a great teacher? When the student is ready to learn. In this case Alex Ovechkin has to show a lot more respect to his coaching staff and to his team," Kennan said. "There’s a response here that’s not a positive response. I give Bruce Boudreau a lot of credit for making this decision. He’s delivering a message to his star player and his team. That kind of behavior on the night on the ice is not acceptable. Details have to be looked at if we’re going to be a championship team.”
To his credit, Ovechkin responded when he returned to the ice in overtime. He assisted on the game-winning goal by Backstromat 2:18 of overtime, tipping a pass from Jeff Schultz and recording the primary assist. But no matter what Ovechkin said – I’m not comfortable speculating so just watch the video and decide for yourself - the outburst still doesn’t look good. He’s the team captain, after all. NHL player are ultra-competitive beasts and Ovechkin ranks with the best of them. You still have to maintain your composure.
“It took a lot of courage for Bruce to do that. A lot of people will question if he had the courage to make that call,” Kennan said. “He did. The response was great. Eventually his top player come out and responded and made a great assist. That’s tough. That was tough to make those decisions with your top players. And if the players are respectful, which…top players most of the time are. But he’s got to learn that. I don’t want to see that behavior from him again on the bench ever. You want to be a top player in this league, show respect.”
Following the game, Ovechkin was not made available to the media. To be honest, I was writing on deadline and got to the locker room late. Not sure if other reporters had asked for Ovechkin. I don’t think many of us were aware of his outburst immediately afterwards. He did speak one-on-one with VERSUS’ analyst Keith Jones , however, in a postgame interview on the ice.
“I think the Wardo, Brooks Laich line play unbelievable today. They scored like four goals. I think it’s coaching decision so it’s working,” Ovechkin said. He later added: “It’s good, you know. We win. We bounce back after 3-0. Again, I think Brooks Laich line play unbelievable. They dominate them and again they deserved to be there when the important moments coming.”
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment