It was just one shift late in a one-goal game. But the decision made by Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau to keep star left wing Alex Ovechkin on the bench with 1 minute, 27 seconds left as his team pushed for a tying goal against the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday continues a season-long trend.
If a particular player isn’t performing – even a two-time NHL most valuable player like Ovechkin – there are other options. That message has been hammered home since last spring’s disastrous Stanley Cup playoff series loss to Tampa Bay in the second round. In exit meetings with team leaders, in training camp and through the first 10 games of this season, the organization has put a renewed emphasis on accountability.
Ovechkin’s benching was just the latest example. And he was clearly unhappy at the time, snapping an expletive at Boudreau. That outburst generated stern criticism Tuesday night from VERSUS hockey analyst Mike Keenan, a former Stanley Cup-winning coach who had his share of confrontations with star players in his day.
“I was pissed off. Of course, I wanted to be in this situation on the ice,” Ovechkin told reporters after Wednesday’s practice at Kettler Iceplex. “It doesn’t matter who I said it [to] or what I said. It looked funny on [television] and right now is big story. But again, just a little bit frustrating because I’m a leader on the team and I want that kind of responsibility.”
But Ovechkin also acknowledged that Boudreau’s gambit worked. The third line – Brooks Laich, Joel Ward and Jason Chimera – had a dominant game and their hard work helped set up Nicklas Backstrom’s game-tying goal with 42 seconds left. Backstrom then scored again in overtime – with help from an Ovechkin assist after an initial pass from teammate Jeff Schultz – to secure yet another victory for Washington (8-2-0, 16 standings points).
Earlier this season, Boudreau scratched second-year center Marcus Johnansson for the season-opener against Carolina on Oct. 8. He is only tied for the team lead in goals (five) with Ovechkin. He’s played veteran Mike Knuble on the fourth line and baffled veteran center Jeff Halpern by scratching him from Tuesday’s game. Alex Semin, too, has seen playing time taken away when he’s displeased the coaching staff. And the biggest shock of all was not starting Tomas Vokoun in goal against Carolina after a sub-par training camp. Instead, Boudreau went with Michal Neuvirth.
“Nobody’s saying it’s going to be equal all the time. Your superstars are superstars for a reason – because they’re good players,” Knuble said. “But it is interesting. I think it’s a good time of the year, barely into November…Now’s the time to do it. You’re not going to make points in March and April.”
Boudreau said he won’t hesitate to put Ovechkin back on the ice with the game on the line. It wasn’t necessarily his intention to send a message anyway. He claims it was a hunch that the third line would come through. But if the byproduct of that is also a superstar determined to raise his level of play then that works, too.
“It’s one team and it doesn’t matter how good you are or who you are,” Ovechkin said. “If we want to win we have to be on the same page – everybody.”
This style of coaching wouldn’t necessarily have happened in years past, according to Boudreau and several players. Let’s be honest – bad teams can’t afford to bench players like Ovechkin. Knuble compared it to cutting your nose to spite your face. It’s Washington’s depth that allows Boudreau to send these messages in the first place. The exact criticism that former teammate Matt Bradley famously levied at the team this summer after he departed – that the skilled players weren’t necessarily punished for their transgressions during last spring’s playoffs with a corresponding reduction in ice time – has been corrected.
“I think everybody wants that. That’s the main thing,” defenseman Karl Alzner said. “For instance, if you’re playing as hard as you can and trying to block shots and doing all that and another guy isn’t – you don’t like to see that. It feels like you’ve been wasting your time. So I think that’s why everybody keeps talking about accountability.”
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