Alex Ovechkin met with the media to discuss his benching on Tuesday late in a game against the Anaheim. It was just for one shift – but it was a big one after the Capitals called time out with 1 minute, 27 seconds remaining and down a goal. The last time Ovechkin wasn’t on the ice in that kind of situation? He guessed he was 14. But he appeared to direct his ire at coach Bruce Boudreau with a choice expletive after finding out he wasn’t out for that next shift and that drew criticism from VERSUS analyst Mike Keenan – himself no stranger to player-coach confrontations. Didn’t get a chance to get Ovechkin’s side after the game. So we asked him about it after Wednesday’s practice.
“I was pissed off. Of course, I wanted to be in this situation on the ice,” Ovechkin said. “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 Bruce put [out Brooks Laich’s] line and it worked.”
Of course, accountability has been a common theme around these parts since last season ended. In the past week alone we’ve seen Mike Knuble dropped to the fourth line and Jeff Halpern scratched. Benching your best player and rewarding three guys who have been your best line in a given game is a pretty good way to hammer home that point – though Boudreau considered it a byproduct of the benching and not the reason for it.
Ovechkin hadn’t talked to Boudreau yet about the incident and Boudreau claimed he didn’t hear anything anyway on the bench at the time. But Ovechkin also said he understood the move even if he didn’t necessarily agree with it.
“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.”
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