If you missed it last night, the Capitals pulled a huge comeback victory out over the Ducks, winning 5-4 in overtime. What you really missed out on was seeing Alex Ovechkin benched in the final minute of play while Nicklas Backstrom scored the game-tying goal. You also saw Ovechkin nailed to the bench for the better part of overtime before helping factor into Backstrom’s game-winning goal in overtime leading Versus’ own Mike Keenan to take Ovechkin to task.
Caps coach Bruce Boudreau was hailed as a “genius” after the game for making all the right moves, but did Alex Ovechkin call him something else when he was told he was sitting down? It sure seems that way according to video from our friends at CSNWashington.com.
We’re not lip readers here, but it sure looks like whatever Ovechkin said to Boudreau as he was telling him he wasn’t going out for the face off wasn’t too pleasant. Boudreau saying that he didn’t think the best pure goal scorer on his team had it in him to score the goal they needed makes for an awfully large condemnation of Ovechkin’s play last night.
Ovechkin’s line hadn’t been performing up to par all game long and while it was their third line that was doing the damage, not even having Ovechkin out there with your goalie pulled as the extra attacker defies all conventional wisdom.
Is Boudreau a genius here or did he manage to cause a rift with the team’s best player? You can’t bag on a guy when he’s right, but when you’re looking to get your best player motivated, perhaps poking the bear will pay off in the end.
For Boudreau’s sake, he’d better hope so.