Washington’s Dennis Wideman always gets a lot of guff for his seeming lack of defensive prowess. While he’s been a solid offensive-defenseman wherever he’s played, asking him to do the other half of his job has sometimes been a struggle.
After being on the ice for five of the seven goals the Bruins have scored in their first round series, Stephen Whyno of The Washington Times asked Wideman for his thoughts on his play and he believes there’s an explanation for everything.
“I think [Thursday] night, trying to jump up into the play, the pass [from Alex Ovechkin] was just a touch behind me,” he said. “If it was on, the we would have had a pretty tight in three-on-two or three-on-one kind of thing, so I maybe pushed it a little much there.
“Other ones, other goals, the OT goal, what do you do there? And then the other ones were just rebounds.”
Wideman summed up his play saying he was at his best in Game 4 while just trying to do his best in the first three games. That might not be much solace for Caps fans who have Braden Holtby to thank for covering up more than a few mistakes in the series. Saying they were “just rebounds” might give some of his teammates reason to pause though as not covering guys on rebounds is a team effort sort of thing.
For the most part, however, Wideman’s ill-timed appearances on the ice for goals have been minor blemishes for the Caps defense. They’ve played outstanding and have kept the Bruins as far away from Holtby’s net as possible and have limited the B’s top two lines to just one goal. That’ll do just fine, fellas.