With the Washington Capitals having won eight of their first 10 games this season, you’d think there would be little drama in the locker room. After all, winning is the ultimate tonic.
Don’t look now, but think again, as the team is now in the midst of a controversy pitting its head coach against one of the biggest stars in the game.
Here’s the scene from last night in Washington: with the Caps down 4-3 and pressing for the game-tying goal with the goalie pulled, Head Coach Bruce Boudreau declined to send left wing Alex Ovechkin, only the most talented goal-scorer in all of hockey, onto the ice as an extra attacker. Instead of Ovechkin, Boudreau opted to send center Nicklas Backstrom out to supplement his shut-down line of Brooks Laich, Jason Chimera and Joel Ward.
It was hard to argue with the results, as Backstrom scored with just 42 second remaining to send the game into overtime. Backstrom would score again in the extra period to give Washington a 5-4 victory. But what was more interesting was the reaction that Ovechkin, the team’s undisputed superstar, had when he found out he’d be riding the pine with the game on the line at the end of the third period. Click here for a video clip from Comcast SportsNet, one where Ovechkin appears to utter an expletive after being told his services won’t be needed for the remainder of regulation.
Afterwards, Boudreau wasn’t shy about explaining his reasoning behind the benching:
“I thought other guys were better than him, and I thought it was just a chance that other guys might score the goal,” the coach said. “I’ve 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 I think is going to score the goal. I just didn’t think he was going to score the goal at that time tonight. You go with your gut feeling thinking that other line is going pretty good.”
Those who have been watching the team closely this season couldn’t be completely surprised. Ever since the start of the season, Boudreau hasn’t exactly been chary about sending messages to players he doesn’t think are performing up to par — just ask center Marcus Johansson and goalie Tomas Vokoun. And the Ovechkin exile didn’t exactly last too long, as he assisted on Backstrom’s game-winning goal in overtime.
Still, dinging a second-year player and a veteran goalie in his first season with a new team isn’t anything like taking on one of the biggest names in all of ice hockey. After all, if Backstrom hadn’t scored the game-tying goal, it would have been Boudreau who would have had to explain why he let two points slip away with his best player on the bench.
Instead, it was up to Ovechkin to say all of the right things in front of the press earlier today at the team’s practice facility:
“Well, I was pissed off. Of course I want to be in that situation on the ice and you know it doesn’t matter who I said and what I said. It look funny on TV. And I don’t know right now it’s big story. It’s just a little bit frustrating because I’m a leader on the team and I want to be on that kind of responsibility but Bruce put Brooks’s line and it worked.”
Before the start of this season, Boudreau was hardly known as a master manipulator when it came to dealing with his players. If anything, he was best known for being a player’s coach and something of a soft touch. Now, only a few weeks into the new season, and it looks like that version of Boudreau is yesterday’s news.
Eric McErlain blogs at Off Wing Opinion, a Forbes “Best of the Web” winner. In 2006 he wrote a “bloggers bill of rights” to help integrate bloggers into the Washington Capitals’ press box. Eric has also written for Deadspin, NBC Sports and the Sporting News, and covers sports television for The TV News. Follow Eric on Twitter.