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More drama for the Capitals

Paul Waldie, Globe and Mail, November 23, 2011

The last thing the Washington Capitals needed was more drama, but they got it.

The Caps have already endured a sluggish start from Alex Ovechkin and the benching of high-priced forward Alexander Semin, who was scratched from Washington’s game Monday because of poor play. Now the team has had to scratch forward Joel Ward for Wednesday night’s game against the Winnipeg Jets.

Why? Ward overslept and missed a team meeting Tuesday. Under team rules, that means he can’t play.

“You don’t want to do it, he’s a good player, but the rules have got to be the rules for everybody,” head coach Bruce Boudreau said after the Capitals went through a pre-game skate Wednesday morning. “It’s an unfortunate thing. He overslept. He understands the rules. He’s a good team guy.”

Ward will be missed. He has four goals and four assists so far this season in 19 games.

He looked contrite Wednesday, acknowledging his dumb mistake and taking his punishment.

“I forgot to set my alarm,” he told reporters sheepishly.

As for the Jets, Boudreau knows his players have to play a lot better than they did last week in Winnipeg, when the Jets won 4-1. Evander Kane was a particular problem for the Capitals, getting two goals in that game.

“I think that’s the third two-goal game against us for him,” Bourdreau said. “Hopefully it will be [noticed]. They all know about it,” he added referring to players. Kane is “a good player I mean there’s no doubt about that. But some teams, some players, they love playing against some teams and I wish players didn’t like playing against us. Evidently he does.”

Boudreau said he team just didn’t play well last week. “Sometimes you say that and [the opponent] gets offended because they thought they were really good, but they were really good, but we weren’t very good at the same time.”

As for Semin, who hadn’t been benched since his rookie year and is getting paid $6.7-million (U.S.) this year, Boudreau said: “I expect him to be a good player tonight.”

Ovechkin backed up Semin saying all the players have to work harder. “He knows it and everybody knows it,” Ovechkin said after the pre game skate.

He added that “of course [Semin] was upset” over the benching. “He’s a big boy…He’s not going to cry about it. “

His advice to the fellow Russian? “I just told him, don’t think about it. It’s going to be hard. Of course it’s hard when you are healthy and you feel pretty good about yourself and you are not playing, it’s pretty hard. But it’s done. It was yesterday.”

Ovechkin agreed that there was one silver lining in Semin’s troubles. It deflected attention from his own poor play. He still has just seven goals and 15 points this season.

“Yeah probably,” Ovechkin said with a smile when asked if he was relieved to be out of the lime light at least for a few days.

He added that the Caps 4-3 win Monday against Phoenix, brining their record to 11-7-1, has given them some momentum heading into Wednesday’s game.

As for the Jets, coach Claude Noel isn’t taking the Caps lightly, although he feels his players have a lot more confidence coming off three wins at home.

“When I watched pre game skate today, I’m thinking you know what, guys are more confident, guys have got on the board offensively, they feel better about themselves winning games and I think they are just a little bit more loose,” Noel said. “And you could see more tape to tape [passes], less bobbling, less shrapnel flying around, let’s put it that way. About a month ago there was a fair bit of it and I was like ‘Come on’.”

He also agreed that Washington didn’t play its best last week. “I don’t think we saw their complete A game, I know that it’s there because I’ve seen it before…They are a team that can be very dangerous. You can’t play these guys lightly.”

The Jets will get one player back tonight. Veteran defenceman Ron Hainsey is expected to be back in the line up after missing 16 games due to injury.

Dean
M.Ed (Coaching)
Ch.P.C. (Chartered Professional Coach)
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