Screen cap: Vancouver Canucks
Alex Ovechkin was unable to score in Wednesday night’s game against the Oilers in Edmonton. He needs just one more goal to officially pass Jaromir Jagr for third place on the NHL’s all time goals list.
Ovechkin’s next chance to pass Jagr will come against his former coach, Bruce Boudreau and the Vancouver Canucks, on Friday night. Boudreau met with the media following the Canucks voluntary practice on Thursday, where he was asked about facing his former player on what could be a potentially historic night.
“It’s always fun. He gets his chances, no matter what. When we played them in Washington he had two grade “A”s that Demko made incredible saves on. Last night I thought he had two open nets, for sure, that he was gonna score on and he didn’t score on them,” said a smiling Boudreau.
“He’s gonna get his looks. I’ve watched him for 17 years. No matter how good or bad he looks in that game, he’s gonna get opportunities to score. It’s just the nature of Alex Ovechkin.”
Boudreau was hoping that it wouldn’t come to this, and that Ovechkin would pass Jagr in last night’s game against the Oilers.
”I was really hoping he scored last night. Let’s put it that way,” joked Boudreau. “‘Cause he’s gonna look at me tomorrow and he’s gonna go “I’m gonna score tonight.” And you know he’s gonna do that. It’s tough because he’s one of the greatest players of all time. It’s tough to stop one of the greatest players of all time.”
Boudreau and Ovechkin have met many times before and Boudreau know’s he’ll hear from his former player during tomorrow night’s pregame warmups.
“That’ll happen for sure, I can tell you. He’ll come over between the benches and he’ll look when he’s squirting his water and he’s gonna look at me. “I score tonight.” I’ll turn around and I won’t acknowledge him, because he knows it bugs me. That’s the way it will go.”
Coach taking on his former squad.
Puck is ⬇️ in DC.📺 Sportsnet Pacific
📻 Sportsnet 650 pic.twitter.com/u2OV11nhga— Vancouver #Canucks (@Canucks) January 16, 2022
Boudreau was asked if he thought any possible negative crowd reaction related to Ovechkin and Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine will have an affect on Ovechkin’s game Friday night.
“I don’t think anything, once the game starts, has an impact on Alex. He’ll play hard everywhere he goes. That’s just the nature of him.”
The Capitals face the Canucks Friday night. Puck drop is set for 10:00 PM ET.
By Jon Sorensen
You can tell Boudreau still has a very fond spot in his heart of Ovechkin. The question about he potentially getting a negative reaction from Vancouver fans seemed to disappoint Bruce. He was almost protecting Ovi.
Boudreau has always been like that with all of his players. He’s certainly fond of Ovechkin, but I bet he’d say the same thing if it was Backstrom or Carlson getting booed.
To me, the modern Caps era started when
Ovi was drafted
Backy was drafted
Gabby was hired
They changed their color from blue to red
Blue was the alternate, but otherwise spot on
June 22, 1995
The team introduces new logos and uniforms with a blue, black and bronze color scheme.
June 22, 2007
The team introduces new logos and changes its colors and uniforms back to red, white and blue.
from https://www.nhl.com/capitals/history/jersey-timeline
From the same link:.
“2000-01
The black jersey replaces the road blue jersey and the team now only wears two jerseys. The nameplate letters on the black jersey are no longer arched.
2003-04
The NHL switches to wear dark jerseys at home and white jerseys on the road. x
Yes. From 1995 to 2007 the Caps colors were blue, black, and bronze. Ovi’s career with the Caps (and Nicky’s) started with the blue, black, and bronze colors.
In 2007, the Caps switched to red, white, and blue, the start of the Rock the Red era. And Bruce came to the Caps Thanksgiving, 2007.