Bruce Boudreau was behind the bench for some of Alex Ovechkin’s greatest seasons in the National Hockey League. Since the veteran bench boss left DC, he has had to deal with Ovi from the opposing side and it hasn’t always gone the best for his teams.
Coming into Monday’s game against Gabby’s Vancouver Canucks, Ovechkin has notched 19 points (9g, 10a) in 12 games against Boudreau’s Canucks, Anaheim Ducks, and Minnesota Wild teams over 10 seasons dating back to the 2011-12 campaign.
As Boudreau looks for his 600th career victory, he knows that keeping Ovechkin off the scoresheet will be paramount in getting that milestone win. So far this season, Ovechkin has no goals and only one assist in three games.
Back where it all started. pic.twitter.com/upjZ6N3Q13
— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) October 17, 2022
“I’m always leery when he hasn’t scored a goal because he’s going to give me that eye,” Boudreau told NHL.com’s Tom Gulitti. “Then I’m going to go, ‘Don’t do it.’ But he definitely likes playing against teams that I coach and we better be ready because he’s not going to go goalless forever.”
Boudreau has spoken in the past about how Ovechkin likes to tease him before and even during games when the Caps captain matches up against his squads.
“I was really hoping he scored last night,” Boudreau said in March last year before playing the Canucks. “He’ll come over between the benches (in warmup) when he’s squirting his water, and he’ll look at me and go, ‘I score tonight.’ And I’ll turn around and won’t acknowledge him because he knows it bugs me.”
A bit of that relationship was caught on camera when the Canucks came to DC in January last season.
Coach taking on his former squad.
Puck is ⬇️ in DC.📺 Sportsnet Pacific
📻 Sportsnet 650 pic.twitter.com/u2OV11nhga— Vancouver Canucks (@Canucks) January 16, 2022
“I wouldn’t look at him and he was looking right at me and I said, ‘No more!’ because he has a tendency, if he played against me every day, he’d probably have 110 goals a year,” Boudreau said joking. “He gets up for it.”
