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Green: Caps needed game-changing fight or hit; Oates: ‘Then why didn’t he do it?’

Adam Oates

New Washington Capitals head coach Adam Oates pauses during a news conference in Washington, Wednesday, June 27, 2012. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

AP

It appears Mike Green and Adam Oates aren’t exactly on the same page when it comes to sparking the Caps.

In the wake of Tuesday’s listless 4-1 defeat to Carolina, Green said someone needed to “get in a fight or throw a big check that maybe would have turned the momentum around.”

To which Oates replied, why not you?

“Why didn’t he do it?” Oates told CSN Washington. “Talk’s cheap. You’re talking to a guy who could not say that. In 1,500 games I could never say that because I was not the guy who could go out and [fight], so I would never say it.”

This is the latest chapter in Oates voicing his opinions on Green through the media. Earlier this week, he suggested that Green stop worrying about scoring goals (he notched his first of the season against Carolina) and focus on other aspects of his game.

“For me it’s his touches and his decisions,” Oates said, as per the Washington Post. “If you’re pressing to get a goal you’re going to skate at opportunities you’re not supposed to skate at and not wait for it at the right time, and I felt his reads were just a little off.”

Following Green’s first of the year, Oates said he was pleased it was out of the way.

“You know as a smaller subplot it’s obviously good for him,” Oates said. “It’s obviously been something that we’ve talked about a lot.”