Alex Ovechkin isn’t willing to shoulder the entire blame for the play on which his coach accused him of quitting.
“It is what it is,” said the Capitals’ captain, per CSN Washington. “He’s the head coach. I get the blame for it. In that moment I think everybody quit on the play.”
Again, here’s the play, which occurred Tuesday in a 5-0 loss to Dallas:
Ovechkin said he didn’t see Ray Whitney sneaking up behind him -- “I kind of lost position.”
“We make lots of mistakes, not one mistake,” he added. “You can’t blame one mistake on our game.”
Which is true.
That said, it often seems when Ovechkin makes a key defensive mistake, it’s of the glaring, head-shaking variety.
Or, as sportswriter Bruce Dowbiggin put it, “He doesn’t just quit on a play, he retires on it.”