Ovechkin speaks with the media after year-end meeting

Apr. 30, 2010

DC Sports Bog:

Ovechkin was slightly more expansive than he had been on Wednesday night, and he admitted that the team got over-confident after taking the 3-1 series lead.

"Maybe we just thought it was a done series," he said. "Especially after couple playoffs and what we do in the season, I think everybody knows we can win the Cup, we can be on top of everybody. But when you get the lead 3-1, you think Ok, maybe they're gonna give up and maybe we just gonna win easy game and be ready for next round."

There were several variations on the basic question -- what happened to the regular-season excellence -- and Ovechkin offered some real generalities. But he seemed not to know what to say, saying the Caps seemed like "two different teams."

"I think everybody wants to win not regular season, we want to win Cup," he said. "We all played great in season, but in the playoffs something missed. We just have to concentrate more about playoffs, more about how we have to play in the playoffs, not about [regular] seasons. We just have to be ready for the playoffs and be ready for that kind of pressure, what it gonna take."

Ovechkin credited Jaroslav Halak several times, saying the Montreal goalie "played great." Tarik El-Bashir asked Ovechkin whether it's fair to lay the blame at his feet, since he's the star and the captain.

"It's fair," Ovechkin responded. "It was my fault when we didn't score goals. I had the chance to score goals, I didn't score goals. Sometimes you just have to take this moment in your hand. It's just pretty hard when you see how we fight and how we play. We have a chance but we didn't score enough. Maybe it was, I don't know how to say it, but if you have a chance to score goal and you didn't score you just feel Jesus, ok next time I'm gonna score, next time I have a chance [I'm] gonna score. What happen, that kind of pressure go to your mind. It's pretty hard."

Lisa Hillary pointed out that a sizable number of fans serenaded the team with boos as the season ended, and Ovechkin accepted that, too.

"What fans booed us, I think it's right decision," he said. "What fans who cheered us and said good job, it's right decision. I think the fans, it's the most important thing in our organization. They want to win, and you can see how they celebrate, how they was happy when we win game 2 in overtime. We can feel their energy, but it's pretty hard. We fight, we want to do our best, but they want to win. And if you're losing, of course everybody gonna say bad things about it. if you're winning, everybody gonna say how good you are and how special you are. It's always like that. If you win, you're always on top. If you're losing, you always go down."

Finally, Yahoo's Greg Wyshynski asked Ovechkin which hurt worse, the Olympic loss to Canada or Game 7 against the Canadiens.

"It hurt probably the same," he said. "Same thing. But after Olympics, you know you're gonna play, you're gonna have a chance to win Cup. You have a time to recover and be ready for playoffs. But still, it was pretty hard time to me, when we lost against Canada. It's always hard to lose, but when you lose and you know it's done and you can't go back and change something, it's always hard. And you just wait next opportunity to win."

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