Ovechkin was kicked out of his beloved "office", forcing him to learn a new profession. The idea of ​​the legendary Oates failed

The Canadian tried to transfer the captain of "Washington" to the other flank.
Washington is not the easiest club in terms of coaching. And it's not that the Capitals are located in the capital of the United States, as a result of which the close attention of the hockey community is riveted to them. "Montreal" and "Toronto" in this regard will give odds to any other teams in the NHL . The difficulty for the coaches of the "Capital" is that this team plays one of the greatest hockey players of all time and a living legend of the club - Alexander Ovechkin. When you have such a bright star and unquestioning authority in your team, any specialist has to reckon with him. At the same time, Ovi cannot be called a capricious or spoiled hockey player, who needs a special approach. Nevertheless, it is better not to anger the greatest sniper of our time: some coaches after conflicts with a pupil of the Moscow Dynamo went to the streets, since the leadership of Washington, as you might guess, determined from the very beginning that they would be on the side of Alexander the Great in any situations.
All things considered, the revolutionary approach of Adam Oates, who led the Ovechkin team from 2012 to 2014, seems a little risky. Few dared to break the game of the captain of the "Capital" through the knee. In this regard, Dale Hunter immediately comes to mind, risking educating the Great Eight by cutting back on playing time and its importance on the ice. But the legendary Canadian went further - the captain of the "Washington" of the 2000s decided to radically change Alexander's game in order to increase his efficiency. The coach of the Capitals moved the club's main star from the left flank, on which he spent his entire career, to the right. According to Adam, this change will allow Ovi to get the puck more often and see the ice better.
“We want a player of this caliber to touch the puck as often as possible. In a recent match in Winnipeg, he set a new record - 50 touches per game. Fifty! We count those touches when he has the puck for at least a second. That is, without rebounds and ricochets. So - 50 touches in Winnipeg, and that's not counting the majority! Most of the time, he usually has seven to ten touches per match, but he's mostly a thrower with us there. The previous record was 42 touches. And when he used to play on the left flank, do you know what his best record was? eighteen! The best score! In many matches, he barely scored 10. And this is Ovechkin! Can you imagine the difference?" , the coach wondered.

Oates said that he transferred Ovechkin to the other flank not in an ultimatum form, but only after the consent of the attacker himself. The new head coach made it clear to his leader that he wants to diversify his game and improve performance. After an exchange of views, Adam and Alexander shook hands and began to implement the specialist's plan.
“Let's start with the fact that I have unlimited respect for this man. He was an NHL star long before he first met me. And I thought that the first thing I had to do was earn respect from him in return. To do this, he had to understand that I had the best intentions. I just want to make Ovechkin better. Yes, I want to make the Capitals better - this is the first thing, but for this it is necessary to improve Ovechkin's game. And I decided to prove to him that in my system he will more often own the puck , ”said Adam.
The process of switching to the other flank, as expected, turned out to be long and painful. Many actions of professional ice hockey players are at the level of reflexes and have been developed over the years. Therefore, no one was surprised that in the first matches in a new position, Ovi now and then faced partners in the middle zone, because he was automatically brought to his native left flank. But after a long time, Alexander still got used to the new role and looked more organic in it.

With the transfer of Alexander the Great to the right, Oates also wanted to limit his influence on the game of the link. Previously, according to Adam, Ovechkin did everything himself - on the left flank, he was often turned back to his partners and had to independently enter the zone with the puck and beat the defenders, carrying out one of two scenarios: either wade between them to the goal, or leave sharply to the center and throw from under the opponents. The coach managed to shift part of the responsibility for delivering the puck to a foreign zone to Markus Johansson and Niklas Backstrom, partners of our compatriot in those years.
“I became a coach to train Ovechkin. I wanted this job as a fan of "Washington", as a former player of the team, who enjoyed the game of Alexander for a long time. Of course, I liked the way he flew on the left flank. But what amazed me even more was how much of what he could do that we don't see! I told the general manager: “This guy is one of the best in the world. I want to make it even better for you." And for me it was a professional challenge. Ovechkin's potential has not yet been fully revealed. Trust me, you haven't seen a fraction of what he's capable of yet!" Oates said excitedly.

One of the main fears of the head coach of Washington in the second half of the 2013/14 season was that at the Olympics in Sochi, the coaching staff of the Russian national team could again return his ward to the left flank and thus ruin the result of many months of work. Adam insisted that he would talk to Ovechkin about this and tell him to ask the head coach of the national team, Zinetula Bilyaletdinov, to use him as a right winger. At the same time, Ovi himself, in an interview before the start of the main tournament of the four-year period, admitted that he was ready to play anywhere:
“It makes no difference to me. In "Washington" I was transferred to the right flank. This is the decision of the coach, to which I obey. But I'm ready to play everywhere."
As a result, Bilyaletdinov did not heed the advice of his North American colleague and used the Great Eight in the usual way - on the left flank. But the return of Ovechkin to his native position was definitely not the main reason for the failure at the tournament in Sochi.
The experiment ended by itself - at the end of the 2013/14 season, the management of the Capitals dismissed the coach. He never managed to improve Alexander's performance: under the leadership of Adam Oates, who worked in the US capital for two seasons, the Capitals captain scored 56 and 79 points. At the same time, in the last season of the work of the Canadian specialist, Ovi set a personal anti-record in terms of utility and grabbed “-35”. An eloquent result of the work of the former Capitals forward in Washington.
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