Report: Coach approves of Ovechkin's “Messier moment.”

Barry Trotz had confidence in his star player before the series started. Just before Game 1 between the Washington Capitals and New York Rangers Capitals coach Barry Trotz compared Alexander Ovechkin to Rangers great Mark Messier. Trotz said, “The rare thing he has is he’s a great goal scorer, but physically he’s a very intimidating guy. You think back to the days of Mark Messier, a high-end goal scorer who had a physical aspect to his game. Those are far and few between and we’re seeing a pretty rare talent in Ovi.” Little did Trotz know he and his team would be put in a position where Ovechkin would issue a prediction much like what Messier did in 1994. After a 4-3 Game 6 loss, Ovechkin declared that “we’re going to come back and win the series.” Despite the pressure of such a statement, Trotz loved it: “I saw that and that’s what leaders do,” Trotz said, per CSN Washington. “Leaders say this is what we need to do, this is what we’re going to do. I think I have a lot more respect for someone who will be bold enough to say, ‘I’m the leader of the hockey team. We’re going to go there and give our best game and go out and win a hockey game.’ I’d rather have that than a leader going, ‘Well, we’re going there to lose.’ I mean, come on. “I love that. I love that a player has got the wherewithal to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to go there and we’re going to go after them and we’re going to leave it out there. I have a lot of respect for players that say that. And anybody who doesn’t have respect for that I think is fooling themselves.” Ovechkin will have to leave it all out on the ice for Game 7 if he hopes to have a career that is more than just a list of individual accomplishments. Afterall, the only reason Messier's prediction is remembered is because he followed through on it.