Caps defenseman Mike Green has taken his share of hits since Washington’s shocking first-round Stanley Cup playoff loss to the Montreal Canadiens last Wednesday. Just like that a brilliant regular season was rendered meaningless. It will take some time for that anguish to pass.
“To be honest with you – staying away from televisions and newspapers,” Green said about his activities since the Game 7 loss at Verizon Center. “It almost took a couple of days – three days – to not have the anxiety almost and feel like you want to break something.”
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Green is a player that his longtime coach Bruce Boudreau always says can be too hard on himself. The defenseman, along with teammate Alex Semin, took the brunt of the criticism doled out in recent days by fans and media. Green became emotional when talking about the frustration of not contributing the way he wanted — the way he had for most of the regular season when he finished with 19 goals and 57 assists and became a Norris Trophy finalist for the second year in a row.
“It was overwhelming. You almost want to cry. It’s disappointing,” Green said, his eyes briefly welling with tears. “The way I felt after that game is something I never want feel again. The expectations we had upon ourselves and what happened … . The tough part for me is that it takes 82 more games to get another opportunity. That’s a long time.”
Green didn’t speak to the media after the Game 7 loss. And to be fair, neither did Brooks Laich, someone who almost always talks, win or lose, or Semin, who only speaks with North American media if there is a Russian interpreter on hand. Green also chose not to speak on Friday’s breakdown day when about a dozen other Caps players took to the podium at Kettler Iceplex to try to explain the loss. So why break his silence now? With most players scattering across the globe and no practices or games with mandatory press access Green could have let it go.
“But you guys have been good all year and I felt bad. I didn’t want to speak to you guys based on raw emotions after the game,” Green said. “I was pretty worked up. To be honest, I didn’t want to say the wrong things and I felt like I would have.”
Green wouldn’t cast blame on Monday afternoon and most of his teammates pointedly refused the bait when asked questions about the organization’s coaching, style of play, or leadership in the locker room. No one knows exactly what happens behind the scenes. But it doesn’t appear to be a team on the verge of imploding. Laich, Matt Bradley, Eric Belanger and Joe Corvo, among others, made an impassioned defense of a group that – for whatever reason – fell far short of its goals. The latter two are unrestricted free agents and could have blasted anyone they wanted on their way out the door – though both, could obviously still re-sign with Washington.
“Things didn’t work out. We needed to adjust as players and as a unit and we didn’t adjust,” said Green, who finished the series with three assists and plus/minus rating of +1. “Look at Semin. He had so many opportunities in the slot that that kid scores nine out of 10 times. And the pucks weren’t going in. And I felt like the adjustments [Montreal] made to take away our guys really affected us. But as a player, I take full responsibility for my role. Not scoring, not producing is something I need to do. And I didn’t. So I take full responsibility.”
It was clear during the Canadiens series that Green was struggling with his own identity. He is an elite offensive defenseman — the best in the game three years running. It’s part of what makes him unique. But — fair or not — he also takes a ton of criticism for his play in his own zone. It was clearly the biggest reason he was left off the Team Canada roster at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver in February. Teammates like Mike Knuble said repeatedly this season that Green is far better than people give him credit for in that area. But the 24-year-old also admitted that the constant carping caused him to change too much during the playoffs.
“I think mentally I was preparing myself for the playoffs to play strong defensively,” Green said. “When all season you’re an offensive minded player, and you get criticized about your defensive play, you try to adjust to become that complete player. Going into the playoffs, I wanted to play strong defensively. And maybe that [affected] my offense.”
Green also said he has been fighting a wrist injury since April 3 when he took a slash in a game against Columbus. He said the injury didn’t affect him much in the playoffs. But it certainly wasn’t going to get better if he had continued on to play at next week’s World Championships in Germany for Team Canada. Caps general manager George McPhee told Green it was in his best interests to let the injury heal and not push it any further. Green will remain in the Washington area for a few weeks and then head home to his native Calgary for the summer. That’s where the preparations for next season – and the healing process – really begins.
“It was very, very disappointing,” Green said. “We worked so hard to put ourselves in position to be a championship team and unfortunately to not succeed. I know from ourselves and everybody else, it’s heart wrenching. We don’t feel sorry for ourselves, but we expected more from us and it didn’t work out.
