Hunter: Ovechkin is coachable, "never back-talked"
/London Knights head coach (and owner, and president) Dale Hunter was on Hockey Central at Noon on Sportsnet Thursday.
On coaching Alex Ovechkin:
"Ovi - again, he's a special player where his strengths are scoring goals, and he hits people. He's a star person that can really - he scares the crap out of the D when he's forechecking because he's a big man, he hits hard, and he can score goals. And his passing is better than everyone thinks because he can make nice plays..."
But is he coachable?
"Yeah, he is. You know something though? He's just - he's not no Bob Gainey out there defensively... I've watched the last couple of games. Trotzy's doing a good job with him. He's picking up the right guys. So you need star players. They're not all going to be Selke winners and he's not going to be a Selke winner, but you still need goals and he's trying to figure out his defense a little bit more and that's the only thing that coaches sometimes question him a bit about."
Also: "As far as coachable - when I had Ovi, he never said anything back to me. He never back-talked. He listened to the video. He never said nothing. So definitely he was coachable that way where he tried to do what I told him. He could have given me attitude - he had none. He listened. And sometimes he didn't pick up the right guys, but hopefully he's learning as he gets older."
Source: Sportsnet's Hockey Central at Noon/ Transcript: Nichols on Hockey