In his strongest statement yet, Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin responded to the rumors that he helped cause former coach Bruce Boudreau his job in an interview with Dmitry Chesnokov of Puck Daddy:

"How is it on me? How can I, a player, get a coach fired? How can I quit playing for the coach who gave me so much in my career? He helped me so much, and it was with his help I was able to win the Hart and the rest of the individual awards. It is complete nonsense that I would get Bruce fired. And to those who are saying we had some sort of a sour relationship with him, that is simply not the case. We had an excellent relationship."

The whole interview is very much worth a read, but that quote stood out.