Being left out by your coach is never a very glorious moment in a veteran’s career. Oliver Ekman-Larsson, although in great shape, seemed affected by his passage on the catwalk with the Vancouver Canucks.
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On Thursday night, the former Arizona Coyotes captain watched his teammates be defeated 5-4 by the Tampa Bay Lightning. Head coach Bruce Boudreau decided to send a message by not using his services.
This kind of gesture leaves traces, but Ekman-Larsson recognizes that he needed a break after showing the worst differential of the team (-14) this season.
“I’m a guy who worries about it,” the Swede told Sportsnet on Friday morning. I try to take a lot of pride in my game on the ice, on defense or elsewhere. But of course, when you’re struggling, sometimes you have to stop and pick up the pieces. But I would be lying if I said allowing all those goals didn’t affect my confidence.”
The Canucks are obviously in solution mode after suffering defeat six times in their last seven outings. Called to react to the decision of his coach, the president of the team, Jim Rutherford, said not to worry.
“Do you like seeing this happen to a veteran who has been playing for this long? No, it’s hard, he told the Canadian media. But I support what the coach did because it was the right thing to do to blame this player.”
“A player who is left out once is not worrying, but it could become so if it ends up happening often.”
“I have to be better”
If there is one question that every hockey player would like to have the answer to, it is “how to improve”. Since his debut in 2010-2011, Ekman-Larsson is best known for his work in attack. His defensive imperfections were forgotten in Arizona, but not in the scheme of a coach like Boudreau.
The 31-year-old fullback, who has a respectable 19 points in 40 games, would like to improve his differential.
“It would be nice to be better in terms of pluses and minuses. Sometimes it’s your fault and sometimes it’s not, but you were on the ice. In general, I think I have to be better. A defensive guy in the negative is not good,” he admitted.
Despite everything, the Earth has not stopped turning and Ekman-Larsson prefers to concentrate on the job to be done rather than his passage in the heights of the Amalie Arena. It is not yet known if he will return to training Saturday night at Sunrise, where the Canucks will face the Florida Panthers.
“It makes you think a lot about your game and yourself as a person. At the end of the day, my family still loves me, I still have my friends. I just have to be better and work hard”, announced “OEL”.