Em Blog Frozen

ou amnesia!). J.F. had a habit of wowing the spectator at the odd Piney Orchard scrimmage in September and then making everyone wonder why he was ever drafted a month later. Fashioning an allegiance to him to the tune of $150 would be difficult to explain to my family, friends, and readers, but in my initial pass-through of the blue portion of the sweater racks J.F. managed to loom large (size 58).

I had one final rack to peruse, and within it I found an astounding relic: a Yogi Svejkovsky, in blue! I returned J.F. and seized Yogi. Now, Yogi’s star as an NHLer was as brief and forgettable at Fortin’s, except in two regards: he scored 4 goals in the final game of the 1996-97 season, at Buffalo, and that game happened to be the last in the broadcast career of Ron Weber. Talk about nostalgia.

I was surprised at the generally modest interest fans Saturday seemed to have in securing the sweaters of the past 10 years. I thought $150 for a pristine conditioned game-worn a solid buy. And while I number among those who won’t miss the black garb, again, these logos and their colors ushered in some of our team’s finest moments. More than an hour into the public sale Saturday, though, the racks remained filled with the game-worns and practice threads. Perhaps for many there remains too much association with the Czech Fraud who wore #68, and the years of missed playoffs. How could you fault them for that discrimination? And of course this month there is the hockey fan’s zealous anticipation of the replacement look arriving in mere days.

OrderedChaos snagged a few game-worn jerseys (sans nameplate), a game-used Alexander Semin stick, Chris Clark’s equipment bag, and a practice jersey worn by just-signed Caps’ goalie prospect Michal Neuvirth. Let’s hope Neuvirth is indeed a Caps’ starter some day â€â€� the Jakub Cutta Czech Juniors jersey he purchased a few years back hasn’t seen much wear.

One thing you definitely notice at the Caps’ annual equipment sale: products belonging to names from a middling, mediocre recent past blended seamlessly with those of the fresh-start and optimistic present. But that’s hockey.

Confession: I picked up more than just the Svejkovsky sweater Saturday (has a nice alliterative ring to it, no?) I don’t play much organized hockey these days, but my gear bag is always packed and ready for action. For two years now I’ve been badly in need of replacement pants, and at Kettler Saturday, amid an embarrassment of riches of un-nicked, mega-padded pants-wear, I replaced my existing pair-in-tatters. I tossed in a new helmet, too. As my arms filled I looked across at the Kettler sheets of ice to see if pickup puck was readying, cause I was near dressed for it.

This gear sale event has grown into an event remarkable in terms of Caps’ staff logistics and sheer volume of merchandise. True story: my father and I were buying gear from the Caps back before there was any public sale. Back in the ’80s we used to drive the family station wagon out to Cap Centre in spring about a week after the season concluded, met up with Sluggo at the old building’s service elevator, and filled the family car up with hockey goodies my father would re-sell (at cost) to players in the fledgling Montgomery Men’s hockey league he founded.

The Caps may well make a boatload of bucks with this affair, but what seems more important to me is the availability of the armor. Sunday of course is Father’s Day. I wager a few in this region will be unwrapping some vestiges of the past decade of puck in D.C. then. They just won’t have any reminders of the 4-goal flash-in-the-pan of the past.