On Frozen Blog

Cup'pa Joe

(1) Two prominent signings this summer radically reoriented the perception, however superficial and unfair, that D.C. was a hockey deadzone, akin to residing and laboring in an Anbar region among pro rinks. First, George McPhee inked premiere playmaking pivot Michal Nylander, leaving the 2006 Stanley Cup finalist Edmonton Oilers a jilted bride at the free agent altar and occasioning an embarassing tirade and desperation responses from Oil GM Kevin Lowe. Nylander spurned other notable offers, too. Second, Captain Chris Clark, fresh off a career-best 30-goal campaign, and with years of productive hockey still ahead, forsaked free agency next summer and re-upped with the Caps on a three-year deal that will keep him in a red, white, and blue Caps sweater through 2010-11. Within days of the signing he told a conference call of reporters “I want to be a part of it, [of] where we’re headed.”      

(2) The team’s Draft weekend uniform unveiling was a marvel of community outreach and engagement. It was a Friday night that won’t soon be forgotten. There was so much anticipation about the uniform redesign itself, but early into the evening long-time Caps’ fans had their thoughts directed at a welcomed and long-overdue reunion with Mike Gartner and others Caps’ greats from the past. The evening gave the organization perhaps its first and best opportunity to showcase Kettler Capitals as a landmark facility. When the team wants to host a special evening for its fans, it can devote one sheet of ice to ceremony and another to fans skating with team members, for instance. Everyone who was involved with the facility’s conception and rise ought to feel as if they’ve revolutionized the experience of local residents interacting with professional hockey up close and in welcoming fashion.

(3) July’s Rookie Development Camp knew no rival in the team’s history as a community event generating a healthy bit of hockey buzz. Bloggers flocked to it. Print beat reporters were pressed into unprecedented coverage. Fans by the hundreds congregated in Kettler’s stands every day of the week-long camp for business-hours scrimmages. And the concluding scrimmage, fully three periods of stopped-clock Saturday night fun, drew a SRO crowd to Kettler.

(4) Team dean Olaf Kolzig, not known for wide-eyed, irrational exuberance, told the Washington Post in late August that “with the team we have in the room right now, we are a playoff team.” Kolzig in fact has been commendably frank in acknowledging the practical realities of the rebuild in real time in recent years, so his State of the Caps Union late this summer should have everyone’s notice, in town and around the league. He also told the Post “We’ve got the makings of being a very good team for a long time.” 

(5) Caps’ players from around the globe arrived back in town from offseason training conspicuously early, earlier than ever before, eager to get ‘em laced up. I went out to Kettler in early August and ran into Boyd Gordon, and younger and more veteran players have been skating together for weeks. This team is excited about its prospects in 2007-08, and it’s amped to get the season started.

(6) Karl Alzner’s play in the August Super Series has drawn lots of praise; people who previously were slotting him as a good #3 blueliner are now citing his ability to control a game, play in any situation, etc. Sam Gagner ultimately earned MVP honors for the series, but Alzner accumulated a healthy share of MVP talk himself. Now, it’s just one series, and a lot of development still needs to take place with the Burnaby, British Columbia, native, but it’s possible the Caps may finally have themselves a legitimate #1 defenseman in the system. The Caps didn’t make what appeared at the time to be splashy moves or selections at the Entry Draft in Columbus, but they may have departed with a cornerstone blueliner for the next decade-plus. 

It’s not reflected yet in the broadcast allotments or print layouts of the usual mainstream suspects, but there is profoundly palpable change in the hockey air of D.C. early this fall. Some of it is attributable to the sheer maturation of the Caps’ rebuild — the really rough roads are in the team’s rearview mirror. But increasingly, I believe, there’s been widespread recognition in the new media that “the plan” as it was originally conceived years back by ownership and management has been largely well executed, and that the fruit of its harvest is making for a comparatively sweet September 2007.