Op Bevroren Blog› een Well-Built Band van Broers

„Wij hebben een grote ruimte“ zijn echt een gemeenschappelijk refrein in deze sport en vooral deze liga, maar er zijn iets distinctief de eis over van de Kappen' van één geweest. Going back fully three seasons, back all the way to the early hours of the dispiriting selloff and roster overhaul, we first heard claims from some of the building blocks and even some of the roster placeholders about the caliber of the Caps’ room. That quality was certainly forged to no small degree by Olie Kolzig. But it also has to have been enhanced by a handful of recent draft classes, many of the members of which acclimated themselves to the world of pro hockey together, in recent years, in Portland, Maine, and Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Even more remarkably, the chemistry has been enhanced by free agent acquisitions conspicuous for their team-first ethos: Matt Bradley, Ben Clymer, Brian Pothier, and now, it appears, the entirety of the 2007 free agent class. Free agents in the modern era of pro sports typically arrive carrying high price tags and big egos and rarely meld seamlessly into their new environs. We aren’t hearing any of that in D.C. these days. In fact, as the Caps mature from basement dweller to contender, the growth carries some personnel anguish: some of the glue of the past couple of seasons will be cast aside, to make room for greater talents. This training camp, we are learning too how this reality is affecting the affected.

TheÃ‚Â chemist is named George McPhee. Ultimately the verdict on his tenture in town will be rendered on winsÃ‚Â versus losses, sooner rather than later. But as GM he’s succeeded on a vitally important if under-reported upon front: assembling smiling faces and committed collectivism in shared car rides and summer shinny.

There’s an irony to the chemistry found in NHL locker rooms: no other U.S. sport knows the global diversity of the NHL’s athletes gathered on a single team, and yet no other sport knows its I’ve-got-your-back-at-all-times ethos, first through fourth lines, from Flin Flon-ner to Finn. It’s a criterion never acknowledged in fantasy leagues (reminding us of their superficiality), and yet nothing is more important to a team.

Print This Post

Posted at 10:05 am. Filed under Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Chris Clark, Front Office, George McPhee, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Morning cup-a-joe, Olaf Kolzig, Training Camp, Washington Capitals.
Bookmark the permalink. Follow comments here with the RSS feed. Post a comment or leave a trackback.

4 Comments

Mark Tucker wrote:

Nice. Gotta love it.
Can’t wait to see it equal overtime, and come from behind, and scrap-it-out wins!

Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 10:12 am | Permalink
pepper wrote:

I’d argue that MLB is pretty “globally diverse” as well - Dominicans, Puerto-Ricans, Mexicans, Venezuelans, Japanese, Koreans, multiple “-Americans,” even Canadians, eh? But you’re right about the ethos of hockey as being unique, and of course the sport is so much more physically demanding and requires a constant cooperative effort (rather than generally only the half of the game when ball players are in the field).

Clark definitely gets a lot of credit for rallying the guys early, but Ovechkin is a huge part of the atmosphere as well on his own. You have to think that Ovie convinced Semin to go with him to watch (at least I did). I would have enjoyed being a Russian-speaking fly buzzing around on that short road trip.

Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 4:00 pm | Permalink
pucksandbooks wrote:

pepper, baseball is a remarkably individualized team sport. It’s also, obviously, knee-deep in performance-enhancing controversy. And while it’s greatly broadened its demographic participation, at the professional level, unlike hockey, it has done so at great cost: the evisceration of participation by American blacks, the trend of which has been the subject of some superb recent print journalism, including our own WashTimes. So color me unimpressed with the national pastime on any number of levels.

Thursday, September 27, 2007 at 4:50 pm | Permalink
Rage wrote:

The NBA is undoubtedly more globally diverse than the NHL. Every continent (besides Antarctica) is covered by the NBA. How many South Americans, Australians, and Asians are there in the NHL? Less than 10, I’d guess. The Spurs have nearly that many by themselves (and with smaller roster sizes too)!

Friday, September 28, 2007 at 10:45 am | Permalink