On Frozen Blog

With five days off before Friday’s game with New Jersey, an observer of Sunday morning’s practice at Kettler Capitals might think the Caps were immersed in a mid-season training camp. Chris Clark, Viktor Kozlov, and Alexander Ovechkin were excused from the skate. Boudreau skated the rest of a weary hockey team a little more than an hour, and often hard. A lot of the drills in the session’s opening opening half had the look of fall camp’s.
“What we’ve done the last 10 days has all been verbal and visual rather than actually doing it, because we haven’t had the time on the ice,” Coach Boudreau said afterward. This block of off days, he added, “is a great teaching tool, and that’s why we want to use it to our advantage.”
During¬†Saturday night’s Comcast telecast JoeB and Craig alluded to Alexander Semin not yet being in “game shape.” In drills¬†Sunday morning Semin looked mobile, but his timing with some of his elite moves appeared to be just off. His razzle-dazzle has some rust on it. And how couldn’t it? He’s missed not just a large number of the team’s games this season but scores of practices as well.
Chris Clark, Boudreau said,¬†is “day to day.”
From a Caps’ official: “Pittsburgh only has 24 points . . . that’s a bigger story than our having 20.”
Agreed.
And what has happened to Ottawa?
On Kettler’s¬†second sheet of ice early Sunday the Washington Junior Nationals, coached by ex-Cap Mark Tinordi, were facing the Portland Junior Pirates in an Atlantic Metropolitan Hockey League game. The rink was crammed with spectators, the rock music during play stoppages was loud, and the hockey was superb. I really didn’t know a thing about this league and its level of play, so I did a bit of research on the ‘Net late yesterday. The Jr. Nats are affliated with the Junior Capitals and the Washington Little Caps (Tier I).¬†They play their games at Kettler and at the Gardens Ice House in Laurel, Md.
The Junior Nats and the Junior Caps form the Washington¬†Junior Nationals College Development Program (WJNCDP). From the team’s web site: “It is the mission of the WJNCDP to help players develop as young men and as hockey players, but also to help guide these young men toward some form of college hockey.”¬†Coach Tinordi has two sons skating for him — Jarred and Matt. The Nats are¬†14-11-0-2¬†and will¬†travel to Hudson, New Hampshire¬†this weekend ¬†for a two-game series against the Northern Cyclones. This is good hockey to watch — you now have two good reasons to make winter visits to Kettler Capitals.
The¬†Caps are¬†off Monday and then travel to Chevy Chase Country Club Tuesday evening at 6:00 p.m. for a return engagement of last season’s highly appealing outdoor practice there, weather permitting. The forecast for Tuesday evening looks pretty good. I’m particularly interested to see what someone like Nicklas Backstrom thinks of this noval and perhaps annual outing. ¬†¬†¬†¬†