On Frozen Blog

Very quietly — though less so after this past weekend — Andrew Gordon is ascending in the hierarchy of Caps’ prospects in his first season of pro hockey. But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the smooth-skating rookie this season. Back in the fall, he was demoted to South Carolina.

But he didn’t sulk. He scored. Lots. He tallied 8 goals and 6 assists for the Stingrays in 11 games before being recalled to Hershey early in December. Then he scored lots more Saturday night — a hat trick in the Bears’ 6-4 win over Lake Erie. He ended up being named the AHL’s First Star of Saturday night. He also scored the Bears’ lone goal Sunday in a 3-1 loss to Hartford.

Gordon’s hat trick this past weekend was his first as a pro. His previous one was as a St. Cloud St. sophomore, in a blowout win over Michigan Tech. “I really pick my spots, I guess,” he said with a chuckle.

Gordon, a Caps’ 7th rounder in 2004, has been a prospect favorite of mine from the last few years of my watching him dominate college hockey’s best conference, the WCHA. Gordon’s Huskies were a broadcast favorite of the Fox College Sports package I had at home, and I saw fantastic progress in each of his three seasons at St. Cloud. Gordon scored more than 100 points in his career with the Huskies, and as a junior he was named First Team All-WCHA. Just days after the Caps inked him last April, I asked General Manager George McPhee about his newest asset.

“We think there’s a real chance he can help us as early as next season,” McPhee said.

In 21 games with the Bears, Gordon has 5 goals and 14 assists, meaning that combined with his production in the ECHL, Gordon’s averaging over a point per game in his first year of pro hockey. After Saturday’s breakout performance, he was asked by a reporter what accounted for his turnaround from a disappointing start in Hershey this season.

“Not being afraid to try things,” he said. “I’ll turn a few pucks over, but I try to make plays. It’s a confidence thing. I’m not afraid to go out there on the power play with a lot of minutes and try to make a play . . . and I know Woodie’s [head Coach Bob Woods] gonna have a lot of faith to put me back out there the next power play, the next shift.”

Gordon’s a favorite with the Pennsylvania hockey press corps that covers the Bears. A handful of them took turns assuring me how nice a kid he is and how much they enjoy working with him. One of them described Gordon as “the kind of kid you’d like to see your daughter marry.” He answers all post-game questions patiently and with deliberation and candor and even self-effacing humor. One reporter Saturday wanted to know if this turnaround in his season had caught Gordon blinking his eyes in disbelief.

“I tried to blink my eyes and think twice when I went down [to South Carolina], so there’s a lot of blinking going on,” he joked.

“It’s just another hockey game,” he added. I’ve been doing this since I was four years old.”

His Bears’ teammates passing the newcomer’s Hockey Night in Hershey media hubbub took turns poking fun at it all.

“Somebody’s going up to Washington,” Louis Robitaille needled as he passed. Chris Bourque offered a crack about the rookie getting a big head.

The post-game press pack that surrounded Gordon Saturday night might have been new to him, but I got the feeling his future was going to include more of them.

A sidebar to Saturday night’s breakout party for Gordon was Eric Fehr’s return to the team after being out nine months with a frustratingly slow-healing compressed nerve affecting his lower back and hip. He sat out the middle game of a three-game weekend, but he told me that his first two games had him feeling pretty good and strong.

“I didn’t want to rush back too quickly and play all three games this weekend. I gotta get back up to speed — when you’re tired, that’s when injuries happen,” he said.

Fehr’s injury was rare and laden with setbacks. I asked him if his physicians had said anything to him about a likelihood of recurrence, or if his treatment and rehab and the nature of the injury made it more likely that it was beaten back once and for all.

“From what I know I think it’s the kind of injury that’s very rare, you don’t see a lot, and from what the doctors say they think it won’t be coming back. It’s such a freak thing it’d be tough to come by it twice, I think.”

I also wanted to know what kind of goals Fehr might have after missing so much hockey, missing training camp and attempting to join a surging team smack in the middle of a season.

“For the next couple of games I think it’s just get up to speed, get back in shape and try to produce offense for this team, and after I start feeling better I’ll maybe re-evaluate and maybe set a goal for the rest of the season.”

I asked him if hockey in Washington this season was in his thoughts at all these days.

“In the back of your mind you wanna get into Washington — that’s the goal of every player that plays in the AHL is to get called up, and I’m no different. Right now though I just gotta focus on competing and playing at a high level in Hershey.”