Lysenkov: Do you think Washington should be active on the market this summer? Does the team need to strengthen?
Ovechkin: “The first thing we need to do is to keep the players whose contracts have ended. Mike Green, for example, who is set to become a RFA. But of course other players can also help. That’s because we are setting our sights on the Stanley Cup. Actually, George [McPhee] knows what to do. So I don’t want to say anything to disturb him.”
Lysenkov: How are you spending your summer?
Ovechkin: “Having a lot of fun! Because I will have to start working out soon. A few days ago I got back from Turkey. I am going to visit St Petersburg soon.”
Lysenkov: Are you going to have your summer workouts there?
Ovechkin: “Dmitry Kapitonov, my personal trainer, hasn’t picked a place yet. But most likely we will do it in Moscow.”
The original SovetskySport article can be found here.
Yeoman’s work by Corey Masisak at the Times, who has posted his discussions with the agents for Cristobal Huet and Brooks Laich with a promise to update his blog with more information/discussions as they happen. Check it out here.
The Caps are trying to deal Michael Nylander — and back to the Rags? So says Globe and Mail hockey reporter Eric Duhatschek. If the Caps were as impressed with Sergei Fedorov’s play here as we were, such a deal might make sense. Fedorov is a better fit in Bruce Boudreau’s system, and he clearly established chemistry with his Russian countrymen — here and at the World Championships. A short term for Fedorov (say two years) may better suit the team with an eye toward Anton Gustafsson then coming over and moving in behind Nicklas Backstrom, and it could also end right about the time Alexander Semin would need a deal. That’s likely to require some serious coin.
Meanwhile, on the Mike Green front, the Fourth Period reported over the weekend that while negotations between Green and the Caps remain far apart, the promising rearguard is seeking $3.5 -4 million per season in a new deal. Seems like a bargain to me.
Steve Eminger will be wearing black and orange next season after signing a one-year deal today.
Unless he manages to find the Flyers’ doghouse as he did in Washington, I’m betting he gets more ice time in Philly this year than he did in D.C. — UFA Jason Smith is likely departing, Mike Rathje is in questionable health, and traffic cone Derian Hatcher (how appropriate that he wears orange) is of dubious value at his age even when healthy, and with an injured knee and broken leg last season he’s slower than ever.
“I’m happy to get the deal worked out and excited about being part of the organization,” Eminger said. “I can’t wait for the start of the season to get things going.”
Here’s wishing Eminger well . . . just not when the Capitals are his opponent.
This week I made a what I regarded as a sacred pilgrimage to see my favorite rock band. You could say that Rush’s Geddy Lee gave a star performance at Red Rocks this week, but as is the case with each event at the Rocks, the venue is always the evening’s first star.
It was my first visit. The Canadian trio is Gary-Roberts-getting-up-there in chronology (”I don’t like the term ‘old song,’” Lee joked with the Red Rocks throng, “I prefer ‘veteran.’”) and in weighing the travel costs and such associated with an across-the-country trek, I was motivated primarily by a hunch that a Rush concert at Red Rocks was an opportunity that may well not present itself again. I was damn glad I made it.
Too much focus I think is placed on the amphitheater itself — which is stunning — and not on the larger park proper, which is nothing short of a geological marvel and a fabulously isolating and enriching immersion in starkly beautiful and rugged terrain. You really do feel transported virtually onto another planet in this mountain carving of a monument. Two three-hundred-foot-tall rocks, each taller than Niagra Falls, afford perfect acoustics and a mesmerizing backdrop for the shows at Red Rocks.
There are records of public performances on the site that date back more than 100 years, but the amphitheater as it’s generally known today was constructed in 1941.
Geddy Lee on Red Rocks: “It’s an amazing location. One of the most beautiful venues in America . . . or anywhere. I would hazard a guess that it’s one of the most beautiful anywhere.”
I agree.
Amazingly, during the concert’s intermission, I stood at a men’s room urinal next to man who’d also traveled all the way from Washington, D.C., for the gig. I found that both marvelous and fitting of the occasion. There were as well Canadians in no small number in attendance, including a few in Maple Leafs’ regalia; Californians; Texans; East Coasters, Midwesterners; at least one Brazilian (he a new lover of Coors, incidentally); and two couples I chatted up from London. Red Rocks, as you might imagine, has a novel way of luring in a very global crowd for its special gigs. The pre-concert beer swigging up top on the park-sprawling patio affords visitors encounters with travelers from literally around the world.
It’s admittedly elitist of me to express it, but such is the splendor of Red Rocks that at times I found myself silently cursing the pedestrian acts so regularly permitted to perform there. Of course, taste in music is like taste in wine or film or food: necessarily subjective. Still, years back, Rush was welcomed at Radio City Music Hall (for a week) while almost all other rock peers were shunned. Just saying. I imagined a Hall and Oates gig profaning this hallowed place, for instance; please do not comment with any affirming (and weekend-ruining) note of their actually appearing.
This is a great venue for great musicians, and Rush this week at Red Rocks reminded us of their greatness.
I was in row 48, center, and a man to my immediate right earlier in the week had retired from 26 years of duty in the Air Force, and made the trip with his wife from Cheyenne, Wyoming. For some months he’d identified the venture as the first significant act in his retirement. I thanked him for his service to our nation and complimented him on his sense of rewarding leisure. Like me he drank draft beer liberally and believed ‘Subdivisions’ the most stunning of the sets’ songs.
Ominous clouds settled in over the Rocks, and just moments into the set, nine thousand sets of eyes widened over lightning bolts that began belting lower Denver. There were moments when Mother Nature timed the strikes to coincide perfectly with Lee’s piercing vocal pitch. The man-made lighting for the show was impressive, but the natural illumination was both frightening and engrossing. Of that dramatic Rocky Mountain weather: early this last week back East I was vexed with rapidly deteriorating forecasted conditions for greater Denver. But locals are quick to observe of their elevated environs, “If you don’t like the weather, give it 15 minutes.”
Rain made only a light and intermittent appearance. But wild wind whipped through the amphitheater, often shrouding Geddy’s face in his flowing hair but never seeming to hinder his impassioned vocal performance. We 9,000-plus however stood in apprehension for nearly the entirety of the first set as the threat above persisted.
The intermission was the longest I’d ever experienced at a Rush show (30 minutes plus), and I couldn’t help but wonder if that was in deference to the conditions. Mercifully, the storm clouds parted during, and the second set was performed under clear skies and soothing air — Denver earlier that day had seen temps flirting with the middle 90s, but by 9:45 that night we couldn’t have been at 70.
Of course I’m partial to new media, and I knew that non of the old would chronicle the show in newspaper or on TV, despite the fact that about 25 million Rush fans world-wide would have been interested in hearing about so special a gig. So I found great delight in seeing, within hours of the show, video images of numerous tracks from the set posted on YouTube. The evening’s opener, the vintage guitar-riff-ed ‘Limelight,’ can be found here.
For me, Lee was the second star of the night. Overall, the band’s sound was high-tech crystal clear and spectacularly loud — I mean really, really loud. Red Rocks ensures that loud bands sound spectacularly loud there. Lee’s vocals were wonderfully out in front of the mix. He really sang with passion and that piercing emotional pitch the band’s devotees cherish. There was, seemingly, no letup either among the three of them even as their playing stretched past 11:00.
I found it quasi horrific to depart Red Rocks when park staff wanted us all to. The evening had offered up all that I’d hoped, and more, and I found myself emotional in comprehending my great fortune with cooperating weather gods — we easily could have been sky-electrified out of the performance.
I want badly to return Red Rocks, but only for a Rush show.
In the last six months we’ve been contacted by representatives from two different feature-length films, both including hockey in their stories. We were provided with promotional material and politely asked to assist in the marketing endeavors. We found the outreach flattering, and so we obliged.
We are greatly anticipating the release of ‘Pond Hockey’ this November, and will assist its filmmakers additionally in every manner we possibly can.
With Mike Myers’ ‘The Love Guru,’ now in its third week of screening nationwide, not so much enthusiasm . . . insomuch as the film, accumulating from critics an average grade of D+, is quickly earning the ignominious designation as one of the worst cinematic creations in the history of humanity.
Rotten Tomatoes has tabulated 122 reviews of the abomination and classified 103 of them as rotten.
“It’s just deadly,” exclaims Richard Roeper of Ebert & Roeper.
“Holy Dave Keon!” begins Newsday’s ‘Sportswatch’ columnist Neil Best. “Even I am shocked by the level of disgust over [The Love Guru] being expressed by movie critics.”
The dreck, which cost $64 million to make, to date has grossed just $13 million (and likely will limp to $20 million). Who would have imagined a month ago that a Mike Myers comedy with one Jessica Alba in the cast would struggle to surpass the gross receipts of say ‘Meatballs 4,’ ‘Snowboard Academy,’ ‘Die Hard Dracula,’ and ‘Soccer Dog: The Movie’ ?
The Internet Movie Database has a ranking of a “Bottom 100″ films of all time; look for ‘Love Guru’ to make its debut in it soon.
For me, it’s poetic justice. ‘Guru’s’ marketers concocted all manner of disingenuous pledges of admiration for each and every hockey blog it solicited. They sugared us with flattery and even went so far as to claim that OFB’s assistance was one that was going to be “personally conveyed to Mike Myers.” Whatever.
We feel dirty for having participated in the mass e-marketing of this bomb, and while we know that it’s metaphysically impossible for more than 11 or 12 or our readers to have patronized it, to them, we express particular and red-faced regret. Your tickets to ‘Pond Hockey’ are on us.
But imagine the blazered communications and PR flacks in the NHL’s New York office. The league went above and beyond in its support of the crap film. Amazingly enough, today the league still acknowledges its supporting role on its web site. I wonder if Gary Bettman had a say in the matter?
Anyway, we’ll talk no more of this movie monstrocity, and instead try and cleanse your film palate with this promotional snippet for the movie we’re proud to have associated ourselves with.
These are salad days for salaries in the NHL. Yesterday came word that the salary cap for 2008-09 would rise to $56.7 million, with a salary floor ($40.7 million) higher than the league’s cap just back three seasons ago, in the first post-lockout regular season.  Stunning. As the salary cap is directly linked to the league’s revenues, which are directly linked to its gate receipts, it’s seems clear that a few folks other than Tiger Woods and Tony Kornheiser are interested in hockey. Â
Meanwhile, there remain outstanding — unsigned — some necessarily expensive parts to 2008-09 for the Washington Capitals. The tally: Christobal Huet, Brooks Laich, Shaone Morrisonn, and Mike Green. Boyd Gordon and Eric Fehr need new deals, too, but I don’t imagine those will be that expensive. Right now both Matt Cooke and Sergei Fedorov look like salary cap casualties, luxuries likely unaffordable in ‘08. Since I last wrote about matters financial Capitals’ GM George McPhee has managed to sheer off about $2 million in payroll for next season by dealing Steve Eminger to Philadelphia and buying out Ben Clymer. (Ray Shero’s fruitless negotiations with Marian Hossa this month apparently have sheared off $7-8 million from the Penguins’ payroll for next season.)
However, it’s beginning to look like McPhee will need that $2 million to pay Mike Green just in the autumn portion of the calandar next season.
Ah yes, Mike Green. For the congenitally white-knuckled of Caps’ fans, his breakout season in 2007-08, combined with apparently every name New York Ranger leaving Broadway, portends his departure and the swift end of hockey’s renaissance in Washington. But count me among those who think it far from a certainty that Green’s gonna attract a bevy of offer sheets next Tuesday.
For one thing, as great as his game looks, Green’s had only one big-number season, and the price in first-round draft picks for signing him would be exorbitant (as many as five). Additionally, both the owner and the general manager are on record stating that the club will match whatever offer comes Green’s way. For another, offer sheets for restricted free agents (see Tomas Vanek) are in a very real sense one GM’s performing labor for a colleague. Lastly, Green, though a young and inexperienced great talent just as Dustin Penner was last summer, is a primary building block for a contending Caps’ club. Penner wasn’t last summer, nor is he today, one of the 50 best forwards in the NHL. Penner’s was a stupid contract conceived by a stupid GM. Brian Burke allowed stupidity to reign supreme for a moment, but his Ducks won’t soon be looking up at the Oil in the standings.
In Green the Caps know what they’ve got – an already impressive no. 1 rearguard whom they were awfully lucky to nab with a 29th pick in the ‘04 draft, one who has a great deal of progression and maturity ahead of him. Likely, too, Mike Green also knows what he’s got in D.C., and specifically in Bruce Boudreau’s system: the green light to pile up points for a really big deal around the time he’s in his prime.Â
Mike Green will get signed alright. But it won’t come cheap. In fact, Team Green may be pointing to Alexander Semin’s 2009-10 salary ($5 million) and understandably if myopically bargaining that Green’s of greater value to the team than Semin. In an ideal world, Team Green would acknowledge the client’s youth and inexperience and appreciable development still ahead and ask to be made the team’s highest paid defenseman . . . but not like say Anaheim’s best defenseman.
Few however imagine ideal worlds with attorneys and player agents in them. Â
Speaking of interesting contracts, remember that “home team discount” deal Sidney Crosby signed? It will pay him $7.5 million in 2013. The thinking here is that Sidney will be a pretty good hockey player in 2013, when he’s still not yet 30 years old. Do you know how many NHLers will be earning more than $7.5 million then? (Mike Green might well be one.) One of them will be Vinny Lecavalier, according to ESPN. Indeed, as early as 2009-10, Crosby may not even be the highest paid Penguin. The intrigue with the Penguins never ends. Â
Given the number and prominence of Capitals’ restricted free agents, this wasn’t supposed to be an easy summer of negotiating for GMGM. It was made tougher by the breakout seasons by Laich and Green, as well as Morrisonn’s emergence as a top-pairing performer. And while last weekend was filled with the promise of securing hockey’s future, this one is about placating the present. It’s messy but necessary business.
It’s a time to be anxious but not a time to be pessimistic.Â
We’re in this interim between the draft and the Capitals’ July Development Camp (mercifully, a period lasting little more than two weeks), and with the arrival in town soon of so many recently drafted prospects, it seems an appropriate time to map out what I regard as a fair and accurate timetable for hockey fans to await the arrival of promising youth to the parent club.
I do this because, as is the case with every draft season, a fair swath of fans get a case of the vapors when they take stock of a draft asset three or four years removed from his selection, and still in development; and swept up in message board madness, are therefore inclined to judge him “a bust.”
Let’s start out by stating the obvious: it ain’t easy projecting the NHL bona fides of 18-year-olds. More on that, as it relates to one Vincent Lecavalier, in a minute.
But let’s first address what I call the One-Tenth of One Percent Club. Your Ovechkins. Your Lemieuxs. Your Stamkoses. They don’t arrive every year, but when they do they seriously outclass their draft class. As 18-year-olds, they’re going straight to the NHL, to shine on a first line. They are very rare — the drafting exception. Here’s how rare a specimen Ovie was: a majority of NHL scouts, taking stock of his 18-point performance at the World Under-20s in 2001, thought him easily capable of taking regular — and impact — shifts in the NHL as a 16-year-old then. Again, though, this is the uber-exception, the cream of the elite crop. Most often at the very top of NHL drafts are really nice hockey players who need more CHL or European pro league seasoning.
So what happens with your more typical top-of-the-class blue-chippers, rest-of-the-first-round fellas, year in and year out? A few will require only a single additional year or two of competition in the Canadian Major Juniors. Think Karl Alzner (who likely would have earned a Caps’ sweater for a round two of the NHL playoffs this spring had the Caps prevailed in game 7 against Philly). If he’s a Euro lottery gem like Nicklas Backstrom, an additional year in his country’s top professional league before coming over. But again, we’re still discussing the cream of every draft crop and the odd exception to the general rule: even really terrific hockey prospects take time to develop. Ninety-plus percent of NHL first-rounders will require marinating in juniors and minor pro leagues, or on campus and then the minors, for years.
I mentioned Vinny Lecavalier earlier. He was drafted first overall in 1998. Tampa, then a league doormat, needed some star-buzz-Mojo in its lineup, and fairly forced the young Québécois into the NHL at 18. He scored a grand total of 13 goals during 1998-99. It’s almost beyond dispute that Vinny would have been better served with an additional year (or two) of development before hitting the bigs.
The next three seasons, Lecavalier notched between 23-25 goals; talk of “draft bust” necessarily followed, widely and loudly.
Then in 2002-03 Vinny hit 33 goals. He followed that with 32 in the ‘03-’04 campaign, which culminated with Tampa winning the Cup. Vinny played an important role in the Cup win, but he certainly wasn’t regarded as a stud. Some no. 1 overall, huh?
But a funny thing happened when Lecavalier returned from the lockout, some seven years after his drafting: he was still developing as a big-leaguer! In 2006-07 Lecavalier recorded his break-through, superstar season: 52 goals — nearly 10 years after he was drafted. These days, Lightning ownership is discussing inking Vinny to a lifetime contract.
How’s that for patience? Anybody talking about Vinny being a bust of a no. 1 now?
So with non-lottery picks, almost always, years and years of development are commonly required. Let’s cite Eric Fehr, since he’s a bit of a flashpoint for the with-vapors crowd. When Fehr was drafted in 2003, both Director of Amateur Scouting Ross Mahoney and GM George McPhee swiftly, publicly, established his requiring years more development just in Canadian Major Juniors. And Fehr rewarded the Caps’ plan of patience. He notched consecutive 50-plus-goal campaigns with Brandon of the WHL.
It’s instructive at this point to note that even a veteran bluechipper of a WHLer doesn’t waltz into the American Hockey League and command a first-line perch. The ‘A’ is a pro league of men, and at 20 or 21, CHL graduates — even distinguished ones — are raw meat for the grizzled grist of the last-chance-or-bust bus league. I know this doesn’t conform with message boards’ demand of immediate gratification, but it’s a reality of real-world hockey life.
So Fehr acquitted himself modestly well in 2005-06, his rookie season in pro hockey, potting 25 goals. In ‘06-’07 Fehr was hampered by injuries, but still he managed 22 goals in just 40 games with the Bears. He was, in just his second year of pro hockey, a point-per-game player. At the age of 22.
How about Brooks Laich, an ‘01 draftee? After he was drafted by Ottawa in ‘01 he spent an additional two full years in the CHL. Then he apprenticed in the ‘A’ for more than 120 games. He put up a grand total of 15 goals in more than 140 games with the Capitals between 2005-07. Some return for Peter Bondra, right? Well let’s see if the Caps regard him as a bust, seven summers removed from his draft year, during new contract negotiations this summer.
Brooks Laich is the norm in NHL development. Mike Green is not.
In 2004 the Caps drafted Minnesota prospect Travis Morin in the ninth round. He enjoyed an All American-caliber career at Minnesota State before signing with the Caps. His name was even discussed in association with the Hobey Baker award his final two seasons with the Mavericks. It’s irrelevant to me if Morin sees a single day of NHL duty in his pro hockey career. Finding that quality that late in any draft is a sure sign of scouting deftness. If the Caps’ scouts are going to uncover Hobey Baker candidate prospects once in a blue moon in a seventh or ninth round of the draft, I say (1) keep the scouts and (2) give them raises. It isn’t the job of your NHL scouts to develop Matt Pettinger into a consistent 20-goal scorer; that’s Matt Pettinger’s job.
So what is a general development formula for draft picks? I’d offer two years of additional CHL development after draft selection, a stint of at least two years, on average, in the ‘A,’ and then, potentially, graduation to 4th line minutes with the big club — and that’s if you’re a bluechipper. Not a stud, but a bluechipper. And no development-impairing injuries like we saw with Fehr or Nolan Yonkman, or else the timetable gets adjusted outward.
If you’re a U.S. collegian, 3-4 years on campus and at least 1-3 years in minor pros. That’s the norm. Joe Finley’s getting at least a full season in Hershey after having spent four years at one of the premier college hockey programs in America, and likely one season plus with the Bears. And he was a first-rounder. Guys like Phil Kessel (a serious bluechipper) who shortcut it just don’t seem to have made wise choices.
For Euros, well, there’s wide variance in the caliber of competition from league to league, but with a good prospect like Anton Gustafsson we ought to expect another year sub-Swedish Elite League season and at least one year in the Elite before we see him. He’d also have to stay healthy for those two years. A year in Hershey afterward probably wouldn’t hurt, either.
Mama always told you to get a haircut before a job interview, didn’t she? We don’t know if Barry Melrose did that earlier this spring in his meetings with the new owners of the Tampa Bay Lightning, but at his press conference today to announce him as the new Lightning head coach, he looked all cleaned up . . . still mulletted, mind you, but lookin’ spiffy.
The Southeast division just became a heck of a lot more fun to cover.
Below is the Tampa press conference, followed by ESPN’s Melrose Tribute.
The NHL ownership scandals continue; and it’s beyond Boots Del Baggio and his shady tactics for buying the Nashville Predators . . . Anaheim Ducks owner Henry Samueli has pleaded guilty to lying to federal authorities. Gary Bettman seemed unperturbed:
“The Samuelis have been terrific owners. They’re perhaps the most community-minded and charitable people in all of Orange County,” Bettman said. “I am not going to fret about something that may or may not be substantiated at the end of the day.”
Read all about it at The Star.
Are you aware that there is a revival of drive-in movie theaters taking place nationwide? I wasn’t either. But on Monday, ambling up congestion-free roads toward a business appointment and enjoying the pastoral beauty of Rt. 15 toward Harrisburg, Pa., I passed a still-operating drive-in movie theater in Dillsburg. It advertised a current playing of ‘Get Smart.’ Were it not nearly 90 minutes from my home I’d be there this Friday night.
I was stunned. How could VCRs, DVDs, cinema-replicating, massively sized modern televisions, and NetFlix have failed to vanquish our ‘Happy Days’-style of theater experience? How could high-tech, high definition America embrace cinema in surrounded-by-woods sound — in analog un-crispness?
Maybe what goes around actually comes back around in American culture. Who for instance would have thought that American teens would re-embrace skateboards?
Returned home Monday evening, I resolved to research my run-in with this sliver of seemingly archaic Americana. Two excellent web sites chronicling both drive-ins’ history and current status are found with driveinmovie.com and driveintheater.com. One thing seems certain: America’s perception that the theaters had vanquished entirely from our landscape is undermined by the largely rural reality of their staying power. It’s true that you aren’t going to find 50 acres in Fairfax or Montgomery County devoted today to the theaters. It’s also true that the theater numbers nationally are about one-tenth what they were in the experience’s heyday: from a peak of about 4,000 in the early 1960s to around 400 today.
But new ones are being built. Maryland once had 42 such theaters, according to driveinmovie.com. Today she is home to just two, but three new ones (all in Carroll County) are in the planning or construction stages. Virginia has eight of the theaters in operation today. Pennsylvania is a veritable hotbed of throwback cinema: 35 illuminating today’s Friday and Saturday night skies.
But what can possibly account for both the theaters’ residual existence out in the American hinterland as well as its sudden if modest resurgence this decade? NetFlix, after all, mails its movies to Dillsburg.
Perhaps it’s because the theaters are a marvelous confluence of enduring American pastimes: the great symbol of liberty, the automobile; our never-out-of-vogue love affair with big screen film; and teenagers in heat desperate for isolation. Those plots of land, their darkness so enveloping save the screen on the horizon, were the great liberators of hormones. Wikipedia’s summary notes that at their peak popularity media labeled the sites “passion pits.”
By God, Revive, Revive I say!
It’s probably also true that in grand summer weather, like that we’ve had in D.C. early this summer, a lot of folks don’t want to go indoors to see films, especially to the cookie-cutter shopping mall holes in the corners masquerading as theaters.
Interesting to note, I think, that in and around D.C. we do rather robustly celebrate the outdoor film experience. ‘Screen on the Green’ runs on Monday nights on the Mall in July and August, and Strathmore’s outdoor film festival commands a week in August. They’re necessarily a car-less bit of culture, but they do seem to harken back to the spirit of the drive-in.
Drive-in theaters are as American as apple pie and Coca-Cola. If indeed they are on the rebound it’s cause for great celebration.
And if they’re back we’d do well to keep them around, this time for good. It would be wise, perhaps, to update their offerings. Can’t we bring more to the outdoor screens than merely contemporary Hollywood? If next summer you were given a month’s notice of ‘Slapshot’ being screened at a faraway drive-in one Friday night, an event promoted and patronized by Washington’s hockey bloggers and hundreds of their readers, even though you’ve seen the movie 63 times, wouldn’t you consider a 64th viewing then?
And wouldn’t it be swell if we found a way to beam in satellite signals upon the gatherings? And if so, the theater proprietors would appreciate knowing of events that command grand gatherings, in city after city, especially for just single nights.
Shouldn’t we galvanize the surging momentum of the NHL Entry Draft, and in particular the city-specific parties it engenders, and make appeals to the drive-in proprietors next June to host a grand evening for DraftGeeks and pucksheads? Wouldn’t a Friday draft following involving some tasty tailgating, a little tonsil hockey in the dark, and all that first-round trading frenzy super sized onscreen be just about the best-ever draft party?
Victor Hedman, next June’s likely towering top choice, would look very big there indeed.
Credit the Washington Times today for a nose for fresh, creative news: Harlan Goode offers readers a portrait of Alexander Ovechkin’s brother Mikhail, who lives and works and resides in the Metro area in comparative obscurity relative to his planet-famous family member. Mikhail’s quiet but dedicated life as a newcomer to America is richly illustrated in Goode’s piece:
“He has watched his brother’s rise to fame with wonder. He was by Alex’s side in Raleigh, N.C., the day Washington took him with the first pick in the 2004 draft. He was watching on TV from the house in Arlington when Alex scored “The Goal” against the Phoenix Coyotes a year and a half later. He enjoyed the fruits of Alex’s labor when he came to keep his brother company in 2005 - living in the Arlington mansion, traveling to Dallas for the NHL All-Star Game, hobnobbing with Russian celebrities in France on the set of a reality TV show Alex starred in. But aside from the occasional trip to a nightclub, he rarely ventures out anymore with his brother.”
In the hockey-light days of late June the Times today reminds us that with a commitment to covering a sport year-round surprising and engaging content can be generated.
The Capitals’ first-round pick of Anton Gustafsson has given everyone a chance to take a look back at the career of his father, Bengt (or Bengt-Ã…ke as he is better known outside of the NHL). Dan Steinberg spent some time digging through the Post archives and unearthed a few gems.
Here are a few samples:
Dec., 1979:“There is much dirty stuff,” said Washington rookie Bengt Gustafsson. “I guess they think if they hit me one time, I won’t come back the next time. “You have to accept it. That’s the way they play here.”
“Take a look at Gussy’s forearms and shoulders and you’ll see where he’s been hit constantly by sticks,” [Washington Coach] Green said. “That’s how too many Canadian players have geared themselves, because of the embarrassment the Swedes have caused them. They can’t catch them, so they lay the lumber on them.”
Jan., 1984: After Bengt Gustafsson scored five goals Sunday night in the Washington Capitals’ 7-1 rout of the Flyers in Philadelphia, he submitted to a television interview, returned to the locker room and tossed his jersey to clubhouse attendant Bob Garner for the laundry pile.
“Do you think we should wash it?” Garner asked.
“I don’t know,” Gustafsson replied….
Dec. 1988: Once on a radio call-in show [Gustafsson] was asked about the mauling Swedes take in the NHL and described it matter-of-factly with a four-letter word that shocked some listeners.
Shortly after Gustafsson arrived here, he shocked the Capitals’ coach, Danny Belisle, by stickhandling through the entire Toronto team to put a shot on goal. Belisle advised Gustafsson that if he persisted in showing up rival players, they no doubt would chop him down in retaliation.
Still, it is hard for Gustafsson, with his powerful arms, remarkable reflexes and strong skating, not to make opponents look silly. In practice, he is so adept at playing keepaway that teammates frequently fall in frustration. He often does it in games, too, and sometimes finds a stick headed his way in response.
“Gus can fake out three guys while he’s standing still,” [Dave] Christian has said of his favorite linemate. “
Check out the rest from the Post archives at Dan’s D.C. Sports Bog.
So how did the Caps do at the draft this weekend? One answer is, a lot better than the Islanders and especially Pittsburgh. Here’s a Hockeysfuture reflection from an Isles’ fan attending a Friday night draft party, grading out his team’s labor in Ottawa:
“NYI-On a scale of 1-10 with 1 being the worst they are in negative numbers.
“I was at the draft party. The place was furious when they traded the 5th pick, but when they got nothing of value back from the Leaf’s the place really started to flip out.
“Then when the Isles traded the 7th pick to the Preds—again for nothing much in return—of the 1,000 or so fans in attendence—at least 500 got up and walked out in disgust and silence. They did not even boo.
“When they selected Bailey—you could hear a rat piss on cotton in Argentina. Then—everyone left in disgust.”
At least the Isles, eventually, belatedly, made some selections. Pittsburgh goes on the clock for the first time late this Tuesday morning. In this draft, you just wanted to be in the mix (and not, like Garth Snow, trying to trade out of it), with some picks among the top 75 or so prospects. The Caps were, they had a specific strategy — players targeted for the team’s draft positions — and they landed their targets.
In their last five drafts, the Caps have accumulated 10 first-round picks. And if you listened to General Manager George McPhee’s post-draft reflections on Saturday, he’d have you believe there’s an 11th in the tally — Dmitry Kugryskev, a CSKA-2 teammate of sixth-overall selection Nikita Filatov.
“We thought he may have gone somewhere in the first round,” McPhee said after Saturday’s drafting has been completed. Alluding to the absence of a transfer agreement with Russia, McPhee added that Kugryskev certainly would have gone higher “in the old NHL.”
Over the weekend McPhee also noted that the Caps enjoy a distinct drafting advantage by virtue of having Alexander Ovechkin. While most other organizations in rounds 1 and 2 will understandably be wary of selecting Russians then in the absence of a transfer agreement, and now the formation of the Continental Hockey League as a bigger, better-paying version of the RSL, the Caps as they interview Russian prospects can gauge interest in the youngsters’ willinginess to come over and skate with their nation’s hero. Kugryskev is one such prospect.
“I dream about the NHL every day of my life. It’s my dream,” Kugryskev said recently.
With respect to his new Russian winger, McPhee probably wasn’t just whistling that 30-team, post-draft sunshine tune that’s a staple of every draft’s conclusion, either. Last season the right winger scored 58 points in 35 games with CSKA-2. His lottery pick teammate Filatov had 66 points in 34 games. He’s renowed for his worth ethic.
The Capitals were going to trade out of round 1 Friday if neither of Anton Gustafsson nor John Carlson had been available. They landed both. They also had multiple trade offers when their turn came up late in round 2. McPhee actually called a timeout to ponder them but ultimately judged what was available (Kugryskev and Eric Mestery) as more valuable. So the Caps landed their primary targets and then, while with offers in hand to move away from the draft’s still rich realm, they judged their draft list delivering them better value and they selected, solidly.
The Carlson selection in particular may prove to be a sage one. Already blessed with a pro physique, the mobile, two-way reargruard was an intrigue prospect for this draft. His size and all-around game drew universal commendation from NHL organizations, but competing in the United States Hockey League, and competing in a draft chock full of bluechip defenders, Carlson was a candidate to be there late in round one.
Charlie Skjodt, his coach with the Indiana Ice of the USHL, told the Newark Star-Ledger before the draft, “I’d be shocked if he isn’t selected in the first round . . . without a doubt, he’s going to be a star in the NHL.” Carlson’s already served as an assistant captain on a U.S. select team and is likely a strong candidate to represent the U.S. in future World Under-20 tourneys.
The Capitals are currently ranked sixth by Hockeysfuture for the strength of their prospect holdings. If you’re at the very top of that list it likely means you’re drafting too high, too often too consecutively each June. With their work this past weekend the Capitals are a safe bet to remain in the top 10 of the HF ranking. That seems about where they’d want to be: not a lottery regular but with a farm chock full of promise and able fill-ins for injured players on the parent roster. And it’s this quality and depth that is central to the Caps’ tenet of building and replenishing largely from within.
It’s worth noting, too, the success the Caps are now having in drafts’ later rounds. Among recent signees are Mathieu Perreault (6th round, ‘06), Oskar Osala (4th round, ‘06), Andrew Joudrey (8th round, ‘03), Daren Maschesney (5th round, ‘05), Patrick McNeill (4th round, ‘05), Travis Morin (9th round, ‘04), and Andrew Gordon (7th round, ‘04).
The Capitals today are an experienced drafting organization; McPhee and Ross Mahoney have been together 10 years now. They’ve made their share of mistakes in June in years past, which the GM has aknowledged, but they’re enjoying more success these days. That continued this past weekend in Ottawa.
George Carlin is dead at 71. His heart failed him over the weekend, though his mind was still brilliant and his motivation to call B.S. on, well, everyone was strong to the end.
He skewered every foible and convention of society during his long career with his incisive wit and envelope-ripping delivery. Yes, even hockey:
“People think hockey is a sport. It’s not. Hockey is three activities taking place at the same time: ice skating, fooling around with a puck, and beating the sh*t out of somebody. If these guys had more brains then teeth, they’d do these things one at a time. First go ice skating, then fool around with a puck, then you go to the bar and beat the sh*t out of somebody. The day would last longer, and these guys would have a lot more fun.”
“Another reason why hockey isn’t a sport is that it’s not played with a ball. Anything not played with a ball can’t be a sport. The only other place you’ll find a puck is in the urinal to control the smell in the bathroom.”
As Tim Parent put it at The Bleacher Report, “So when you’re standing at the urinal today, think of George Carlin. He’d probably like that.”
Farewell George — hope you enjoy that big Mongolian Cluster@#$% in the sky.
Once again: Thank you, Hockey Gods, for helping that lottery ball bounce the Capitals’ way in 2004 . . .
In a draft heavy on talented rearguards, four of the first five selections were on the blueline, and 12 went among the top 30 overall. I’m at pains to identify a real reach anywhere in round one. Certainly there were no Blake Wheeler brain-dead picks. A lot of teams helped their systems last night.
Although . . . not so much in Pittsburgh.
There were more than a dozen trades during round one last night, which added serious spice to the evening drama. Olli Jokinen moved out of the Southeast (for a song). The Flames moved Alex Tanguay and his 18 goals and $5 million contract to Montreal for the Habs’ first rounder. The Kings shipped Mike Cammallerie to Calgary for a first. And of course the Caps parted ways with Steve Eminger.  Â
It’s a metaphysical certitude that a fair and sober and accurate evaluation of any draft requires 3-5 years’ time as picks mature from teenage prospects into young men mentored by NHLÂ organizations, and so necessarily it’s important to weigh in — with vigorous and unyielding certainty –Â on who won and who lost last night, less than 12 hours after the 30th pick was made.
My winners: Chicago, Phoenix (highway robbery of Florida), Nashville, the Rangers, LA, Tampa, and the Caps.
Losers: the New York Islanders (there’s a stunner).
The Isles’ behavior last night can only be described as bizarre. They have a roster craving impact players, and perched at no. 5, they were poised to land one. Filatov, for instance, was on the board. So was Schenn. So what does the Snow-Wang braintrust do? They trade down. Not once, but twice! Where at no. 9 they land non-impact prospect Josh Bailey.
“The consensus is that [Bailey] won’t be a big offensive producer in the NHL,” THN wrote in its Entry Draft preview issue. Just what the Isles needed. I think the Blue Jackets stunned Snow with their selection of Filatov at no. 6, meaning, necessarily, that the Isles weren’t well prepared for the moment. There’s something new.      Â
Keep an eye on Nashville’s selection at 18, goaltender Chet Pickard. Mike Vogel chatted up a scouting source in Ottawa who suggested that Pickard is more impressive now than was Carey Price in his draft year. Wow.
Consensus seems to be that the Rangers got great value in selecting Michael Del Zotto at 20.
If there was one moderate reach in round one it might have been the Bs choosing Joe Colborne at no. 16. Colborne played Jr. A the past two seasons. He’s a tantalizing package of a big frame, strong skating, and soft hands, but NHL scouts commonly show restraint with prospects who aren’t competing at the highest level among their peers. Colborne will skate next season with Denver of the WCHA, so he’ll get as good a test of his abilities there as he could anywhere.
Earlier this week, via the CapsReport, I put to draft guru Kyle Woodlief a question about an American prospect surge late this spring, noting that whereas throughout much of the hockey season most scouting services had just two or three Americans going in round one, finals lists commonly had 4-6 Yanks there. He poo-poo-ed the notion, suggesting that about three Americans remained likelys for the first. Well, six Americans went among the first 30 players drafted, further bolstering the claims of a renaissance in U.S. hockey development.
I just have this hunch that Hawks’ fans will come to love Dale Tallon’s pick of Kyle Beach at no. 11. He’s a big-bodied, piss-n-vinegar prospect.
For Caps’ fans, leaving a strong draft with two first-round picks has to be considered both a pleasant surprise and a real boon to an already strong stable of youth. If I’m a hockey fan in Hershey this morning I’m calling the ticket office and inquiring about season tickets for the next couple of seasons. In the Washington hockey bloggers’ real-time chat I joined last night I observed to the room how cool it will be to see the name Gustafsson on the back of red, white, and blue Caps’ sweaters, and not out of nostalgia.  Â
I want to commend the Friday night puck party sensibilities of the well over 500 puckheads who joined JP, Eric, Peerless, and OFB in our consolidated live blog forum for more than four hours last night. Apparently, in late June, Washington isn’t much of a hockey town.
It was, from my vantage, everything that new media can offer as a rewarding experience in being connected with like-minded lovers of hockey on a big night. It didn’t hurt that we were gathered on a Friday night. Kudos to JP for bringing forward the idea late in the day yesterday, and to Eric for carrying off the last-minute technology so smoothly. By evening’s end a whole lot of us were united in the belief that we have to do it again. We were also united in the belief that JP needs help with his refrigerator’s selection of puck sodas.  Â
In his very first interaction with Washington media, Anton Gustafsson Friday night was asked to compare his game with that of his father’s.
“I think I’m better,” he said. “I’m a better skater, I have a better shot.”
Capitals’ fans can only dream that the son is right, and if he is they’re in for an extraordinary joy ride. Anton’s father Bengt was merely one of the most gifted talents ever to don a Caps’ sweater. He was big, and a powerful skater.  He possessed hockey sense in spades, and he regularly directed cross-ice passes to teammates on the tape at full speed. He was lethal on draws, and he was a shut-down defensive gem. He remains perhaps the most complete hockey player in Capitals’ history. Â
He once scored 5 goals in a game against Philadelphia — on 5 shots. (Think Ovechkin will accomplish that?) Number 16 ranks fifth all-time in Caps’ scoring with 555 points in 629 games from 1979-89. Â
The NHL Network interviewed a very proud papa about Anton late Friday night, and it wasn’t just anybody asking the questions. Bengt’s coach as a Cap, Gary Green, asked father to compare son’s game with his own.
“He looks a little like dad [on the ice],” the ex-Cap great responded. “He has a little more skill, he shoots better.”
“He has a big future in front of him.”Â
The Capitals traded with New Jersey on Friday night to select Gustafsson, surrendering the 54th pick to the Devils and leap-frogging Edmonton to do so. And that’s what’s drawn our attention to this selection in particular. You’ll recall that just last summer there was what might be termed “bad blood” between the Washington and Edmonton organizations over the pusuit of unrestricted free agent Michael Nylander. Edmonton believed that they’d had an agreement with the unrestricted free agent pivot, only to see him land in D.C.
Back in 1978, the Caps drafted the elder Gustafsson in the fourth round. He subsequently played a season of pro hockey in Sweden and then signed with Edmonton of the World Hockey Association. But in ‘79-80 Edmonton was one of four WHA clubs to merge with the NHL, and the Caps, having already drafted Gustafsson, claimed his rights. A dispute ensued; the Caps prevailed; the rest is history.
So imagine with that backfile the circumstances on the draft floor in Ottawa Friday night. The Caps obviously had Anton Gustafsson higher on their draft board than no.23, and ahead of them, as Gustafsson remained un-selected as the Caps’ pick neared, were the Oilers.
The guess here is that General Manager George McPhee won’t be receiving a Christmas card from Kevin Lowe’s family this December.  Â
On Friday night the Caps also acquired Natick, Massachusetts, native John Carlson, a big-bodied defenseman, in the first round. They dealt Steve Eminger and the 84th pick to the Philadelphia Flyers for the 27th pick in the first round, which they used to select Carlson. The 6 ‘2, 215-pound blueliner played with Indiana of the USHL in 2007-08.
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