The late-blooming pupil and his new mentor

This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Capitals’ website production specialist Brett Leonhardt signing an amateur tryout contract, donning goalie pads and dressing in a Caps’ sweater, and taking warmups and briefly serving as a backup goalie for a regular season NHL game. It was one of the better feel-good stories of the 2008-09 NHL season. (Recommended reading: Ed Frankovic’s fantastic blog account of that special night against the Ottawa Senators). What’s perhaps just as interesting with Leonhardt’s story is the status of his goalie career ever since.

Leonhardt got on the ice enough with the Caps out at the team’s Ballston practice facility last season to inspire him to devote his playing offseason to a level of training and conditioning he never before had. Near the end of last season he worked with Capitals’ strength and conditioning coach, Mark Nemish, to design a training and fitness program to pursue all summer long. And pursue it he did.

“I actually went to the gym every day [last summer],” Leonhardt said. He put on 20 pounds of muscle, and this season, as he travels with the team for every road game to generate video and imagery for the team’s web site, he makes a point of regularly working out at gyms and fitness rooms in the hotels where the team is lodging.

But he’s not just sweating on treadmills at Hyatts on the road with the team — he’s a not uncommon practice participant as well. It’s actually standard practice by the club to tote along Leonhardt’s goalie gear for roadtrips of more than one game, and this coming week, when the Caps make their first trip out West of the season, Leonhardt expects to see the ice again in practice.

If Jose Theodore or Semyon Varlamov get 30-plus shots’ exertion in a game the night before, Leonhardt explained, it’s not uncommon for him to dress for the next morning’s practice to give the weary goalie a rest. Or if the team is playing back-to-back games, at home or on the road, and the guys have been given the morning off, sometimes just a handful of guys who’ve been recent healthy scratches or are rehabbing an injury will still want to get in a skate, and Leonhardt sees practice time then as well.  

New Capitals’ goaltending coach Arturs Irbe is in charge of all goalies out on the ice during practice, irrespective of the nameplate on the back of the practice sweater. That means that Leonhardt is instructed by Irbe just like the six- and seven-figure star backstoppers around him. It’s heady stuff for the young web guru.

“One day I’m the guy cutting pictures and highlights of these guys for the web site, and the next day I’m staring them down in practice,” he said.

“This organization treats me like I’m an NHLer every instance I help out.”

It’s a Walter Mitty winter routine, all right.

Does he ever sense that guys like Ovi and Semin let up at all on their shots on him during practices?   

“I’ve got the bruises all up and down my arms to prove that they don’t,” he replied, “and truthfully, if I sensed that they did, I’d say something about it.”

Rudy, Rudy, Rudy! 

He’s had a few scary moments to go along with his bruises. Back during fall camp, Capitals’ goaltending prospect Brayden Holtby came up lame with a muscle tweak in his leg, at a time when training camp’s full compliment of goaltenders hadn’t yet arrived, and so Leonhardt was again pressed into emergency service. Not long after, Capitals’ newcomer Mike Knuble snapped off a laser that kabonked Stretch right in the ’noggin. It was, briefly, a scary moment for Leonhardt’s friends in the media following the session.

How does the new media manipulator and Ovi-Backstrom-Semin part-time shot blocker balance the demands of wearing two very different helmets — has he ever missed a communications assignment because of his versatility? 

“When Brent Johnson went down last season and Theo [Jose Theodore] followed, I practiced every day that week, and we had [web] work to do,” he acknowledged. “I remember dropping a subtle hint to George [McPhee] one day – ‘Oh, uh, Kurt [Kehl, the team's VP of communications] said I gotta do . . . ‘ and he shot me this eye like ‘don’t ever say that to me again,’ as in, what happens on the ice comes first.”

Talk about a Most Valuable Web Guy.

“They’ve been great about it ever since,” he added. “Paul [Rovnak, Caps' media rep] will sometimes keep watch over my [video] gear until I’m off the ice, and then maybe when I’m still in half [hockey] gear I’ll run out and press record, or back at the hotel, they’ll make Bruce [Boudreau] available to me so I can shoot something.”

So where is Stretch’s game now, having had a full year-plus of intermittent skating with some of the world’s best shooters of pucks, a committed off-ice training program, and a well-established on-ice routine with the league’s best team on the road?

“Obviously, Theo, Varly, and Neuvirth come first [working with Coach Irbe],” Leonhardt noted. “Where Arturs helps me the most is in between drills. When everyone gathers around the chalk board and Bruce is explaining the next drill, Arturs will take me aside and, if he notices something small, he’ll correct it, he’ll say, ‘Try this.’”

“It’s awesome. It’s surreal. When I’m in [practicing], I don’t realize [the novelty], but after practice . . . here I am taking advice from a guy that was in the Stanley Cup Finals, and then when working with [player] footage, I realize again what I’m doing.”                   

“Goalies are late developers, you know,” he pointed out with his trademark wit.

The Caps and ‘Canes entered Wednesday night tied for first in the Southeast with 18 points. It’s rare that you’d ever identify a November game as a “big” one, but with conventional wisdom suggesting that the Southeast champion likely to emerge between Washington and Carolina (they’ve won six of a possible nine Southeast titles), and with Washington prevailing in the opening mathchup on November 6, and now just six games scheduled between division foes, going up 2-0 home and away well could carry an important swagger for the Caps. Mission seriously accomplished.

• “Statement” games. If they exist, this qualified. I was particularly impressed with the opening two minutes of the third period, when the Caps were in command of the game, on the road, and with their hot goalie out of the lineup. They might have been expected to go into a shell then, but they came out and applied serious pressure on their hosts and carried the play throughout the third. It was a spectacular 60-minute effort.

• Color me mystified by Peter Laviolette’s decision to sit Cam Ward — merely one of the planet’s best goaltenders. Ward has enjoyed terrific success against the Caps in his career (10-5-0-1, pretty stellar save percentage and goals-against), and while he laid an egg against Atlanta November 9, that’s all the more reason to come back with him in a showdown game. So sayeth the blogger.

• The last thing you want to see happen to a hot goalie like BJ is an injury, however minor, but tip your hat to Jose Theodore, who came in cold with the game still very undecided, made a few stellar stops early in period 2 (particularly on Eric Staal on the doorstep) and may well have reversed some bad debut MoJo by keeping the ‘Canes at bay.

• If you thought Alexander Semin’s Player of the Month October was fluky, think again. Back in the summer, one of the storylines I identified for the Caps in 2008-09 was whether or not Alexander Semin could elevate his game to a level commensurate with his skills — that of an NHL superstar. I’ve seen enough this season to make that determination.  Expect the ‘other’ Alex to be lodged at the very top of the league’s scoring leaders all season long.

• Semin was a -18 a season ago. This morning he is +17.

• Ovechkin’s slump = over. Very. Nick Backstrom, too, looks like a different player from October. 

• Mike Green does have a young, aggressive offensive defenseman’s propensity to cough up the puck, but he’s now a +10 on the young season. He is a joy to watch play. Please, please, let us not Larry Murphy (NHL Hall of Famer) him.

• The Caps have won four straight, and all foes at the time of playing had winning records. This stretch goes a long way to washing away the concern of a conspicuously mediocre start through November 4. Consider, too, that some key cogs (Sergei Fedorov foremost among them) are out of the lineup. Ahead looms a home and home with New Jersey club that’s never been as vulnerable since Marty Brodeur became the Devils’ no. 1 between the pipes.   

Catch Johnson on the air Tuesday afternoon:

• 1:20 p.m.: “NHL Live” on XM Radio/NHL Network
• 3:40 p.m.: The John Thompson Show on ESPN 980

It is a little surprising, however, that these stats belong to a netminder earning slightly more than eight hundred thousand dollars in salary, less than double that of Tyler Sloan, and who is named Brent Johnson. You can remain philosophical and skeptical about BJ’s emergence in the first month of the Capitals’ season, and think his a Cinderella story with midnight at the near — how could a largely backup backstopper better a nearly $5 million dollar, former Vezina and league MVP winner? — or you can take BJ at his preseason word, and acknowledge that this was part of his plan for 2008-09. 

What I like best about Johnny’s story this season — admittedly in just its prologue — is that he fairly forecasted it, telling media this past summer, not long after the Capitals had signed free agent Jose Theodore, that he thought he could compete for the no. 1 job in net. Bold talk from a backstop who hadn’t known sustained starter status in the league in fully six seasons.

And yet, BJ’s play shouldn’t be all that surprising in light of the conditions he confronted this fall. Had the Caps been successful in resigning Cristobal Huet in the summer, it would have again been crystal clear what Johnson’s role would have been this season: backup again, as he’s always been in his career with the Caps. But the Caps were left a jilted bride at the free agency altar by team Huet, seized upon a controversial plan B in inking the erratic Theodore, and Johnson prepared himself for 2008-09 accordingly.

Starting and expensive NHL goaltenders occasionally get hurt and give way to backups who over-perform or simply make the best of the unexpected situation, infrequently but occasionally leading to goalie controversies. But that obviously is not what has happened between the pipes in D.C. this fall. It’s a startling reversal of fortune for “Johnny” insomuch as just last spring he was relegated to third in the Capitals’ netminding rotation behind Cristobal Huet and Olie Kolzig. Often he couldn’t even get practice ice during the team’s stretch run to the Southeast title.    

This morning, his stats suggest that Johnny is the sixth-best goalie in the NHL right now. It’s about time we got to know a little more about the new no. 1 in Washington.

Brent Johnson was drafted 129th overall by the Colorado Avalanche in 1995. He is a big goalie — 6 ’3, a tad over 200 pounds. He broke into the league in 1998-99, getting six games that season with the St. Louis Blues. After an American League apprenticeship with Worcester, he became a full-time big-leaguer in 2000-01. He went 19-9-2 in 31 games with St. Louis that season. He went 34-20-4 in 58 games with the Blues in ’01-02. From 2000-03 he boasted a pretty stellar slate of goals-against averages: 2.17, 2.18, 2.47. His save percentage all three of those seasons was at .900 or better. In 232 career NHL games he has a .903 save percentage and a 2.60 goals-against. Consider, though, that 56 of those games were with the very rebuilding Washington Capitals of 2005-07.

He’s only appeared in the NHL postseason twice (with St. Louis), and while his record in 12 games then is an uninspiring 5-6, his goals-against is a gaudy 1.84. He suffers from a league-wide reputation as a career backup, but at age 31, about a year younger than Theodore, he’s far from washed up. What he hasn’t had the past six seasons is a legit opportunity to compete for a no. 1 job. This fall that appears to have changed.   

“Johnny” is the grandson of NHL Hall of Famer Sid Abel, and the son of NHL goalie Bob Johnson. He married a Burke, Va., girl named Erica in 2007. He’s embraced this region and its pro hockey team, serving as a reliable backup here and, just as importantly, forging strong relationships with those paid like, and anointed, his betters at his position.

In sports the backup at key positions often earns the home crowd’s sympathy and underdog urgings. This fall Brent Johnson is doing that, but he might also be saving a season.        

• A season-altering triumph? It sure had that feeling in the immediate aftermath of a cardiac comeback against the ‘Canes. The Caps were three minutes shy of starting off an important homestand with a frustrating loss to their fiercest and most hated Southeast foe. Then, in keeping with his storybook season, Alexander Semin took a struggling team on his back and willed them to triumph with his magic wrists.  
• It was a World Championships reunion night at Verizon Center. Back in May, the Russian entry in the IIHF World Championships skated a top forward line comprised of Alexander Ovechkin, Sergei Fedorov, and Alexander Semin. They acquitted themselves rather well in the sense that all three finished in the top 5 in tournament scoring: Semin with 13 points, Ovechkin and Fedorov with 12, in 9 games. All three skated in double-digit plus-minus for the tourney, and Ovechkin and Fedorov assisted on Ilya Kovalchuk’s gold medal winning overtime goal against Canada. Caps’ fans following the tourney on line understandably wondered: would the dominant line in one of hockey’s most prestigious events be reconstituted on the Caps in 2008-09? The answer on Thursday night at Verizon Center finally arrived — yes! And before Fedorov departed the game in the third period with a “lower body” injury, there was ample reason for Caps’ fans to wish that the line remain intact the remainder of the season. 
• It really ought to be the best line in hockey. Alluding to the trio’s chemistry, Mike Green in the post-game locker room noted, “They’re best of buds.”  
• In light of the way the Hurricanes’ ’07-’08 season ended last spring, with that stunning home ice loss to Florida opening the door for the Capitals to steal the Southeast title and the division’s lone postseason entry with their 82nd game, you could convincingly suggest that last night was Carolina’s biggest game of the young season. The visitors played a simple, largely disciplined game, and they got high-quality goaltending from elite talent Cam Ward. What the ‘Canes failed to do was win faceoffs (winning just 36 percent of the game’s draws), and they certainly failed to contain Alexander Semin when it counted. 
• A confession: I arrived at the rink somewhat soured on this team’s long-term prospects, and Thursday night’s high drama late masks for another day still significant concerns. The Caps at times Thursday again got “too cute” with their offensive zone attacks, and the home crowd let them know it — particularly in the third period. The development of a reliable “lunchpale line,” a trio of strong and gritty willing to get dirty in front of the net and in corners shift after shift, would I think go a long way to reorienting this team’s identity and alleviating its startling inconsistency. Who would skate on such a line? Chris Clark for sure. Brooks Laich is another candidate. If he could somehow make a position switch, I’d like to see what Eric Fehr could do on such a line.
• Remember Ovi’s monster night (4 goals) against front-running Montreal at Verizon Center way back in January? Don’t you get the feeling that his countryman Semin, in this ‘I’ve arrived’ autumn he’s authoring, is going to have one of those himself? Or maybe three of them?
• Games like Thursday’s have meaning — even season-defining meaning ocassionally. Fully 30 minutes after the game I walked past ‘Canes’ coach Peter Laviolette in the hall outside the visitors’ room. His team was already on its bus. The coach moved slowly, his shoulders slumped, his expression one of thorough, lasting dejection. I’ve seen a lot of disappointed coaches in that hall the past couple of seasons, but none looking quite as agony-ridden as Laviolette. 
• Washington is a town renowned for Redskin quarterback controversies. This autumn, the Capitals have a goaltending one.          

• Semin the Star Is Born. The skill set in Alexander Semin, we knew, was there. What’s been missing prior to this season has been game-to-game consistency, a sense of being dynamic and dazzling shift after shift. Also: being more than a one-zone force. Through three games Alexander Semin has been the Capitals’ MVP — indeed, were he to continue his present play Verizon Center’s chants of “M-V-P! M-V-P!” would have to be directed at another Russian. His emergence by itself suggests a better balanced Capitals’ attack. At this level of performance he is a certifiable All Star.
• ‘The Most Entertaining Team in Hockey‘ indeed!
• Stars — and Others — Shall Do More. Bruce Boudreau appears to have inventoried his team’s individual talents and demanded more of them: Alexanders Ovechkin and Semin to the penalty kill (joined even Nicklas Backstrom), Sergei Fedorov rotated from forward to defense. It is strategic thinking outside the proverbial box, and it’s suggestive of the coach having great faith in his players and delivering fresh challenges to them. Some nights we’re likely to see Alexander Semin wearing a post-game hard hat, others, Milan Jurcina perhaps lauded for his success on the power play. Jurcina? Well, in being paired with Fedorov on the blueline against Vancouver, Boudreau seemed to saying, ‘I’m going to find a way to get Jurcina’s huge slapshot unleashed.’ It was more of a snapshot Jurcina uncorked from the blueline last night, but it found the back of the net. Whoever is paired with Fedorov can expect to be set up for success there. Speaking of Feds, that $4 million resigning this summer is beginning to look like a bargain.
• Emergence of Secondary Scoring. The Capitals may have the most dangerous second line in hockey. Also, the third. Scoring this season¬†should often come in waves, and there will be nights like Monday when the first line is well checked (Willie Mitchell’s work on Ovi Monday night was reminiscent of Kimmo Timonen’s shutdown success in last spring’s playoffs) but serious damage is done behind it.
• Campaign Season Slogan — Green for Norris! Mike Green is years away from realizing his full potential as an impact no. 1 defenseman, but his production through three games (5 points, good for second on the team in scoring) adds an exclamation point to the preseason forecasts for him for a full year in Bruce Boudreau’s system. He’s going to pile up points this season, and combined with his flair for Lights Out! drama, breathtaking agility, poise, and puck-rushing, he’s a virtual mortal lock to be a Norris finalist. If he manages to skate something approaching a +20 in 2008-09 (he’s already a +3), the Reign¬†of Lidstrom could come to a sudden end. ¬†
• Swarming Team D. After opening Friday’s dismal team defensive effort in Atlanta, who would have imagined that the same Caps’ team could outshoot a quality western conference foe to the tune of 30-5 50 minutes through game 3? The Sedins had zero shots on goal between them. Saturday night Jose Theodore faced only 21 Chicago Blackhawk shots. On Monday, Brent Johnson faced¬†less than¬†half that total. The Capitals received a rude awakening in their own end last Friday night, and ever since both forwards and rearguards have skated with a shutdown commitment in their own end. Bruce Boudreau’s defensive philosophy is to have his players well positioned and to block and deflect pucks and to pounce in swift counter-attack. It’s a philosophy that requires a buy-in by all five on the ice. Games two and three this past weekend were textbook illustrations of it. ¬†
• Wanted: One Hero Between the Pipes. Here the grade is incomplete. Johnny wasn’t challenged — bloggers could have tended goal at Verizon Center Monday night — and Jose Theodore displayed nerves and unsteadiness in his new surroundings (then settled down in periods 2 and 3 Saturday night). Make no mistake, the Capitals will require premium goaltending both to win the Southeast and advance deep in the playoffs this season.