In Glacialis Blog

Lets’ pactus ut per rectum of res a evidenter districtus, multi- utor venue — domus ut Hoyas, Veneficus, Mystics, Caps, an annual equus ostendo, varius instar skating vices, ustulo of sollicitudo — Quin Center est metaphysically inconcessus ex perficio a ovis of glacies species satis ut ordo in NHLs’ caput capitis tertius. Due mereo ut schedule duress is simplex cannot aspire ut similitudo lenitas lenitudo, ut niger- glacies- in-Banff species of superficies plerumque instituo in comparatively quietis venues talis ut illud in Edmonton, Calgary, Vancouver, vel Joe in Detroit.

Lets’ pactus porro ut escendo change wreaking havoc is est puto habeo per suus proponents, ut Lavatio hiberna pulvis’ certe certo gelu pro three rectus mensis, ut they quondam erant ( huic bloggers’ juvenis, verum), condita pro an additional glacies suffragium challenge.

Quod lets’ quoque pactus ut Midatlantic tellus est vomica per ornamentum humidity, in totus quattuor seasons, quod ut ut’ non theca in NHL civis amo Boston, Pullus, Los Angelus, quod San Jose, inter alius. Ut’ non loquor ut illud locus dont’ teneo suum partis of heatwaves, quod vel parcus- ut- plumbeus mugginess in resarcio, tamen nusquam in lanx of Midatlantics’ medium- estas dolor. Humidity, per per patefacio ut sunlight, looms ut an glacies ovis’ plurimus potent hostilis. Suus’ quare rinks in tellus prodigo largior in aer circulation ratio.

Sic challenge umquam confronting Quin Center suffragium baculus est formidible. Atqui, in alius sections of American Inferus, quod Occasus — Atlanta, Tampa, Nashville, plurimus singulariter Dallas — audimus nullus of improbus directus procul glacies ovis ut nos have hic is season. Is gets per fervens quod muggy in Florida, vos teneo. Tamen est is sic daunting a challenge ut Caps’ glacies should exsisto lodged non tantum 30th in species ex 30 teams tamen verum peior quam illud ludio ludius in per potissimum tellus’ scholastic teams? Is est per philologus theca ut Caps meditor in a ovis of glacies appreciably excellens in species ut unus they conflictus suum venatus in. Ut’ alienigena quod intolerable.

Can vos statua Daniel Snyder res edoctus ut Requiro Cervus junior varsity footballers opus in turf excellens ut ut of Foedero Agri? Puteus DeMathas’ JV quod varsity hockey teams skate in melior glacies quam Caps.

Washingtons’ superficies, utrum in Landover vel downtown, has nunquam been contemplor ut parce bonus vel melior quam mediocris, vel in promontorium of hiberna. Tamen illic’ quispiam proprie perniciosus super glacies hic is season. Suus’ res referenced per taedium per ludio ludius quod saluto cogo in a nox noctis basis. Tom Venenum in Monday nox noctis accersitus Verizons’ glacies “embarassing.”

Per contraho amo of Alexes — cuius solers can tantum amplio in congruens ut species of superficies they contendo in — quam can Caput’ procuratio sino team ut contendo in a superficies improbus ut Tampas’?

In Moscow permaneo ver EGO partis a cab per an entrepreneur opus secundum scaena per NHL in suus foras hockey venatus. Is told mihi ut hodie technology futurus deporto an foras NHL venatus conflictus in a species superficies. . . in Florida . . . in October. Obvius annus ahead, suus’ altus amo ut puteus’ animadverto foras ordinarius season venatus ludio ludius in nonnullus admiratio locus.

Hodie in D.C. valetudo parumper hockey venatus downtown tonight vere couldnt’ exsisto ultum melior huic vicis in calendar. aer foris est siccus quod articulus, tempero strenuus. In ullus alius magnus-league urbs, 45 vel sic NHLers tonight would contendo in a rationabiliter decens nisi bonus ovis of glacies. Caps quod Pardus, vero, mos non.

quare

Cousin quod EGO es in vere magnus urbs iam caput. Nos supervenio in vicis pro Thanksgiving prandium Thursday, quod dum terra hic est turkeyless ( quod snake- solvo nimirum, gratiae maculo. Pium), cousin quod EGO postulo haud misericordia. Ut loco is mitis, nos ingurgito ourselves amplitudo procul Gallaghers’ Boxty Domus.

Gallaghers’ est forsitan optimus- notus quod plurimus carus dining macula in Templum Talea plaga of Dublin. Boxty est Irenses pro pancake- amo utor of potatoes. Totus ratio of caro es refertus intus lemma, quod presentations es os- unda. Meus Thanksgiving farina convenienter of oak smoked Irenses salmon garnished per vegetus viridis, institutio Irenses vilicus, duos pints of Murphys’, a vas of Parvulus cabernet, quod a heaping lubricus of Procurator’ cheesecake comitatus per Procurator’ capulus.

EGO didnt’ requiro turkey adeo.

tempestas in Dublin est se gero ut teres dining quod indulgens pubbing. Is pervenio minus unus hic Thursday nox noctis (Celsius, obviously), quod Friday videor haud tepidus. Suus’ fantastically terror, quod dum locus es entombed in layers quod headwear quod vix, EGO wouldnt’ have is a singulus inhonestus tepidus. Totus ut’ absentis ex meus vita tardus is November est ago hockey. Divum Novus Friday oriens forecasted snow pro Scotland.

Altus in meus procurator hic eram shopping pro nonnullus Irenses laneus sudo, quod is tempestas afforded perficio backdrop illo nisus. EGO cautus duos ingurgito quod somes estus- reservo sudo ex Perfectus Shop in St. Stephens Viridis Friday meridianus, quod is eram blustery satis ut EGO wore unus ex shop atop an American sudo EGO eram iam taedium. (persevero)

Lets’ narro ut near feriae vestri beer league team has recipero a novus teammate in suus roster, a voluptarius socius valde novus ut urbs per a rationabiliter significant hockey background. Hes’ sic novus ut urbs, verum, ut sit insciens of unus of suus novus teammates’ hockey blogging hobby, an ignarus quod could sino, erant res warranted, pro said blogger ut aer sicco, in url formo, a discomfort is portus per suus novus teammate. Lets’ dico is newcomer Michael.

Nos recreational hockey ludio ludius have totus been in glare of newcomers’ discomfort — unnerving intentus quod awkwardness socius per res newbie in cella. Hockeys’ cella, vel in maxime recreational campester, veho a camaraderie compositus nusquam alius inter Imbuo quod Sunday athletes. Suus’ unus constructum in sanus traffic of razor- acer tonsor. Tamen suus’ lentus res newcomer ut is, quod illic foris.

foris volo sic desparatus apto in, velox quod seamlessly. Haud cella in haud alius lusum teneo bonus- vis ribbing quod jibes of hockey. permaneo res a newcomer would volo accerso ut suus primoris venatus est a causa facio him center of inrideo.

Sic statua, si vos can, quis ratio of reaction vires have been directus newcomers’ via in meus beer league cella per revelation of venatus apparatus garnered procul nonnullus Hartford Affectus: Consensio.

Orbis 1982.

Haud frons tergus gloves, haud puteus tempestas tergus Rutilus Cornu proprius. Iustus ut ghastly, pleatless, crus vultus ex waist ut ankle. Suus’ aliquantulus amo vultus of Dr. Zachary Smith in ‘Lost in Tractus’

Quam did they possibly superstes totus illa annus? refero they es impervious ut matris) Michaels’ had nonnullus gero super lemma quippe, tamen they erant aegre pessimus pro gero in cella. Quam primum formo tentatio videor futurus a demoror Sanctio prank, tamen tunc Michael vere loco lemma in quod waltzed sicco onto glacies pro tepidus.

Nostri est a team ut vires exsisto termed female- solator- familiaris- in-- sto challenged, quod Michaels’ nuntius super suus solum dimidium moris’ exsisto succurro res.

Videlicet, team gubernatio has a sententia facio; formo statua quo cannot persevero. OFB lector — haud vegrandis numerus of beer leaguers inter lemma — may have instituo suum cella similis stomachata. Iustus non is decade. Vel permaneo. EGO sententia is sapiens ut loco is res ut a capitagium.

Irenses es inique maligned ut a imbibo humanitas. In cuspis of res, they es a chugging unus. Tonight eram a Wednesday in a non- feriae week of opus pro Irenses, per a “football” compositus inter England quod Croatia televised. Sulum pub in Galway eram facis, sulum pub traba larded ( beatus!) per a preponderance of pint vas. Umquam repletus.

Beatus illa magnus- vicis susurro pectus pectoris.

Illic est quispiam ut exsisto philologus EGO reputo ex quod per caput is terra outdrinks totus alius combined quod etiam curo ut engineer plagiarius’ maioribus, plurimus impressively growing frugalitas. Obviously, ut dictata would exsisto: behave magis amo they operor.

Is section of meus opinio est directus proprie procul meus prosapia tergum domus: nos es nunquam video vidi visum unus alius iterum, per haud mendum vestri. Per simplex, EGO sum domus, quod EGO postulo deporto reliquum of meus dies huic sinus of liquored luxuria. Tamen technology est fueling dynamic frugalitas of Ireland, sic nos ero validus ut verto email.

EGO sum conscius pariter ut erant EGO ut reverto domus EGO would exsisto inconcessus ex umquam testis Lavatio Caput victor alius hockey venatus. Quis alius est illic tamen vita of a jugiter smiling e-Pat? (persevero)

Evolution quod maturation es universe sanus proditor, quod dum nos strenuus procul sententia of subolesco, nos umquam peto ut pipio quod tinker per OFB pro betterment nostri lector. Is feriae week nos sententia is vires exsisto fun ut volvo siccoIn Glacialis Tabula, a lector- coegi forum per quod nostrum ordinarius can erigo hockey thema in suum mens quod nostrum interaction per lemma can magis universe exsisto broadened.

Iam weve’ invited nostrum plurimus fidelis lector utsubcriptio quod jump- satus novus forum. Nos volo is futurus a thoughtful, illustro, callidus, pius, quod amusing usus.

A link ut tabula can exsisto instituo in dextera navigium “ tenor” menu vel directus procul
http:/boards.onfrozenblog.com//.

Nos exspectata vestri input orsa hodie.

EGO sum in feriae ex nocens hockey. Meus cousin Bill quod EGO es saluto terra nostri ancestry is week, Emerald Isle. Nos es hic iacio tergum pauci pints quod video vidi visum si Erin mos vado braless.

Lusum est questus incrementabiliter gravitas in Irenses humanitas. Venatus in pitch, ut alibi in occasus Europe, subsisto a staple of pub patronus’ fanaticus. Tamen coincidental ut scalding fervens Irenses frugalitas has been meteoric orior oriri ortus in populus of golf. Ireland hodie est domus ut nonnullus of Europes’ teres links, quod Bill quod Ego, in Irelands’ pre- diluculo obscurum Tuesday oriens, erant testis ut suus labefactum. Nos obduco tunc an enormous eo theca pro stipes belonging ut Padraig Harrington, reigning British Patefacio champion. Suus Wilson Baculus ferreus crusta theca eram constipatus per forsitan a dozen alius eo bags in an airport luggage pupa. Is res Thanksgiving week tergum domus, Bill quod EGO sententia is amo is eram caput capitis Oriens trans ocean ut nonnullus million pupa, “ leviculus season” pre se ferre. Tamen quis eram offensio super is celebrity non- os eram Irenses reaction prurigo. Ustulo of airport alio recolligo inter Padraigs’ pera quod pervenio sicco ut peniculus a manus manus obviam is. Is est lectulus terra hic, quod unus lusum vir’ foris factum have an enormous labefactum in suus paganus.

Specto nostrum syrma occasus crux crucis terra ex Dublin ut Galway is oriens nos utor “a plenus Irenses ientaculum” ut nostrum primoris farina hic. ientaculum of nonnullus vero es plenus quam alius’. A laneus-capped liberalis of super 70 sat adjacent nobis in syrma constituo tabernus quod had teres off duos pints per suus.

Suus est non a lone factum of rebellis. Nos obduco a Guinness lacus vel three in nostrum bus veho ex airport ut syrma constituo. They es identical in vultus ut oil lacus, praeter suum cargo est matris’ lac lactis. Ten million pints of Guinness es brewed cotidie. A mediocris numerus es perussi hic.

Bill quod EGO necessarius super six hora in Galway hodie ut deem nostrum arduous, sleepless iter itineris dignitas totus suus tentatio. Illic est music in os nostri propinquus. Ne multus ut a graduate discipulus EGO entertained sententia of studying linguistics, quod EGO sententia super is iterum ut EGO auditor ut carmen ut es vulgaris infringo ut auditus per North American ears. Sciscitor a barmaiden hic procuratio ut a meridianus duco moenia est futurus woo-ed in comprehendo- solvo meter of velox- passus, poeta refrains.

Did EGO profero bars? Hodie nos quoque philologus puteus of Americas’ shortcomings in suus saloons. Tergum domus nos dont’ ultum molior bars ut levamentum plaga. Nos planto certus taps es opus quod angulus es refertus per altus certus TV, tamen hic illic est in typical tabernus a domus a domus. Vivax ago music nimirum, tamen ovis compages es jewels. Hic EGO postulo an architects’ vocabulary quinymo quam a bloggers’.

Nos lodged ourselves in Galways’ “ Skeff” is meridianus quod vesper. A scindo- campester saloon tepidus per wood undique intus vos vires reputo novus. Quam super quinque campester of talis in Skeff! Irenses-American eyes is dies erant smiling vero.

Meus three astrum of seasons’ primoris vicus es:

(3) Pascal Leclaire — backstopper of BlueJackets, disbelievingly in lascivio litis, per a .940 servo percentage, 1.59 calx- obviam ( secundus- optimus in league) quodquinque shutouts. Hes’ meus Vezina Trophy victor pro prothoplastus vicus;

(2) Henrik Zetterberg — antea a magnificabiliter ustulo porro, iam a superstar, quod videlicet a magis dynamic talentum sursum frons pro Pennae quam Interfixus Datsyuk. Nunc futurus pensus sic?;

(1) Vincent Lecavalier — simplex having suus optimus season ut a pro, leagues’ plumbum ustulo per 32 pts.; dominion suus contradictio quod condita quis eram puto futurus a caput capitis- gravis somes of Telum’ porro in a primoris versus ut’ sic bonus is res parum quis contributions, si ullus, insisto. Hes’ meus Hart Trophy victor pro prothoplastus vicus.

Recolitus profero: Jarome Iginla (26 cuspis in 19 venatus) est having an MVP species season, tamen hes’ laboriosus in a nixor Flamma stipes. Quod Comcast, pro coming per per NHL CenterIce, NHL Network, quod Lisa Tumulosus.

Cado astrum:

(3) Lavatio Caput

(2) Proficiscor Andre Fleury

(1) Reebok

Midwest Mojo: Redivivus in Pullus quod St. Louis es ahead of passus quod infigo. Pium Kane est meus Calder Trophy victor pro prothoplastus vicus. Robert Lingua, per 19 cuspis in 20 venatus, quod skating a +7, est giving Hawks subtilis quidam quaedam quedam quidam uber, veteran gubernatio theyd’ spes pro in caput capitis versus. Etiam, Hawks have proventus — in suum tergum terminus. Theyve’ trado 61 calx, quod utriusque Khabibulin quod Lalime lusum sub-.900 servo percentages. Tamen secundum a decade of dreariness, Hawks es fun ut vigilo iterum. plumbum ustulo pro Puteulanus es greybeards Paul Kariya quod Keith Tkachuk. Exinde, suus’ a lunchpail outfit ut’ outworking suus inimicus. Illic’ multus of juvenis illius roster, sic is may fulcio ut season progrsses. Quod quis of Rudis, vindicatum of Jiri Novotny quod Kris Beech? They es duodeviginti obvius Occasus, quod 6-2-1 domi.

In Oriens, Montreal quod Insula have been attonitus prosperitas repono. Suus’ a pondera tentatio in Montreal: Habs iam have duodeviginti ludio ludius in geminus digits in ustulo. Quod memor quam everybody in hockey eram misericordia Isles secundum oris hora of solvo procurator, ut guys amo Jason Blake, Tom Venenum, quod Viktor Kozlov telum? Ted Nolan est opus suus secundus consecutive miracle in Isle.

Vires in Michaels. Mike Richards quod Mike Cammalleri have talea sicco take- is- ut--bank Totus Astrum venatus lectio. Richards (23 cuspis in 19 venatus) est Philadelphias’ plurimus convenienter quod dynamic tractare, a cuspis-per- venatus ludio ludius quisnam is season has transitioned ex spondeo youngster ut elite, caput- species talentum. Suus three shorthanded procerus plumbum league. Cammalleri (12 calx, 7 succurro) est orsa ut vultus multus amo Occasus placitum’ poema poematis of Bellicus St. Louis.

Jolly Ole Uber St. Nik. Nik Antropov est sanus quod lascivio virtually a cuspis-a- venatus hockey pro Folium, quod skating a +9. Quisnam knew is could? Is had 33 cuspis permaneo season, quod a altus of 16 calx quod 29 assists in 2002-03. Obviously he’s on pace for a career year. Alex Kovalev is on pace for 40 goals. Meanwhile, Jonathon Cheeechoo has just 3 goals in 21 games for the Sharks. Jaromir Jagr, I’m sad to report, is on pace for 16 goals this season, and Chris Drury (3 goals!) even less. Still, their Rangers have seriously heated up in the Atlantic.

Jeremy Roenick — remember him? — is outscoring Mike Modano, Brendan Shanahan, Thomas Vanek, Drury, Chris Higgins, Brian Gionta, and Patrick Marleau. One of the reasons Tampa was able to survive the loss of Dan Boyle for much of the season’s first quarter was the play of Paul Ranger: 4 goals, a +11, and an able distributor on the power play point.

It sure appears as if Peter Forsberg has played his last game in the NHL, and perhaps in pro hockey period. Next stop, the Hall of Fame. Less honorably sidelined, in my judgment, are Scott Niedermayer and Teamu Selanne, who appear to want to allow their Ducks teammates to shoulder the early regular season’s bumps and bruises before perhaps rejoining them for the stretch run and postseason. I’m sorry, but hockey players play hockey when hockey starts, not finishes. Without them, the defending champion Ducks are holding it together rather well.

Guy Carbonneau and Ted Nolan share the Jack Adams Trophy for the season’s first quarter, from my vantage. Honorable mention: Ken Hitchcock.

I had three thoughts in the immediate aftermath of last night’s 2-1 loss in Sunrise. One, the title of one of my favorite cinematic comedies, ‘As Good as It Gets’ — that title, its syntax, just sorta sauntered about in my post-loss head. Two, that there surely was an elevated toxicity to be found in the forums of the foaming at the mouth, and that I’d wait 12 or so hours before scanning their contents, as hanging for losing hockey games is in my view too severe a remedy. And three, fan exuberance and its obvious shortcomings notwithstanding, sometimes the mad men are actually right in their fury.

Absent a miraculous turnaround in this hockey team, the wherewithal for which is impossible to detect this morning, odds are that Caps’ management is going to come to see things much as much of the fanbase has for about two weeks now — and likely, rather soon. (Assuming they already don’t.) Which for me invites an interesting question. We can all agree that 75 or 90 percent of the time, the pitchfork-and-torches brigade of the beaten down by too many losses is reactionary and irrational in wholly unproductive fashion. It’s the old I gotta have a head on a platter mentality. It’s driven by the Id’s need to vent. But ocassionally, just ocassionally, beneath all the sound and the foaming, there is actual merit to their madness.

But more specifically, what is it about the kingdom of fandom that once in a while affords it a view to an appropriate kill, while management, comprised of seasoned professionals in the industry, dithers and damagingly delays? It could perhaps be analogized as the dog owner who presents his pup to the veterinarian complaining of a gut-felt malady in the little guy, but finds no remedy. ‘My little doggie just isn’t right,’ the owner would report. The vet would examine, detect no ill, and move along to inspect the next critter. A tumor somehow went undetected, by the pro we most depend upon to find it. Again, nine times out of ten, it’s found, and quite often excessive worry and woe needlessly drive scores of animal lovers to unnecessary and costly visits to the vet. However in Washington this fall, we’ve a genuinely sick pup named puck.

Fully five days this hockey team had to prepare itself for the perpetually underwhelming Florida Panthers, losers of four straight games. Its lineup was at 95 percent capacity. Its leaders spoke this week on record of an imperative of the moment. Again, once the puck dropped, it played not poorly at all but not good enough to win. Again.

One could plausibly posit that the Southeast is the NHL’s least imposing division, and the Capitals this morning are at the bottom of it. Syllogism: the Caps are the worst team in hockey. One that eight weeks ago spoke uniformly and openly about participating in the NHL postseason.

The fanbase this morning might rightly ask of management: just how much evidence do you require?

This morning there is for me a foreboding sense of an awful appointment tonight for the Caps, again in Florida. I witnessed much of what Vinny did to the first-place ‘Canes the other night. A Friday night in Tampa: this building, unlike last night’s, will be sold out. There is a team perhaps in or approaching a death spiral gliding toward a potential buzzsaw. I fear a high order of ugliness. And then, following, a quiet weekend of disquiet. Again.

Then, maybe then — likely not but perhaps — remedy will follow. A furious fanbase will be obliged. A corrective course will be pursued. Maybe.

More likely, however, even in the event of a wretched, additionally spirits-sapping defeat this evening, one driving this hockey team further below the Mendoza line of competitiveness, management will ponder further. At some point, however, the conveyor belt of rationalizing inaction will produce no product. Then it will be fair for the fanbase to ask of the team’s management, with respect to this week’s five-day break, Why did you wait?

New free agents aren’t performing poorly. The defense is much improved, the goaltending super solid and often even better. Alex is playing the best hockey of his career. But accorded the advantage of relaxed schedule and the self-imposed imperative of winning, the best this Caps club could do last night in Sunrise was play well enough to lose to a lousy club. Again.

This is as good as it gets.

Quality human beings comprise the vast majority of the enrollment for the great game of hockey, and so when the giants within it are called upon to offer reflections on their journeys within the game, we shouldn’t be surprised at the quality they offer in that endeavor. It’s impossible to watch the NHL’s Hall of Fame Induction ceremony and not be persuaded that the humility, character, and most particularly the connection to family that hockey players demonstrate and articulate is unrivaled in the landscape of professional sports. Baseball’s induction ceremony this past summer, by virtue of the character of its principal inductees Gwynn and Ripken, seemed to take a step back in time and grace and generate a renewal of honor for a sport badly in need of it. But the NHL, with its highest honor event every November, has it every year.

The billing for Monday night’s ceremony in Toronto was a legends’ list of inductees, the best class ever, but listening to their tales of rising within dedicated families and their unwavering support structures — ones that are extended and amplified within the larger hockey family itself — one felt that this event, seemingly a spectacle for the rare-talent individual, was actually every bit as much an exhibition for the family unit that serves as the perpetual wellspring of greatness in this game.

The cameras last night delivered to us footage of the excellence of the inductees on the ice; their poise and emotion while reflecting on their honor on stage; but also regular glimpses of their families seated nearby and poetic testimonials from their sons as to their invaluable influence. All seemed interrelated and intertwined.

And in point of fact it is. The Hockey Hall of Fame has among its exhibits a simple home’s family room circa 1950 within which family members are gathered around a broadcast of Hockey Night in Canada. It also has a station wagon honoring the pre-dawn pilgrimages to the rink, played out over years through the hardships of Canadian winter, conducted as devoted ritual.

A hockey player’s developmental journey requires nothing short of an all-out commitment of time and resources from families. They arise on weekdays with newspaper delivery trucks to make pre-school practices in frigid blackness. They become road warriors of the winter weekend to travel to games and tournaments, and in 90 percent of Canada and the upper Midwest, that’s often desolate and dangerous travel.

Becoming a hockey player is rarely a fleeting, half-hearted venture. Perhaps that’s why this sport is played with so much heart.

Al MacInnis was the first honoree last night to acknowledge the role of family in his greatness, and as the first-ever Nova Scotian to be enshrined (incredible, that), he made sure that his extended family members in Port Hood knew of their role in his career. They had a place in the Hall of Fame, too, he said.

It was heartening to hear Scott Stevens testify to the impact he felt from his eight years in the Washington Capitals’ family. He thanked David Poile and Bryan Murray from management, and his defensive partner Brian Engblom. He characterized his tenure in town as “a period of growth” and alluded to being a part of the first Capitals’ team to qualify for the postseason — the first of seven straight such in D.C. he was a part of. And he thanked Capitals’ fans for their support.

The tear machine that is Mark Messier of course had ample reflections on the role of family in his career. He had ample reflections period, obliterating the prescribed four minutes for remarks with rambling incoherence that nearly outlasted his career. What if he’d been wearing a tuxedo system designed by Reebok amid all that sobbing?

Messier’s frequent pregnancy-long pauses allowed me to rememeber that at one time his family was reputed to have included Madonna. I rather delight in hockey’s figures of towering talent, their origins in towns of hundreds, their modesty unmatched in or out of professional sports, dalliance-ing with American starlet strumpets. That of course is the exception to the more mundane extension of family in this sport. Hockey players never forget their roots, or lose their attachment to them.

The voting is over and the winner has been announced. On Frozen Blog ended up in a respectable 4th place finish.

Thanks to all who voted for us.

One way to react to last night’s PowerBall-winning-odds turn of events in Ottawa is as I did, in foggy disbelief, with the aid of paramedics. Clutching the lapels of the uniform jacket of the young woman from the Bethesda-Chevy Chase rescue squad kneeling over me in my home near 11:00 last night, oxygen mask over my face, I was able to stammer out “We really . . . the Senators . . . 13-1 going in . . .?” I suspect she was from Minnesota or Alberta, for she offered me the warmest of smiles and a nod of affirmation. And a victory beer.

Another way to react is with relief but also indignation. Without Chris Clark and without Alexander Semin — 68 goals of absence, we were constantly reminded this week — the Caps have taken down the province of Ontario recently by the count of 11-2. Injuries really aren’t an excuse for prolonged losing; now we know they really can’t be one for this version of the Washington Capitals. And we know this: this team, even missing a couple of key parts, is capable of playing great hockey — but you wouldn’t want to bet the mortgage on them doing it night in and night out.

Why can’t they? Why must the heat be turned up, the sportstalk shows fomenting with hockey caller fury, for this team to respond by skating brilliantly and hard for 60 minutes? Many Caps’ fans around town likely thought Coach Hanlon bought himself two or three weeks’ worth of additional job security with last night’s stunning outcome. I actually think the result bolsters the case against him.

Olie Kolzig was a rock in net last night, but he didn’t have to stand on his head. His team played that well in front of him. The Senators, authors of the best start to a season in NHL history, didn’t offer up a flat, take-the-W-for-granted effort; they skated hard and magnificently, and they played valiantly and authoritatively in the third period. But regularly there were opposing sticks in their passing lanes, shin guards in their shooting angles. The Capitals last night sent out shift after shift of committed passion, guts, and guile in pursuit of victory.

They played desperate hockey.

Problem is, we don’t see it often. And we never see it consistently.

This is a team capable of shutting out the ‘Canes, humiliating the Leafs, vanquishing the best team in hockey on its home ice. But it is also a team capable of looking mismatched against the Isles.

It is a bit of a cliche, but in sports certain teams, by virtue of their maddening inconsistency, are designated as playing up or down to the level of the competition they face. This Caps’ squad is on cue auditioning for such a status.

(What kind of consistency would I seek? That of Metro’s disruptions, delays and dysfunctions.)

My hope entering this season was that a whole lot of losing in recent seasons had bred a bile and contempt for it among a core of Caps. That mid-February Tuesday night matchup with the Panthers would be met with Old Time Orneriness. Maybe it still will. Coach Hanlon I think makes a fair point in noting the need to mesh not only his free agent newcomers with his core but four or five AHL graduates as well. But the hour of meshing is upon us.

So this member of the jury is still deliberating. I may have a verdict come late Saturday night.

In its postgame studio coverage last night, the hockey talking heads on Versus posed the question, ‘Which coach is on the hottest of hot seats?’ Ron Wilson (his team with a winning record) and John Tortorella were ID’d. So was Glen Hanlon.

“This is a huge, huge roadtrip,” Hanlon told the Washington Post at the beginning of this week. Two-thirds completed, the Capitals have, through 120-plus minutes of it, a single goal and a single point. More of either will be hard to come by Thursday night in Ottawa.

Given the daunting task set out before him when he arrived behind the Caps’ bench midway through the 2003-04 season — presiding over an underachieving, expensive roster, soon to be gutted, then slowly, loss-ladeningly rebuilt, it seems almost inhumane this morning to set out prose hinting at the possibility of Glen Hanlon’s being fired. But this climate of suspicion has its roots in upper management’s very publicly stated Midsummer’s Night Dream of reaching the 2008 postseason.

Led by the owner’s bull market forecast (”The rebuild is over”), backed up by the captain’s camp-opening can-do creed, the flames of happy fortune were fanned all across the organization and broadcast in high definition by new and old media. Currently residing in a tie for 28th in the standings, this Capitals’ team this morning is anything but postseason bound.

The Caps’ 3-0 start only further fueled hockey happy talk in these parts. But this morning, what seems more aberrant — that start, with a victory over a battered-by-Bob (since fired) Thrashers’ crew and a 12-shot effort on Long Island on Columbus Day — or the current 2-9-1 slide into the standings sewer?

I answered that question, thought back to the team’s playoff pledge, and, knowing the nature of contemporary pro sports as I do, immediately thought of the phrase storm clouds converging.

At the heart of the present heartache for Caps’ fans, it seems, is this question: While almost certainly Glen Hanlon was the right man to preside over the rebuild, is he as well the right man to guide them to and through the playoffs? It’s a question that I’ve heard asked by Capitals’ officials themselves the past two years, but this week in Washington — and now on national television as well — it’s being asked with application and urgency.

Glen Hanlon is now 49-78-10 as head coach of the Capitals. Taken in total, that winning percentage isn’t all that bad in light of some of the sweater fillers he’s been tasked with guiding the past three hockey seasons. But that’s not the issue he’s likely facing right now. It’s this one: that hard-working, overachieving band of nameless and journeymen, and Ovechkin, he impressed the NHL with two years ago doesn’t look quite so hard working and overachieving today.

Worse: because of the sub-.500 hole his club now finds itself in, the scratching and clawing required to move from 28th to say 16th in the league will demand a healthy stretch of non-losing. When have Capitals’ fans ever seen that from Glen Hanlon’s Caps?

One night in the middle of Alexander Ovechkin’s rookie season I was watching a Caps’ game with a wise old man about pucks, my Old Man. All too familiar with the team’s decades of disappointment as a season ticket holder, and aware of the rebuild scheme, Dad explained to me the competitive urgency of the moment given the Great8’s awesome gifts.

“They cannot waste seasons with this guy not in the playoffs,” he told me.

You knew this was coming, right?

The setting was the Mount Vernon Inn on the estate of our founding father and first President, George Washington. The occasion: a blogger getting married. The ceremony was held outside under a cloudless sky and in exhilarating air on the Inn’s patio, with the reception inside among a number of well appointed rooms. For seemingly any set of bethrothed such conditions would have been idyllic in late September.

• Two words: Open Bar (all night)
• In stark contrast with Verizon Center, seating was at a premium with building management scrambling for more chairs for the nuptials.
• The pre-ceremony and processional music was provided by a classical acoustic guitarist. While Pachebel’s “Canon in D Major“ is never a bad choice, it was noted that “Closer to the Heart“ would be just as nice and perhaps more fitting.
• The groom adorned every reception table with hockey infraction themes illustrated by a referee-uniformed Elvis (the bride’s weakness). Gustafsson and Empty Maybe and their better halfs were seated at the “Elbowing” table. Pucksandbooks, the lone bachelor remaining in OFB, was consigned to the “Roughing” table.
• Best line of the night by a guest came from a woman in a beautiful blue dress when asked which table she was assigned. “Thank God . . . not hooking.”
• Highlights: a stirring poem penned by the mother of the bride, who due to illness was unable to travel cross-country from California and instead viewed the proceedings via webcast. Also, the best man hit the perfect pitch in delivering remarks that were poignant, uproarious, and economical. Lastly, the toast of the evening came from pucksandbooks, who, suffused with cocktail hour two-fistedness, rose in front an entire room and cried out, “Let’s out-drink every other room.”
• It was a joyous and spirited time for a too infrequent gathering of the original OFB team. Thoughts on the arena: The Mount Vernon Inn is a cozy, dignified, and novel venue with good sight lines. Most importantly: Beer lines were short.
• A capacity crowd was on-hand, and they were heavily in favor of the marriage.
• The filet mignon, part of a scrumptuous surf-and-turf plate, was a solid “two-holes on your belt” adjustingly good.
• Considering the grace with which they pulled off the First Dance, OrderedChaos and Mrs. OrderedChaos might do well to audition for work on the Caps’ power play.
• Tier I DJ: You can’t go wrong with Sinatra on a Saturday night in a room full of snazzy suits and well-dressed dames, folks.

Well, I just happened to stumble on a page via Goggle Alerts to find out that On Frozen Blog has been named a finalist in the Best Sports Blog category of the 2007 Weblog Awards.

I’m sure I can speak for everyone at OFB in saying that we are honored to be selected a finalist, as there are SO MANY good blogs out there. We do realize that we are underdogs in this category and to even be listed with some of them is a great honor. Just check out the finalist list:

• On The DL
• Kissing Susy Kolber
• Express & Star
• On Frozen Blog
• FanHouse
• Every Day Should Be Saturday
• Deadspin
• F1 Fanatic
• The Hardball Times
• SB Nation

Heavy competition indeed. Many thanks goes out to those who nominated us. Perhaps we’ll be lucky to place higher than 10th. In any case, please click on the ballot below to navigate to the official page to cast your vote. You are able to vote once every 24 hours with the polls closing on November 8th.

Greg Wyshynski, Washington correspondent for The Fourth Period, is one of the most enjoyable and insightful folks in town with whom to take in a hockey game. Last week I had the pleasure of his company at the Islanders’ game, and in the midst of another failed Caps’ power play he asked me if I thought that Alexander Semin’s absence from the lineup was decidedly detrimental to the Caps’ man advantage. “Semin,” I told Greg, “is the difference between this power play ranking 25th or 12th in the league.”

I may have slightly overstated Semin’s impact, and last night’s 0-for-4 showing while a man up against Tampa in the Caps’ 5-3 victory doesn’t appear to offer prima facie evidence of a potent power play with Semin back on it. But don’t be fooled. It sure looked different, didn’t it?

Imagine the Caps’ power play unit entering a robust pumpkin in a Halloween pumpkin carving contest. For the past three weeks, the Caps’ pumpkin has sat uncarved and unilluminated on a shelf, its suggested visage traced out in black marker as jovial as opposed to menacing. For the purposes of this contest, hosted by Wes Craven, the Caps’ unit seeks to make a menacing jack-o-lantern. Tom Poti carves out the top. Michael Nylander might chisel out a set of frightening eyes. Alexander Ovechkin would follow with a creepy-wicked mouth. Alexander Semin brings the finishing light within. It offers a harrowing red glow.

A potent power play first needs a playmaking catalyst. The Caps have had that this season in Michael Nylander. It needs finishing skill as well. Alexander Ovechkin certainly brings that. It must also have competency at the points. The jury’s still out here, but Tom Poti and Mike Green and others on the Caps’ blueline are putting up a healthy tally of points in five-on-five play, and Poti’s career has more often than not brought healthy power play production. The arsenal in Green’s game surely suggests he can help generate production on an effective power play unit. So far this season, the Caps have missed a complimentary finisher opposite AO. It’s been a one-side-of-the-ice threat. That’s relatively easy to defend.

Great or at least reasonably effective power play units boast scoring threats on both sides of the offensive zone. Semin obviously brings that compliment to his countryman Ovechkin. But Glen Hanlon has also deployed Semin on the power play point. The Caps haven’t had him in either role much of this season to date. Some in hockey (Craig Laughlin comes to mind) regard Semin as possessing hockey’s most lethal wrist shot down low. Now think back to the 5-on-3 man advantages the Caps have had thus far, all of them without Semin. Think that wicked wrister might have helped out there?

Here are five qualities to the Caps’ power play that, from my vantage, Semin helps facilitate:

• The addition of a world-class finisher who requires precious little time and space to produce in lethal fashion;
• The arrival of crisp, cross-ice and often creative passes between Ovechkin and him, among others, adding a horizontal threat to the attack;
• Depth in quality personnel at the point;
• With Semin and Ovechkin working the half boards, the creation of more open lanes for the point personnel, as PK units understandably are drawn lower in the box to try and check the superstars;
• An altogether different realm of confidence in the entire unit.

A scary-good power play is within this team’s potential with its current personnel, I wager. It’s a nice time of year to anticipate its arrival.

Well, hi there! It’s good to be back.

When I ended my blog last month, I had no intention of returning to blogging any time soon. Recent life changes for me and my husband, Chanuck– including a DC Sports Chicklet on the way– made me realize that I couldn’t maintain my own blog on a regular basis without sacrificing quality. Plus, I needed the break. Then OFB came calling, and I couldn’t resist; the guys are awesome and I didn’t want to pass up a chance to collaborate with them.

I know that there’s no way I could ever take EmptyMaybe’s place, not that anyone expects that, though that’s not my goal. Rather, I hope to provide a point of view that was previously missing from OFB (save for MrsGustafsson’s excellent post about Hockey in Heels). For the readers who don’t know me, I’m not the type to go all puckbunny and drool over the players. On the other hand, someone has to counter the boys’ official Lindsay Czarniak love on behalf of some of the female readers of the site. (It gets a little out of control at times, though I know they would disagree.)

The boys told me that they would pick up their dirty clothes, put the toilet seat down, and generally keep the blog in good order. If I could only get my own husband to do that…but just like in marriage, I know it doesn’t work that way. I don’t expect anything here to change. It will be business as usual, with perhaps a few subtle nuances. No worries!

Now, back to your regularly scheduled hockey blog…

When Liz, aka the DC Sports Chick, left blogging to tend to more weighty matters (a.k.a real life) a couple of months ago, many of us who blogged exclusively about hockey thought our community had lost a significant, entertaining, and insightful talent.

Today, we have very good news: she’s back blogging. Even better: she’s blogging for us.

Today we welcome Liz into the OFB zoo. She’s been a longtime supporter and friend. Now, she’s a colleague. Obviously, we’re thrilled.

Here’s what really drew us to her: she loves hockey, loves D.C., loves beer, and she can write. We’re not sure what drew her interest in us. We do know that she has missed blogging.

From July 2005 through September 2007, Liz was author of DCSportsChick.com, a D.C. sports fan blog — “with the exception of the Redskins,” she forcefully notes (see how perfect a fit she is here!). Her blogging focus was on the Capitals and Nationals.

She’s been featured on WRC NBC 4’s “Meet the Bloggers” series (May 2006); an on-air radio talent/blogger for the “Sports Journey Radio Show” from October 2006 through March 2007; one of Ted Leonsis’ recommended blogs; a writer for Femmefan.com; the subject of SportsFan Magazine’s 2006 Capitals’ preview; and generally, rightfully treated by old and new media the past couple of years as the e-Diva designee she’s rightfully earned.

We’re totally psyched that Liz has joined us. She’ll contribute in fits and bursts as life allows, blogging from home and blogging from the road. We’re four again in our revved up cruiser, and we’re looking forward to the ride.

Our own Empty Maybe gave us a real jolt last week — informing us of his need to part ways with OFB for the foreseeable future — and he shared this news with readers over the weekend. Truthfully, the remaining three of us were shellshocked. We’ve never known anything but the four of us in this venture.

Over the weekend I gave some thought to EM’s lasting contributions and to how we’ll carry forward without him. There can be renewal and healthy evolution in change, but I wish it weren’t happening in this instance. I’ve said it to print reporters, on radio, and in casual conversations about rinks: the most striking and rewarding feature about being involved in a hockey blog in this town is developing the friendships we have. I’m biased, but I believe that has something (everything) to do with the nature of the game we cover and the people who make livelihoods in it and are drawn toward it.

I greatly enjoyed reading readers’ appreciation for Empty that amassed in the comments to his final Knee-Jerk file. He made as large an impression on many of you as he did us. We just had the added good fortune of being able to empty a few cold ones with him in and out of season. And of calling him friend — which his departing of course doesn’t change.

As for that legacy . . . one of the things I told Empty last week was that in storyboarding for our trip to Moscow to cover the Worlds last spring the Caps’ communications team very quickly adopted his knee-jerk focus and format for its coverage plan. It was also a format increasingly imitated in other blogs. What I enjoyed most about his files was their maturation. Like the rest of us, last autumn he just started bloviating a bit about puck, but it was impossible not to detect Empty’s gaining a unique and endearing voice in them as the season progressed. You could approach his Knee-Jerks merely for the purpose of obtaining a well-delineated recap of a Caps’ game, but I found fondness in many of them for their containing his inimitable drollness. Few in hockey were spared from it.

This morning I’m not prepared to discuss the future of OFB without Empty. Suffice to say we’ll move forward in some iteration, and perhaps manage somehow to carry off a collective set of Knee-Jerks in the months ahead. But we’d necessarily do so in a rough voice.

Even in the post-lockout NHL, staring at a 2-0 deficit during the second intermission is daunting. Seated next to Gus, and having absorbed two periods of the Caps outshooting and outplaying the Isles but watching bounces bumfuzzle the Caps — cosmic justice for our rudely unmerited victory on the Island 10 days ago, I thought — I told my bloggermate, “It would take a small miracle, but if they could just pull a point out of this mess.”

In point of fact, a frenzied and determined Caps’ team made the third-period comeback look rather easy: it was knotted up at 2 well before the 10-minute mark of the stanza.

But as the opposing centers took the center-ice draw in a sudden deadlock, I turned again to Gus and said, “The hardest part isn’t necessarily evening things up, it’s taking the next step, actually overcoming, and stealing a game with a full-on effort throughout the final frame.”

I’ve watched I think 10,000 hockey games in my life, perhaps more. I’ve seen comebacks precisely like the Caps’ last night a couple of hundred times. Ninety three times out of 100, I’d venture, the comeback kids valiantly steady themselves and soar the spirits of the home partisans to the stratosphere, only, utlimately, to trip themselves up, lose, and labor in vain.

Captain Chris Clark, behind Rick DiPietro’s net and the puck a harmless 199 feet, 9 inches from Olie Kolzig, tripped up an Isles checker while his team was in frenzy’s full flight . . . and with that error sirened the end of the comeback. I said as much to Gus as no. 17 skated to the sin bin; he didn’t dispute me. It happens almost every time. It was the absolute worst place on the ice to take a penalty at the very worst time. A mad comeback’s energy suddenly screeched sullen and silent. Next you could hear a subtle groan among the hockey cognescenti in their seats.

The recognition.

Some in the Verizon Center stands filed out last night thinking of softies that slithered past and humiliated Kolzig. They were soft, yes. They hurt, certainly. But they weren’t as determinative as the Clark miscue.

The threatening intruder snake had been boot-stomped into compliance by the Russian snake-charmer wearing no. 8. (We in the stands were rather charmed as well.) It was the duty of his teammates — all of them — not to let their Bauers up off the head of the snake.

Two minutes for tripping.

The viper recoiled.

Hockey teams like the Isles on the receiving end of such savage surges are truly helpless. Lines change among the dominators but the ice remains tilted. The coaching staffs of the beleaguered can exhort, reassure, toss towels or water bottles, it matters none. It’s called hockey’s momentum, and in third periods it’s directed at defying death — losing. Which may make it so powerful, so unprecedented to the rest of the earlier action. It’s a natural force, a Force 10 of fury.

And it can be undone in an instant.