Without Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Mike Green, this Capitals team is surprisingly similar to the Capitals of almost a decade ago… a hard-charging team that both delighted and frustrated its fans.

How so, you ask? Read on… and while these comparisons are far from perfect, consider them food for thought:

It’s not a perfect match; the old-school Caps had no Karl Alzner, nor a spark-plug like Matt Hendricks, nor a promising young defenseman like Dmitry Orlov. Of course, that team of yore had a disenchanted but still-dangerous Jaromir Jagr—but the current Caps have Ovechkin… and however you feel about Ovie wearing the “C” he’s undoubtedly more deserving than Jagr was, and a wrecking-ball to boot.

Oh, and comparing the coaches falls down just a little bit… while Dale Hunter is another minor-league coach given his first NHL shot with the Caps, he kicks Butch Cassidy’s ass in pretty much every way.

When the 2011-12 team’s Robert Lang (Nicklas Backstrom) and Sergei Gonchar (Mike Green) return from injury, this roster can compete with any in team in the league. The team going through trying times with a depleted roster will build their chemistry and resolve come playoff time.

This limping Capitals team has earned three points in two games, including a tilt against the defending champs… and that’s without three of their big stars. Adding back a healthy Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Green down the stretch improves the team dramatically — but in the meantime, a team forced to play without its superstars is also forced to play a balanced, team-focused game.

If Coach Hunter and the locker-room leaders enforce that team-first mentality when their superstars return… watch out, ’cause these Capitals will be dangerous.

“BONZAI!!!” I stood up and shouted, fists pumping, from my third row perch in section 122. The 275 or so surrounding blue- and black-sweatered Pens’ supporters in the section didn’t take too kindly to my show of exuberance.

And that’s the way the Alumni game ended; while thousands of home team supporters screamed for a shootout, the overwhelming majority of the game’s players played in a non-shootout era, so a tie seemed a fitting outcome. It was also a most unexpected one — that was one Hall of Fame-loaded aged Pens’ roster, while perhaps fittingly, the Caps came to the game with a rag-tag band of lunch-palers. And don’t let any ‘Burgher try and tell you that his squad didn’t want this exhibition win in the worst way; Mario and Bryan Trottier and Larry Murphy and Paul Coffey were double- and triple shifting in the final frame to try and better the Caps again. Not today.

Making the final all the sweeter.

The Pens went ahead on a power play goal with about 5 minutes remaining . . . and then quite conspicuously, the game suddenly was played with a running clock! Classic Penguins’ cheating. Figures. And let’s consider the way this Winter Classic weekend is suddenly unfolding. The Hershey Bears last night carried off a gigantic upset of the Baby Pens, 1-0 at Consol Energy Center, with Braden Holtby earning the shutout. Now we have our Alumni Caps doing us proud. Omen for the big game?

Overcast and cool conditions greeted Caps and Pens alumni this morning

The Capitals News Network's Dave Nichols and his wife Cheryl brought a little Red Army flavor to Heinz Field Friday morning

About 12 hours early I wanted to New Years Eve kiss these proud patriots in their historic Army garb

Peter Bondra           Michal Pivonka         Alan Hangsleben
Paul Mulvey             Dennis  Maruk         Mark Lofthouse
Errol Rausse             Alan May                Nick Kypreos
Blair  Stewart           Greg Adams             Pete LeBoutillier

Pat Ribble           Ken Sabourin
Robert Picard      Sylvain Cote
Yvon  Labre         Gord Lane

Don Beaupre

Donald Brashear and Kelly Miller are also expected to play. As is Caps’ assistant coach Dean Evason.

Working the bench: Granny Grant, Joe Reekie, and the Secretary of Defense, Rod Langway.

First, the game will be played at 9:30 a.m. New Years Eve, on an auxiliary rink set up near the football stadium. I’m hearing something on the order of grandstands accommodating about 500 fans of Old Time Hockey for the game. You wouldn’t think especially veteran hockey players would want to submit their joints to early morning January temps, but that’s the schedule.

Mario Lemieux will play for the aged Pens. Unfortunately, at least as of this filing, Bobby Gould will not for the Caps.

But Peter Bondra and Mike Gartner will. So, too, will Comcast Sportsnet’s Alan May, Caps’ radio analyst Ken Sabourin, Dennis Maruk, Mark Lofthouse, Paul Mulvey, Gary Rissling, and Alan Hangslaben. No word yet on the identity of the game’s goalies. Stretch you would think  would be too busy with his camera, to make no mention of his being way too young for this game.

Tables with hockey equipment were set up outside the rinks for attendees to see and try on the gear. Some actually did so.

Caps’ strength and conditioning coach Mark Nemish explained to the ladies what fitness routines the players go through and had them try some of the moves. One attendee said that she had done more in five minutes than her typical 1-hour workout.

Bruce Boudreau gave his famous film talk again. This was one of the most popular sessions, thanks to Gabby’s ability to give great quotes, such as, “Most hockey players are Canadian and don’t really finish their education. I didn’t make it past grade 11 myself.” He took questions from the crowd. One woman asked how he keeps Semin motivated. Boudreau answered, “Well, you show him a lot of love.” Someone else asked about Semin’s omission from the All-Star ballot.  Boudreau responded, “I don’t know. It’s pretty stupid.  Write him in.”

The last session was a photo in front of a locker set up with the Winter Classic uniform and equipment, which was a nice way to get everyone excited about the big game.

As usual, it was a fun, informative event.  Because it’s so popular, there’s a good chance that the Caps may host another Hockey ‘N Heels event early next year.

Fehr's past meets his present

Gabby signs a copy of his book

Jay Beagle, Mathieu Perreault, Eric Fehr, and Tyler Sloan were there to assist with the on-ice demonstrations, but Peter Bondra was the guy everyone wanted to see.  “I’m so glad to see him out there,” one woman said to me.  It really was great to see Bondra out on the ice again in a Capitals jersey.

The chalk talk by Lisa Hillary and Alan May seemed to go well.  May was discussing his hockey experience, and mentioned, “I was in the league when Jagr started to play…” and it was encouraging to hear a chorus of boos.  Brett Leonhardt led the equipment session, where ladies were able to try on all the gear.

By far, one of the best sessions was the video analysis with Bruce Boudreau.  Gabby was his ever-garrulous self, seamlessly blending entertainment and information.  He showed a typical pre-game video session and described its use, even though the players might not always remember what they’ve seen.  “On the power play, guys want to score, so they don’t retain this.”  Some great quotes came out of that session.  When one woman started to ask him a question but backtracked a bit, Boudreau quipped, “Typical woman, they can’t make up their mind.”

Fox5's Lindsay Murphy takes a shot

Boudreau explained the value of the video sessions: “We know before the game what they’re gonna do, and it’s a chess game to see what they’re gonna do and when they do it.  The guys should- if they’re on their game- stop them before the blue line.  When we hit a lot, we tend to win the game.  This morning, we showed three minutes of video from Tuesday’s game forechecking the crap out of the Rangers.”

He took questions and comments at the end.  One fan said, “This is the year!” and Boudreau answered, “For what?”  After the crowd laughed, he went on to talk about the team’s potential.  In fact, he said, “I met with the Slovakian coach today, who asked how we play.  I told him, but I have no concerns about it, as their memories are short.”  Gabby cemented his reputation as king of the one-liners.

Bet they don't see this very often

Overall, the event went more smoothly than the previous ones.  Feedback from the other events was incorporated into the planning, and consequently, attendees didn’t feel rushed through the on-ice demonstrations.  One new addition was the merchandise table, which showcased a significant number of different clothing options for the ladies.  I was pleased to note that all of the shirts, hats, sweatshirts, etc. were in team colors, and pink was noticeably absent from the table.  (The ubiquitous sparkles were still there on some of the shirts, but hey- it’s a start.)  “We recognize that most women want to wear the team’s colors,” said the woman behind the table.

As always, the Capitals organization put together a fantastic evening.  They’re obviously learning from each event, and taking participants’ feedback seriously.  Ladies, if you haven’t attended a Hockey ‘n Heels yet, I highly recommend it.

No pink here!

“He’s got to learn the situations of the game still and when he can try [fancy] moves like that,” Bonzai observed, alluding to the failed Semin razzle-dazzle against the Islanders earlier in the week that led to a breakaway score on Jose Theodore.

“He will.”

“He’s better in all areas [of the ice].”

Bondra didn’t refute any of the litany of concerns I identified in Semin’s game, but he stressed the winger’s unique gifts and the improvements he’s seen in the past couple of seasons. He also suggested that hockey players from all cultures have varied learning curves and time tables for their maturation. Bondra noted that he roomed with Semin on the road way back during the Russian winger’s first season in D.C., during the 2003-04 season. Semin played 52 games with the Caps that season, scoring 22 points, but one night he returned to his hotel room 5 minutes past curfew, and Bondra let him know about it.

“I said to him, ‘This is not how it’s done,’ and it never happened again. This is why I think he will learn.”          

Peter the Great also told me he believes that Semin’s shot ranks among the very best in the world.

“Only three guys in the world shoot like that — Ovi, [Ilya] Kovalchuk and Semin.”

“The [development] system rewards those parents who are able to time a pregnancy to begin in the spring and come to its happy fruition in the early months of the new year. Hockey registration, you see, goes by the calendar year, and each child born in a given year is considered the same age for purposes of setting age limits. Yet a child born, say, on Wayne Gretzky’s birthday of January 26 is likely to be a better player on the first day of hockey tryouts than a player born on December 25 of the same year. The January child is almost a year older, a year stronger and more mature. At age six or seven this represents an enormous advantage, the January child being nearly one-sixth or one-seventh older . . .

“The older child has the best chance to be the first star of the game, to develop a star’s skills and attitude and expectations of success. The younger child — smaller, weaker — must first learn to cope and later, when the age difference matters less (for example, at fourteen the same January child is only one-fourteenth older), he is often unable to undo his and others’ expectations, reprogram himself, put to one side his coping skills for a star’s skills, and become a star. The same situation and problem exists, of course, in the schools.

“If streaming came at a later age, the effect of birthdates would be largely outgrown. But streaming comes early in hockey.”

And, Dryden claims, streaming in hockey is destiny.

“From age nine onward,” he writes, “better players get streamed into competitive teams, and the competitive teams get the better coaches and more ice time . . . the gap between the mediocre nine-year-old and the gifted nine-year-old begins to widen, and widen fast. In Canadian minor hockey in the late 1980s, if you don’t make it by age nine, you likely won’t make it at all.”

Not quite Darwinian, is it? Or is it? At this point, you’re probably wondering, do Canadian (and Minnesotan) (and Scandinavian) families actually so family plan? Were the question put to Dryden, I’m rather sure he’d answer, “Not if, but in what volume?”

Next I decided to check birthdays for some high profile hockey stars — specifically, those residing in the 500 NHL goals scored club. The results were startling. Limiting my search just to those who’ve scored 500 goals and were born in January and February, these names loom large: Gretz; Bobby Hull; Phil Esposito; Mike Bossy; Mark Messier; Frank Mahovlich; Peter Bondra; Brendan Shanahan; Jeremy Roenick; Lanny McDonald; Joey Mullen; Dino Ciccarelli; Jaromir Jagr.

Blackhawks’ coach Denis Savard hovers just a bit outside of 500 goals scored in his career, but he was born in February. Were I to have broadened my search to include births in the first quarter of the calendar year, the list would have expanded appreciably — Gordie Howe, for instance, was born in the first week of March in 1928.

Now, you don’t want to get carried away with the intriguing pattern of hockey family planning, because in truth studs and stars are born in all 12 months of the calendar. Alexander Ovechkin, for instance, is a September baby. Mario Lemieux was born in October. One of the greatest skaters the game has even seen, Gilbert Perreault, was born in November. Sergei Fedorov arrived as an early delivery from Santa’s sleigh (December).

But Dryden’s observations are so illuminating precisely because hockey streams as it does and because relative to other youth sports, vital skill sets in hockey (including cognitive and emotional accumen) seem to take root in player development so early . . . partly, Dryden would argue (I think), because of the streaming. Baseball and soccer, for instance, hold their respective tryouts in the spring, rendering the calendar inconsequential to the physical and emotional maturity of youth registrants in those sports.

Football, interestingly enough, registers players in the final¬†season of the calendar, like hockey, but perhaps partly because tackle football really is a high school endeavor for most pigskinners, little that is determinative in a player’s development¬†occurs on the gridiron at the age of seven, eight or nine. Or twelve, for that matter: football talent evaluators typically hone in on kids when they’re high school juniors and seniors and have just begun to immerse themselves in the weight room. And really, it’s only after a couple of years of college football that players earn the status of pro prospect.

It’s none of our business, of course, but it is fun to wonder: did Ray and Mrs. Bourque consider father’s own development arc in Canadian minor hockey early on as they started their family, or did they merely get swept up in a particularly schmaltzy movie on Lifetime one chilly March night twenty-some-odd years ago?