On Frozen Blog

There were two legitmate, impact no.1 defensemen on the ice at Verizon Center last night, one playing for Florida and one for the Caps: Jay Bouwmeester and Mike Green. Can you imagine suggesting that that would have been the case just three months ago? Next, imagine having suggested this back in October: between the two, Mike Green, 22, would early in 2008 be the greater impact no.1, and that going forward one could rationally suggest he’ll tally more points, more All Star game selections, and perhaps even more Norris Trophies than Big Bouw over the course of their respective NHL careers.

Or am I being irrational? 

It’s perhaps impossible to overstate the impact that the arrival of Bruce Boudreau has had on the Caps, and it’s true that Alexander Ovechkin’s third season in the NHL has been his best – positively Hart Trophy candidate worthy and a catalyst for the team’s playoff contention. But winning hockey can’t be a one-man show, even double-shifted, and if you really want to know why the Caps are as dangerous as they are these days, consider that their attack is double-barreled, launched from the back end by the 22-year-old Calgary native who, at the other end of the ice, slings heavy lead with his point blasts and pinched-in pulverizers.   

To truly appreciate Mike Green’s meteoric rise this season and its impact on the Caps — now and going forward – I think you have to consider his standing versus a prized young talent leading the blueline of a division foe, one who was a lottery pick, and one whose pedigree and early aura rivaled those of any blueline prospect to enter the league in the last 20 years. 

I perused my copy of THN’s 2002 NHL Entry Draft preview issue this weekend — Bouwmeester was selected third overall in Toronto that summer — and was reminded of the outsized accolades that accompanied the Medicine Hat, Alta., native. Page 7: “He is a Paul Coffey-esque glider in the body of Paul Bunyan, an intuitively gifted 6-foot-3, 206-pound defenseman who can control the tempo of a game with exceptional stamina, poise and hockey sense.”

Paul Bunyan? Iconic Canadian media in the business of assessing high-end, home-grown hockey talent at times get carried away, no?

If you altered the physical dimensions downward a bit in Bouwmeester’s profile, and replaced the Bunyan allusion with say a punked up version of Steve McQueen, you’d actually have the letter-perfect description of third-year pro Mike Green, selected 29th overall two years after Bouwmeester. 

The stats back it up. Both players have enjoyed perfect health this season, playing in all of their team’s games. Through 49 games Bouwmeester has 8 goals and 10 assists while skating a -3. Reasonably nice numbers on a mediocre hockey club. In 47 games with the Caps Green has accumulated 14 goals and 16 assists, skating a -2, and garnered the attention of the entire hockey world, splashy U.S. sports press like SI and ESPN, and caused a lot of indigestion and heartache among nearly 30 general managers who passed on him in 2004.  

But it isn’t just the pure tally of superior numbers that suggests that Green may already be the better no. 1 gun. It’s how he acquires them. Not since Sergei Gonchar have the Caps possessed so dynamic a presence from the point. And while both possess distinctive mobility and elite offensive hockey sense, that comparison doesn’t do justice to Green’s revolutionizing the blueline QB position as he has this season. Gonchar never possessed Green’s wrist-shot-bomb that has him and his Gang Green mates in the stands celebrating before the opposing netminder realizes he’s been beaten. Green’s gone Cloverfield in the opponents’ zone this season.

Big numbers in hockey are at times put up by one-season wonders. But what’s in Green’s toolbox hardly suggests flash-in-the-pan. His skating is sublime — his puck-cradling crossover footwork while QB-ing worth the price of admission alone. He has a howitzer. His pinching knack is here to stay — or improve. The fun has just begun.     

What did the 2004 THN Draft Guide have to say about Green? He is widely believed to have been available to the Caps so late in 2004’s first round because he played on a notoriously bad Saskatoon Blades team. As in, 7-52-11-2 bad. The profile overall was positive if understated:

 ”Green is small for a defenseman, but he never gives an inch. He’s a tenacious battler who can quarterback a power play.” [You think?]

“Good shot, good vision and just a wasted year,” is how one scout put it.

“There are an awful lot of positives considering he has a bad year on a bad team,” said a scout. “He showed a lot of character on a team that lacked leadership.”

Make no mistake, Bouwmeester is a terrific defenseman, and perhaps 25 teams would like to have him as their no. 1. I just don’t think the Caps would part with theirs to get him.