Возможно это более импрессивно: think about the number of instances in which the Caps have been genuinely outplayed by an opponent since Boudreau took over. There was Montreal on the road immediately after the All Star break. And when else? Thirty three games and one thorough stinker among them.

This ain’t bad, either: the Caps are now finished for the season against perhaps the East’s three best teams, Philly, Ottawa, and Montreal. Their record in those 12 games? 8-4.

There was a brief moment Tuesday night in Columbus — now known as McCreary’s Mischief — when the battle-scarred Caps’ chronicler in me reverted to a pessimistic fatalism of previous seasons. It was that sort of bizarre event that seemed so . . . Capitals-esque. But my composure returned, I kept watching, and rather rationally I think I adopted a muted expectation that all was not lost, that this Capitals’ team was different. And so why wouldn’t Tom Poti pick that moment to score his first goal of the season, and of course you know who not long afterward send the home crowd out into the Ohio night dejected from sudden death defeat.

It’s interesting to note that in 1983-84, a 101-pt. Capitals’ club — the very first 100-pt. Caps’ club — had three of its members earn heavy hardware. Bryan Murray won the Jack Adams, Rod Langway garnered his first Norris Trophy, and Doug Jarvis won the Selke. That’s the only time the Caps have won three of the league’s prestigious awards from the same season. That was a summer of awards that portended a period of distinct prosperity — the club’s first. This Capitals’ club won’t earn 100 points this season, although it might arrive at 95. Who might you think are frontrunners for the Hart, Adams, and Calder trophies at this moment?

Filed in Brian Sutherby, Bruce Boudreau, Front Office, Glen Hanlon, Morning cup-a-joe, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (19)

Capitals Name Bruce Boudreau Interim Head Coach

By The OFB Team
Thursday, November 22, 2007

Fresh off the presses at Kettler Capitals Iceplex:

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals have relieved Glen Hanlon of his coaching duties and named Bruce Boudreau the team’s interim head coach, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today.

Boudreau, 52, has coached championship teams in the American Hockey League (AHL) and the ECHL and is in his third year as the head coach of the Hershey Bears, Washington’s AHL affiliate. He led the team to the Eastern Conference championship and the Calder Cup finals in each of his first two years in Hershey, winning the Calder Cup in 2006. Boudreau has compiled a 103-45-11-16 record with the Bears (a .666 winning percentage), including an AHL-best 51-17-6-6 record (.713) last season. Seven current members of the Capitals played for Boudreau with the Bears.

Boudreau becomes the 14th coach in Washington Capitals history. He will make his debut behind the Capitals’ bench tomorrow at Philadelphia (1 p.m., Comcast SportsNet, Talk Radio 3WT: 107.7 FM, 1500 AM, 820 AM).

Boudreau is in his ninth season as an AHL head coach, having compiled a 340-216-56-43 career record. He spent four years with the Manchester Monarchs and two years with the Lowell Lock Monsters before joining the Bears. Before ascending to the AHL, he was the head coach and director of hockey operations for the Mississippi Sea Wolves (ECHL), where he won the 1999 Kelly Cup championship.

After making his head-coaching debut in the Colonial Hockey League with the Muskegon Fury in 1992-93, Boudreau took over the Fort Wayne Komets of the International Hockey League (IHL) in 1993-94. The Komets advanced to the Turner Cup finals his first season at the controls, and Boudreau was named the 1993-94 IHL coach of the year.

Boudreau played parts of eight seasons with the Toronto Maple Leafs and Chicago Blackhawks, recording 70 points in 141 NHL games. A third-round pick of the Leafs in the 1975 NHL draft, Boudreau enjoyed one of the best seasons ever by a Canadian junior player during 1974-75. He picked up 165 points for the Toronto Marlboros, a Canadian Hockey League record until Wayne Gretzky surpassed the mark during the 1977-78 season.

An outstanding AHL player, Boudreau ranks 11th all-time in scoring in league history with 316 goals and 799 points. No AHL player in the 1980s notched more points than Boudreau, as he played for the New Brunswick Hawks, Baltimore Skipjacks, Nova Scotia Oilers, Springfield Indians and Newmarket Saints during that time. He won the 1987-88 John B. Sollenberger Trophy for leading the league in scoring, and was also a member of the 1992 Calder Cup champion Adirondack Red Wings.

No timetable has been set for naming a head coach beyond Boudreau’s interim status. The rest of the Capitals coaching staff will remain in place.

Filed in American Hockey League, Bruce Boudreau, George McPhee, Glen Hanlon, Hershey Bears, National Hockey League, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (14)

Clarity in Simplicity

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Wednesday, November 21, 2007

The second caller into Jonathan Warner’s post-game radio show asked a concise and insightful question. Paraphrasing in my own words, here it is:

The Capitals are in last place. If the Capitals don’t have the personnel to make the playoffs after the extensive Rebuild, then the fault lies with GM George McPhee. If the team does have the personnel but the players aren’t executing, then it’s the fault of the coach. It’s one or the other. Which is it?

Understandably, Warner and guest Ken Sabourin waffled on the answer, since clearly they are not in positions to indict either McPhee or Hanlon. But it is, in my estimation, a valid question. Now the answer may be “both,” of course, but at the least it’s one or the other—and since another fire sale would potentially kill the team’s fans (I know it would shorten my life expectancy), a coaching or general manager change seems to be in the cards.

Glen Hanlon did an admirable job in his first few years. Cleaning up after the roster-gutting and the Butch Cassidy disaster, he forged a hard-working if under-talented team into a tough group. George McPhee has had his share of blunders (e.g., questionable draft picks; Trevor Linden; Robert Lang) and his share of coups (e.g., Oates to Philly for way more than he was worth; Milan Jurcina).

So who, OFB readers, is the source of the team’s current woes: the Coach, the GM, or both?

Filed in 3WT, George McPhee, Glen Hanlon, Jonathan Warner, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (19)

Hanlon and Kolzig on XM’s NHL Home Ice

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Wednesday, November 14, 2007

XM RadioWashington Capitals coach Glen Hanlon was a guest on The Power Play with Jim Tatti and Gary Green (on XM 204). In the five-minute interview Hanlon discusses key injuries, the effect those injuries have had on line combinations and goal scoring, Alex Ovechkin’s defensive improvements, and other tidbits. Check out the audio here.

What struck me most about the interview is that Hanlon’s line combination plans seemed set well in advance barring any unforseen chemistry issues. Hanlon admits that injuries are part of the game . . . yet it seems that the lines had no real backup plan in place to address the inevitiable injuries every team must face.

Losing a top scorer like Alexander Semin, or a hard-nosed leader like Chris Clark, has no easy fix. But one hopes that camp, preseason, and practices suggested other potentially successful line combinations that could be slotted into place when the injury bug hit—rather than the “random line juggling while crossing one’s fingers” that seems in place now. Admittedly it’s a brief interview and thus subject to fill-in-the-blanks syndrome, but the impression of a lack of contingency planning was a bit disheartening to this listener.

In other Capitals/XM news, this next program seems like must-hear radio. At 11:00 PM this Monday, November 19, Olie Kolzig will be featured on Hockey Confidential. From NHL Home Ice:

Hockey Confidential: Olaf Kolzig

Mon, 11/19 | 11PM ET

Olie KolzigNHL Home Ice - XM 204 proudly presents Hockey Confidential with Washington Capitals goaltender Olaf Kolzig. Join Hockey This Morning host Scott Laughlin as he goes post to post with Olie the Goalie, in front of our live Hockey Confidential studio audience. This is an hour of honest insight from one of the NHL’s greatest ambassadors, a true star of the game, and a tireless worker for Athletes For Autism.

Encores:
Tue, 11/20 8PM | Tue, 11/20 8PM | Wed, 11/21 7PM | Fri, 11/23 3PM | Sat, 11/24 9AM | Sun, 11/25 2AM, 3AM, 5PM

[Update: See the comments for more information about the Kolzig XM show from a Caps' press release.]

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Chris Clark, Glen Hanlon, Hockey, Olaf Kolzig, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (2)

Storm Clouds Converge

By pucksandbooks
Wednesday, November 7, 2007

Cup'pa JoeIn 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.

Filed in Front Office, Glen Hanlon, Morning cup-a-joe, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (12)

NHL Network brings the past to the present

By DC Sports Chick
Sunday, November 4, 2007

NHL Network logoAs a brand-new DirecTV subscriber, I was thrilled to see the NHL Network in the lineup (well, that and Boomerang). I haven’t been able to watch enough of it yet, but so far, I’m fairly pleased with the programming. Some may enjoy the channel for recent game highlights, but I love watching the classic hockey games. (As I type, I’m watching the Blackhawks and Blues series from 1992.) Yesterday’s lineup was an especially good one: not only were there highlights from the 1992 Canadiens - Whalers series, but the April 10, 1984 game between the Rangers and Islanders was broadcast. Glen Hanlon was in net for the Rangers, and Brent’s Hockey Game Videos sums up the game:

With just over a minute left in the 3rd period, and down 2-1, Rangers Head Coach Herb Brooks changes goalies - replacing Glen Hanlon with a young John Vanbiesbrouck. Back then, the NHL had a rule in place where upon a goalie change, the new goalie was allowed time to warm up, which gave the Rangers a Timeout without having to use one. The move was a wise one, as within the last minute of the 3rd period, Vanbiesbrouck was pulled for an extra attacker and Don Maloney scored to tie the game at 2, causing Overtime.

Who wouldn’t want to sit down and watch that for a couple of hours?
The crowd shots can’t be beat, either; it’s a great trip down memory lane. As much as I’m enjoying the classics, I hope they’re able to show some pre-’80s games at some point. Still, it’s not a bad start, and hopefully the NHL Network will be able to expand the lineup of shows eventually. Besides, who can complain about hours and hours of hockey-centric programming?

Filed in Glen Hanlon, NHL Network| Permalink| Comments (8)

Lunchpailin’ It

By pucksandbooks
Thursday, October 18, 2007

Cup'pa JoeA not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the Caps dressing a productive and seriously puck-possessing top 6 set of forwards this season. Some of the machine parts have fallen off. A cranky ankle has shelved sublime sniper Alexander Semin for all but one game thus far. Worse, one third of the top line has imploded. Has ever a young top-line winger’s fortunes soured as swiftly and as thoroughly as have Tomas Fleischmann’s early this autumn? A light switch seemingly shut down Flash’s fission. The boys up front are a bit unsettled right now.

That right side of the Capitals’ forward ranks has to unnerve management and Coach Hanlon. In addition to the flickering out of Flash there is Eric Fehr’s perpetually uncertain status. He’s not even skating these days. Joe Motzko, acquired in the offseason with the Hershey Bears in mind, has suddenly taken a turn on the top right flank. Where is the front-line right wing in this organization this October? The answer is, he may not exist — the moreso if Viktor Kozlov becomes entrenched as AO’s pivot.

Semin will eventually heal, but can the Caps plausibly vie for the postseason without the services of a scoring wing opposite Alex? I wonder.

In my darker moments, I fret about a new position leak springing — in this case, right wing — just as the blueline swiftly became old and immobile at the start of this decade.

Anyway, the Caps are tasked with gutting it out for the foreseeable future.

The beauty of hockey is that a beleaguered lineup can get its collective nose dirty and steal points even from much prettier clubs when their hearts swell for the work.

Monday brought about a two-hour practice. That’s long by NHL standards. When a rut is driven by low shot and goal totals, the most common prescription is hard work. This is a hockey club that for a few years now has been characterized by its hard work.

Not all is gloom and doom this mid-October. It appears that in net, the most important position on the ice, the Caps will regularly get quality, even game-stealing efforts from its tandem. The larger perspective up to the present is this: three weeks ago, knowing that the Caps faced four of the first five on the road, and all of the road games without Semin, had you been offered a record of 3-2 through them, you’d have grabbed it.

More good news: Pittsburgh is losing plenty.

Filed in Alexander Semin, Eric Fehr, Front Office, Glen Hanlon, Olaf Kolzig, Pittsburgh Penguins, Tomas Fleischmann, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (5)

Burnside Ranks Hanlon #20

By Gustafsson
Thursday, October 11, 2007

ESPN’s Scott Burnside ranked all 30 NHL Head Coaches. Our own Glen Hanlon checks in at #20.

ESPN's Scott Burnside

“Hanlon hasn’t had much to work with in Washington, but he’s instilled an impressive work ethic in his troops. Now, he’s got some more tools and it will be interesting to see how much more Hanlon can get out of his new-look Caps.”

See the full list here.

Filed in ESPN, Glen Hanlon, Scott Burnside, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (4)

Leafs TV? How About Caps’ TV?

By pucksandbooks
Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Cup'pa JoeApprised of Comcast’s commitment to the Caps this week, I turned on Comcast SportsNet the moment I arrived home from work Monday night, and left it there. What I watched over the next four hours stunned me.

I saw new Comcast Caps’ beat reporter Lisa Hillary studio host a season preview alongside Joe Reekie. I saw just about all of Alexander Ovechkin’s first-ever NHL game (I’d forgotten that he was a flubbed breakaway from a hat trick that night). Then I saw JoeB and Craig host another studio half hour, “Caps Speak,” for another team preview. Promos for Comcast’s “SportsNight” that followed promised even more Caps’ coverage.

It was “Monday Night Hockey in Washington,” of course.

Head Coach Glen Hanlon was interviewed in depth by Hillary. GMGM was thoughtfully interviewed, at length, and he provided his customary thoughtful replies. Key personnel — Chris Clark, Olie Kolzig, Tom Poti, Nicklas Backstrom, Michael Nylander — all took turns before Comcast’s cameras. Tarik El Bashir’s segment with Joe and Craig I thought was a highlight of the entire night. (Tarik, true to form, offered a sober and fair assessment amid the rampant optimism engulfing the organization early this autumn. The Caps, he said, could finish anywhere “from sixth to tenth” in the Eastern conference.)

Broadcast Buzz about pro hockey in D.C. these days? Umm, yes — only if you regard all-consuming, single-topic devotion by the local sports television outlet to the city’s red-headed stepchild of pro teams “buzz”-indicating. Apparently it’s going to be like this the remainder of the week each evening on Comcast.

At one point during the prime time proceedings I saw Joe and Craig flash on the screen multiple-screen listings of Caps’ prospects. I saw the names Michal Neuvirth, Simeon Varlamov, Karl Alzner, Joe Finley, Mathieu Perreault, Francois Bouchard, Dave Steckel, and Chris Bourque, all broadcast on an outlet that never in its life held an office fantasy hockey pool. Briefly, it was like a breakout from hockeysfuture, and two DraftGeeks renting out the Comcast studio and making like Wayne and Garth on local cable access.

Wayne, er, JoeB: “Look at all this talent in the pipeline, Dude!”

Garth, er, Craig (head cocked): “Excellent!”

This is what importing one Canuck can do to an outlet!

More seriously, Hillary was hired to bring her NHL coverage experience to Comcast. The in-house hockey talent was significant, if under-appreciated and grossly under-utilized, but had the outlet ever boasted a dedicated reporter on the beat? Next I’m going to allege that coverage decisions like Comcast’s for this week haven’t occurred in a vacuum, and that they’re a harbinger of better coverage to come, print and broadcast, traditional and alternative. To an extent, it’s fashionable, of course: the Caps may not make it to the postseason this year, but they will not be dull.

But of course I’m a subscriber to the theory that a media revolution for this team and its sport is well underway these days, in these parts.

I’m also, at week’s end, when this trial run on Comcast terminates, planning on becoming a subscriber to CapsTV.

Filed in Chris Bourque, Comcast SportsNet, Craig Laughlin, Francois Bouchard, George McPhee, Glen Hanlon, Joe Beninati, Joe Finley, Karl Alzner, Lisa Hillary, Mathieu Perreault, Media, Michal Neuvirth, Morning cup-a-joe, Prospects, Simeon Varlamov, TV, Tarik El-Bashir, Training Camp, Washington Capitals, Washington Post| Permalink| Comments (7)

Reflections on Training Camp’s Opening Week

By pucksandbooks
Sunday, September 23, 2007

Capitals Training Camp 2007It’s a day of rest not only for Washington Capitals’ players and coaches — well, the players at least — but for the team’s frenzied communications staff as well. Being out at Kettler as much as I have been the past 10 days, I gained a deep appreciation for the commitment of Nate Ewell, Julie Petri, Paul Rovnak, and Mike Vogel, among others. Their days during camp begin early and end late, and at this time of year they’re not only facilitating one of the heavier media flows following camp in years but also putting together the in-season communications products, such as the Media Guide. It’s forecast to be a stunning late September Sunday today, and I hope they’re all out having fun in the fun and recharging their batteries.

The pause in on-ice action is a good time to take stock of what the Caps have achieved thus far in what I believe is the most important training camp in the organization’s history. I made a point during my visits to survey the hockey-savvy heads also taking in the daily doings at Kettler, from print and broadcast reporters to fellow bloggers to fans in the stands, and herewith I’m blending their leading storylines of camp to date with my own.

  • Proud Papa. I’ve regularly seen Owner Leonsis as training camp spectator during the past 10 days, and while it’s true he’s no longer involved with the day-to-day operations of AOL, he remains a busy communications man. I think what’s happened with his training camp interest level mirrors that of the rest of us: the quality and depth of the organization on display is so impressive you are fairly compelled to make the trip out there and simply revel in the turned corner of the team’s competitiveness.
  • Nylander to line 2. Two years ago Michael Nylander left Washington as a very good hockey player. This fall he’s returned but done so appearing to be more a star. He’s a dynamic playmaker, in supreme condition. And while almost everyone in hockey this summer forecasted an Ovechkin-Nylander top-line pairing, way back in July Head Coach Glen Hanlon very publicly stated his intention of experimenting with top-6 forward combinations, and thus far in camp, the conspicuous chemistry appears to have melded among Alexander Semin, Michael Nylander, and Nicklas Backstrom as Hanlon’s second unit.
  • Slick Swede Part II. Speaking of Backstrom, he is irrefutably gaining comfort on the North American-sized sheet of ice — making progress “on a daily basis,” to quote my friend Mike Vogel. At the World Championships in Moscow in May, former Cap and Swedish National Team Head Coach Bengt Gustafsson told us that Backstrom would make that transition successfully and reasonably swiftly, and he was right. Tim Leone up in Hershey thinks it in Backstrom’s, and the Caps’, best interest for him to have a cup of coffee with the Bears this season. Ain’t happening.
  • It’s my puck, and I’m keeping it. The Caps don’t (yet) have a dominant shut-down defenseman, so Glen Hanlon’s strategy for improved defensive play this season rests with his club maintaining possession of the puck more often than in the past two seasons, when often they chased it around the rink in futile fashion. If you have the puck more often than your opposition, your goalie isn’t get apt to face 40 or 50 shots each night, and surrender five or six goals most nights. So far, this strategy appears to be taking hold. In training camp’s scrimmages and through the Caps’ first three preseason games, you can see more puck possession and fewer netminders collapsing from fatigue.
  • Captain, My Captain/Son of Kono-Dahlen-Halpern. I’ve changed my views on cloning, because of Chris Clark. Meaning no disrespect to Dale and his retired sweater, but should Clark captain the Caps to a Stanley Cup title in one of the next three seasons, he will have to be regarded as the best and most important captain in team history, having guided the team from the barrens of an unprecedented bottoming out to the promised land. And sitting here in September 2007, I wouldn’t stand in line to wager against it. (See Carolina ‘05-06, Tampa ‘03-04.)

It is Chris Clark’s team-first, two-way versatility that has Glen Hanlon fantasizing about a two-way, impact third line along the lines of the great Steve Konowalchuk, Jeff Halpern, Ulf Dahlen trio of a few years ago. That line, you’ll recall, was so dominant that Ron Wilson opened just about every game with it. It was also one that was a lynchpin to the Caps’ postseason participation. The coach has told the media that he’s looking for 60 goals from his third line this season, and given the defensive acumen of Clark and Boyd Gordon, and Matt Pettinger’s offensive pop, it’s natural to invoke the KDH comparison.

I’m also not wagering on Clark’s offensive production diminishing, dramatically, by virtue of his dropping down to line 3. As he noted himself on Media Day, he’s spent the past two seasons taking shifts against the likes of Zdeno Chara and top defensive pairings. Less so, it would appear, beginning this season.

  • Deep Depth. The Caps this weekend have 35 players battling for spots on the opening night roster. It’s reasonably easy to forecast another five cuts, but the leap from about 30 to 23 is another matter. To put it charitably, the Caps’ are in uncharted territory, post-lockout, in terms of the skater quality they’ll be showcasing out at Kettler in week two of camp. This is the most basic and encouraging sign of the overall success of the rebuild.
  • Three games, three leads. Through three exhibition games, the Caps have only once fielded a fairly veteran lineup — last Thursday night in Ottawa. They opened in Carolina, against a comparatively veteran Hurricanes’ lineup, dressing only John Erskine and Mike Green on the blueline as guys with significant NHL experience from last season (and with BJ in net). In all three games the Caps have played significant stretches with a lead (twice with two-goal leads). There remain mistakes (penalties) and concerns (penalties) aplenty, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that Coach Hanlon’s strategy of playing a more puck possession game is abundantly evident. In order to win more often, a team must first establish competitiveness, then achieve leads in games. The Caps have accomplished both early in this preseason.

The next step is to close the deal once you have the lead.

  • When did Toronto’s print media come to work in Washington? For the first time in my hockey life, I wake each day knowing that with my morning coffee I need to visit the web sites for both of Washington’s big newspapers in order to follow coverage there of Caps’ training camp. There are files there basically every day. And good ones. Additionally, blog files there. This is as it should be, but to our print guys — and most especially the Times’ Corey Masisak, who’s only taking on the beat of a departed legend — good on you.
  • Sharp-dressed men. It’s not anywhere near as important as the talent upgrade, but in this the autumn of uniform mischief, the Caps have showcased the best-looking new threads in the entire league. And it’s not even close. I’ll be particularly grateful when those snazzy white uniform system tops are rightfully returned to wearing on home ice.
Filed in Boyd Gordon, Chris Clark, Comcast SportsNet, Corey Masisak, Dave Steckel, Front Office, George McPhee, Glen Hanlon, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Lisa Hillary, Matt Pettinger, Michael Nylander, Mike Vogel, Nate Ewell, Nicklas Backstrom, Prospects, Staff, Steve Eminger, Sweaters, Tarik El-Bashir, Ted Leonsis, Tomas Fleischmann, Training Camp, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Times| Permalink| Comments (4)

On Taking in Caps’ Shootouts with Eyes Wide Open

By pucksandbooks
Friday, September 21, 2007

Cup'pa JoeAfter practice Wednesday Glen Hanlon addressed the impact he believes his new high-priced free agent forwards will have on his team’s shootout prospects this season. On paper, it would appear to be a dramatic one. When you visit NHL.com’s stats page for shootouts from last season, you notice both Michael Nylander and Viktor Kozlov’s names on the first page of success. Through two seasons of shootout tally stats, that’s not a perch in which you’ve commonly found Caps.

It’s hard to imagine a team being worse in the shootout than the Caps were last season — they took 40 shootout shots and converted a grand total of 5 of them (that’s 12.5 percent) — but there actually was one, Carolina. The Hurricanes, however, only took 17 extra-extra session shots in 2006-07 (scoring on just one! Ouch!!). 

In shootouts, the Caps aren’t even Shaq at the free throw line.

Here’s how bad things shootout got for Glen Hanlon last season: on March 1, in a 10-rounder against Tampa at Verizon Center, the coach even had Ben Clymer, Matt Bradley, and Donald Brashear rush in from the red line. (All three missed of course. All 10 Caps’ shooters missed that night, if memory serves.) I was inside Verizon Center that night, and I left thinking I’d have to return with my gear bag when covering future games in case Hanlon wanted to summon me for shootout duty.

Whatever your views on the appropriateness of the shootout as a game-settler, they’re here to stay for the foreseeable future, and for most teams they determine an important number of standings points over the course of the season. It’s hard to fathom the Caps remaining grotesque in them this season and qualifying for the postseason.

The addition of a single quality shooter in the shootout lineup can make a world of difference, but it would appear that Hanlon will be adding two this season. Both Nylander and Kozlov converted just under 40 percent in the shootout a season ago. On a team of 10-percenters (and often worse), that’s a revolutionary success rate. In his remarks Wednesday, Hanlon indicated that for now, both newcomers would be penciled in for shootouts at season’s start. 

Which sets up an intriguing bit of personnel exclusion: in such a rotation one of the Alexanders necessarily would be excluded. Or . . . would both? Neither player — especially Ovechkin all last season long — looked particularly comfortable during shootouts, and after his dynamic success in them in the opening weeks of his NHL career in 2005-06, Ovechkin has been snakebit, stymied, and stoned, stoned, stoned ever since by all caliber of NHL netminder.

Hanlon on Wednesday actually acknowledged the novelty of sitting his magic-hands set of Russians during the team’s shootouts.

“Can you imagine if we had 15,000 in the seats and I sat those guys?”

He then suggested something about his fate involving a noose or a burning at a stake, I think. Even more interesting, according to the coach, is that apparently one of his most impressive performers in shootout-like drills in practice is defenseman Jeff Schultz. I don’t think we’re going to see him in the coach’s top 3 very often early on this season.

But if the shootout struggles continue, you never know.      

Filed in 2 Points, Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Glen Hanlon, Michael Nylander, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Overtime, Shootouts, Training Camp, Viktor Kozlov, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (7)

A New Season Begins

By pucksandbooks
Thursday, September 13, 2007

Capitals Training Camp 2007Some dominant themes swiftly emerged at players’, coaches’, and the general manager’s media conferences this morning out at Kettler Capitals:

  • What a difference a year makes in terms of training facilities. I asked Chris Clark what he thought were his responsibilities as captain to his teammates this summer, and quickly he noted how in past seasons “we didn’t have anything to come to,” but that this summer, with Kettler, “we had almost a full team skating here days ago.” He said that he wanted to get everybody settled in town, early, to get the off-ice distractions related to moving and adjusting to new surroundings out of the way, and Kettler and its amenities was an easy sell to his teammates early in the summer.

“This is the best facility in the league,” George McPhee said. “It’s a place players want to be . . . it makes everything that we do better. It helps [with] community relations, media relations . . . It helps you keep your players and it attracts free agents.”

A year ago in Ashburn, Va., training camp was conducted in makeshift and cramped quarters. “Last year we were vagabonds [out at Ashburn],” Olaf Kolzig said.

“What the [team's] trainers went through last year is a story in itself,” Glen Hanlon said.

  • “These are the better days.” This came straight from Kolzig’s mouth early on in his session with the media. The first thing out of Kolzig’s mouth, as he moved before cameras and microphones, was “This is the Caps [press event]?” Both he and Hanlon were struck by the size of the media contingent attending Media Day. As we’ve seen in recent days, there is an intensity of media interest in the Capitals, particularly among local mainstream media, relative to that of recent years at this time.

Some reporters were discussing a quote Jason Spezza gave the Canadian Press this week: ”I think Washington could be a darkhorse team that could get into the playoffs. They made some good acquisitions in the off-season and they had a pretty good base of young guys so they could be kind of a team that might sneak up and make the playoffs.”

Cap after Cap came forward Thursday morning with the word “playoffs” on his lips. It’s not an entitlement, it’s something they must earn, but Captain Clark made the mission as plain as could be: “We have everything we need to get there.”

The good karma around this team now has had a clear impact on Kolzig. “My enthusiasm and energy level is at an all-time high,” he claimed.

  • Yes the new guys are important, but don’t overlook our core. Hanlon noted that the Caps finished 25 points shy of the playoffs last season. “The free agents [by themselves] can’t make up 25 points,” he said. There is a tendency to overvalue high-priced, free agent newcomers as saviors swooping in to lead a surge in the standings. Hanlon pointed to the emergence last season of so many young players on Pittsburgh’s roster, guys who, like the young Caps of the past couple of seasons, played together through rough times. Like Therrien in Pittsburgh last season, Hanlon is looking to his core to come through this season. “Our remaining 16 or 17 players have advanced,” he said.
  • It’s AO’s planet, we just share it with him. “Your English has gotten better,” one reporter observed after Alex answered the first question posed to him, and the reporter wondered if AO had worked on it during the summer.

“I practice in the [night] clubs,” he replied, sporting a devilish grin.

The starting goaltender offered a passing observation about the superstar left wing’s unkept hair. A reporter brought this to Ovechkin’s attention.

“It’s gangster style,” he responded, grinning again.

The general manager offered a number of insightful assessments related to the present and the recent past. He acknowledged that beyond the signings of the three big free agents, he added bodies with pro experience — guys like Boumedienne and Lepitso — in response to the experience that the team went through last December, when injuries and illness assailed an above-.500 club that was sniffing a playoff spot then. He also offered the view that chemistry with three significant new faces in the room is less an issue or concern than it was when the league was first experiencing significant free agent movement. Relatively few teams were making most of the significant acqusitions early on, he noted, but today “every team is acquiring [free agents].”

Where are the Capitals at the dawn of training camp 2007?

“A couple of years ago, we were looking [just] to fill boots. Now we have good players to fill a few number of [open] positions,” McPhee claimed.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Front Office, George McPhee, Glen Hanlon, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Media, Michael Nylander, Nicklas Backstrom, Olaf Kolzig, Sami Lepisto, Tom Poti, Training Camp, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (3)

Early Campers

By The OFB Team
Monday, July 9, 2007

From a source at Kettler Capitals: already on the ice with Coach Hanlon today are Nicklas Backstrom, Sami Lepisto, Viktor Dovgan, and Stephen Werner.

Filed in Glen Hanlon, Nicklas Backstrom, Prospects, Sami Lepisto, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (9)

“Sleeping Giants of the East”

By The OFB Team
Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Pierre McGuireNot so long ago, the Capitals were in the heat of a playoff run. As February brought a deep freeze to the Washington area, so it also seems to have deep-sixed the Capitals’ playoff hopes. Doom and gloom has set in among a number of the Caps’ faithful . . . but all is not lost.

Former NHL coach and scout Pierre McGuire is currently an analyst providing colour commentary for both Canada’s TSN and The NHL on NBC. McGuire’s point of view for Sunday’s broadcast of the Caps/Pens tilt was “Inside the Glass,” between the two team benches, giving him a unique perspective.

Check out McGuire’s endorsement of the Caps on his NHL Notebook on NBCSports.com:

“The Washington Capitals are the sleeping giants of the East. They have the lowest payroll in the conference, a great young prospect in Swedish centerman Nicklas Backstrom, and a GM (George McPhee) and Coach (Glen Hanlon) who are progressive and on the same page. The Caps are one season away from being the Penguins. Exciting times in Washington are coming.”

The Pens, it pains us to say, have surged to fourth place in the Eastern Conference and are tied for sixth in the league overall. But we’ll take a little of their MoJo, sooner rather than later.

Filed in George McPhee, Glen Hanlon, NBC, Nicklas Backstrom, Pittsburgh Penguins, TSN, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (5)

Hanlon Steps Up - And Back

By OFB
Thursday, January 11, 2007

Rumors linger in the hockey community that when Ron Wilson was fired as coach of the Washington Capitals, General Manager George McPhee’s first choice to fill the spot was Glen Hanlon. While his ascension to the head coaching position was to be delayed for a season and a half, recent events display some of the qualities that impressed GMGM.

In his post-game press conference after a satisfying 6 - 2 win over the Philadelphia Flyers, Hanlon wasn’t jumping for joy. He pointed out the sloppy play of his team, noted how much they depended on Olie Kolzig in the second period. During the game, he had benched promising young defenseman Mike Green for several bad turnovers.

Today, Glen Hanlon did something that is not commonplace in this day and age - he admitted he made a mistake. In Tarik El-Bashir’s piece today, Hanlon confesses that he and his coaching staff were putting too much pressure on the younger players in the past five games, focusing too much on the playoffs. He then made another rare coaching move - he gave up some control to his players. After discussing with Olie and his captains, he modified his approach, allowing the leaders on the team to impress upon the players the importance of each game. Hanlon and his staff will focus more on the tactical side and let things unfold. It’s a surprising move for an NHL coach to make, completely without ego or bombast.

It could work like a charm. It could blow up in his face. Hanlon is stepping up, however: it’s not about him, it’s about the team. In stepping back he’s showing his players that the team-first mentality starts at the top, and messages such as that might be more easily preached when practiced.

Filed in George McPhee, Glen Hanlon, Olaf Kolzig, Tarik El-Bashir, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (2)