10 October, 2008

Category Archives: Former Coaches & Players

Former Washington Capitals

Fairfax’s Collin McKinney Sees Life Through Hockey

By pucksandbooks
Monday, October 6, 2008

[Part I of II ]

In the moments leading up to my meeting Collin McKinney, 42, of Fairfax, I readied myself for a seriously sad encounter. There are newsworthy triumphs and tragedies in life every day, and all I knew of McKinney was that he was a huge hockey fan and that he’d endured a sudden and unimaginably tragic misfortune a few years back. This was to be a happy hour meeting devoid of the happy, I imagined. But adversity, I learned over the course of two hours in McKinney’s company, even of the most shocking and harrowing kind, can summon untapped resolve and renewed purpose within the afflicted. In Collin McKinney I found the story of a man who endured one of life’s most savage blows, turned to hockey as a comfort on his road to healing, and emerged an inspiration to his Northern Virginia community.

Life in general didn’t deal McKinney, an Arlington native, much of a strong hand to begin with, health-wise. He’s diabetic, and he battles thyroid and heart problems. He also has severe arthritis.

“I have a lot of bills and pills,” he told me with a chuckle.

When I met McKinney in Ballston on a recent Monday night he stood at the very entrance of our restaurant waiting for me, wearing his Alexander Ovechkin Caps’ jersey so that I could easily identify him. I noticed the black sweater enveloping his frail, 150-pound, world-weary frame, and a blind stick in one hand.

Over our first beer he shared with me the tale of his very first Caps’ game, back in 1986. Somebody had given him tickets at work. Collin took his brother to the game.

“I had a blast, and I was hooked,” he told me.

His attendance at Caps’ games in the immediate years that followed was sporadic; working a handful of modest jobs in offices and maintenance, he attended as often as he could on a modest salary. But one visit to the old Capital Centre that featured a Peter Bondra hat trick upped the ante. He became a puckhead of the first order. Today his home is a shrine to all things Capitals — he has three sweaters, signed hats, “every ‘Rock the Red’ towel ever handed out” he noted with pride, and scores of signed player cards and photos. He owns a Caps’ Tiffany glass lamp, a Capitals’ rug, a big wall hanging of Alexander Ovechkin. “T-shirts like you wouldn’t believe,” he emphasized. I asked him how many games he attended during last season’s stirring run to the Southeast division title. “I think pretty much every one,” he told me. McKinney’s email prefix starts out “bonzai.”

“I just love the Caps, I just love hockey,” he told me. “I used to be a giant Redskins’ fan, but that’s taken a back seat to hockey.”

A Life Forever Changed

On May 10, 2001, McKinney, then working his way through more school with three jobs, was in a hallway at his job at Neiman Marcus. He dropped a paper, bent down to retrieve it, and met a brutal fate.

“There was a guy doing trash, and he had a whole bunch of folded over cardboard boxes,” McKinney began. “He came up as I was going down . . . and he caught me across the bridge of the nose.

“Both of my retinas detached.”

In an instant Collin McKinney’s world went black.

“I dropped a piece of paper and my life changed forever,” he said.

He went immediately to an ophthalmologist. “‘You need surgery and you need it now,’ he told me,” McKinney related.

His left eye was operated on first, as it was believed to be the more seriously damaged. That surgery proved moderately successful, and today McKinney has, in conditions of bright light, a tiny bit of vision out of it. But during surgery on his right eye McKinney woke up out of the anesthesia, bringing the procedure to an immediate halt. In the delay between his second surgery on the eye, damaged nerves failed to regenerate. His right eye began to die.

Thirty-plus years of battling diabetes greatly complicated both the surgeries and the recovery.

“Diabetes, what it does, it produces very weak blood vessels in the back of the retina, so they had to go in and laser them, and that’s what caused me, ultimately . . . to lose everything,” he explained.

“What made me blind is my eye would hemorrhage, the blood vessels would burst and my eye would fill up with blood and I couldn’t see through it. I could see for like a week and then all of a sudden I’d have one of these hemorrhages and I’d be blind for four or five months.”

McKinney endured this fluctuation between partial vision and total blindness for fully two years. His right eye literally bled to death. Then it started shrinking.

“Once is started shrinking, it started pressing against the optic nerve, and this went on for five years, and the pain started getting so intense that I had to go on some pretty heavy painkillers,” McKinney told me.

“I don’t know about you,” he added, “but I don’t do drugs very well. It was a pretty ugly time.”

“It was highly depressing,” he said, with obvious understatement. “It got to the point where [the eye] just had to go. That was this past June.

“I finally just said, ‘Look man, it’s gotta go, it’s either that or I gotta go.’ I just couldn’t go on [in that pain].”

McKinney and I were seated in a booth in a chain restaurant surprisingly crowded on a Monday night. As I listened to him detail his tragedy I worried about him getting emotional and overcome with his story’s sadness, but it was apparent early on that I was in the presence of a young man of exceptional fortitude and perseverance. He relayed his circumstances to me without the slightest semblance of self-pity. He’d had seven years to live with his misfortune, and in his narrative there was no account of buckling under the woe.

McKinney went through more surgical procedures and specialist visits than he can tabulate. Neiman Marcus kept him insured for a solid year while he was out of work and receiving treatment initially, but McKinney’s pre-existing conditions transformed a bad accident into a malevolent mishap — one he was left to grapple with with only the support of friends and family.

“It was quite a life-changing event,” he said. “I was scared. I didn’t know to operate as a blind person. To learn all that I had to in mid- life, was . . . a weird stream.”

“I couldn’t take care of myself — I couldn’t see. I couldn’t check my blood sugar levels.”

Fortunately, McKinney has family in Northern Virginia. His father passed years ago, and he moved in with his mother, today his principal caregiver.

“I couldn’t get through my daily existence without her,” he said. “I had to go to a lot of doctors. She got me through all these different surgeries. She knew what I needed.

“Thank God she was there.”

Determined to try and establish some normalcy in his life, McKinney enrolled in Northern Virginia Community College, in some computer training programs. Computer programming, he explained, is a relatively common pursuit by the vision-impaired. But programming he found boring. Next he tried business classes, but the further he went along with those the more he realized how limited he was by virtue of being unable to work in common business software.

McKinney had a friend whose father went blind, and their intervention helped him in his early struggles.

“I was lucky I got a really good teacher who taught me how to get around with a [blind] stick, how to get on Metro.”

He spent “seven or eight” months departing his house only for followup surgeries and doctors’ visits, and another four months after that “just sitting around.”

“I was sitting there in my house trying to figure out what to do with myself.” Continue reading ›

Filed in Collin McKinney, Former Coaches & Players, Hardcore Hockey Fans, Hockey, Hockey Heroes, National Hockey League, Nicklas Backstrom, OFB Interviews, Olaf Kolzig, Ted Leonsis, Verizon Center, Washington Capitals, Washington the Hockey Town| Permalink| Comments (6)

The Selling of a Six Pack to a Southerner

By pucksandbooks
Friday, October 3, 2008

A brand new colleague in my office, Victoria, not yet six weeks in her new gig, hails from Gulfport, Mississippi. She’s a young twenty-something, bright and engaging, and while college on the West Coast and two brief employment stints in D.C. have well dulled her Mississippi drawl, it’s still abundantly clear that she’s a seriously southern girl. We’re happy to have her. Like others her age, Victoria enjoys meeting friends after work for cheap beers at happy hour. As you might imagine, her family, most of whom still reside in Mississippi, has zero connection to the sport of hockey. Victoria has a boyfriend named John who hails from Oregon and who works for the Department of Energy, and Victoria has reported to me that he has no interest in hockey whatsoever. All of this made what the two of them did on Thursday rather startling to me.

I pass Victoria’s work station each morning en route to my office. Thursday morning near 9:00 I was startled to see on her computer screen the Washington Capitals’ web site. She was perusing it. Naturally, I asked her why.

“I didn’t make it to a single game last year,” she told me. “I don’t want that to happen again this year.” Victoria the Delta darling was searching the Caps’ site for hockey tickets for her and her boyfriend.

Turns out, Victoria had been to a Caps’ hockey game before, in 2006, during her first-ever visit to Washington. It made an impression.

“It was fast-paced, high energy, and I loved the way the crowd got into it,” she told me.

“I got the bug I think,” she added.

A bug for hockey!, said the Dixie doll. 

Now Victoria’s ticket search became my search on her behalf. Prior to her lone NHL game two seasons back, Victoria had attended a Mississippi Sea Wolves hockey game as a young teenager back home. The Wolves, of the East Coast Hockey League, were once coached by Bruce Boudreau. Fate, I thought.

“That was the first I’d ever seen an ice rink,” she noted with a smile. But it was her experience years later in a big-league rink in the big city that made the lasting impression.

I asked Victoria why she hadn’t made an appearance at a Caps’ game last season, when they’d become so hot a story in town.

“I changed jobs within DOE last year, changed offices, and I was just so busy with all the changes.”

I never push hockey as a cultural experience among my co-workers, but if they stop by my office and ask questions about the sport, I answer, in generous, often gratuitous detail. I’ll give them two-and-a-half hours of my time, if I’m busy, and discuss my game-playing scars, my fake teeth, ‘Slapshot’ and Killer Kaminski. Last season a nuclear engineer from London from our third floor, a very slight former rugby player named Adrian, stopped by my office the morning after watching Alexander Ovechkin for the first time on television.

“You can’t take your eyes off him,” he explained, highly animated, his eyes wide and arms gesturing wildly. “We’d have loved to have had him on our pitch!”

I guided Victoria to the Caps’ ‘Six-Pack’ plans. They seemed budget friendly to a young professional couple. We perused all of the plan options, comparing the ratio of weeknight to weekend games. We decided that the ‘Original Six’ slate was the most appealing, offering as it does both next Saturday’s home opener against the ‘Hawks (sold out) and that snazzy late January Saturday matinee against the Wings.

“Are the Wings good?” Victoria asked me, reminding me, forcefully, of her regional naivete.

She still had to sell the investment to John, but first I wanted to make sure that she could still land that Six Pack, cause I knew tickets were flying fast. I told Victoria to find seats first and make the selljob to John second.

My suspicions were well founded. A Caps’ sales rep informed my Project Puck Convert of that plan’s unavailability. Victoria, I could tell, was close to crestfallen. Now this really became my mission.

“Let me reach out to a friend,” I told her. “No promises, but let me see what I can do.”

Actually, before I could have a phone chat with a Kettler Capitals friend that same sales rep pinged Victoria with the idea of going to the Original Six set but sitting in different seats for the games. Perfect.

“I’ll go with you if John won’t,” I assured.

Victoria’s boyfriend actually put up no resistance at all. In fact, Victoria reported his being excited by the investment.

“He’s excited because I’m excited,” she said.

“Last year, I saw everyone on Metro dressed in their red sweatshirts and their red jerseys,” she explained. “Sometimes, I couldn’t even get on the trains they were so crowded.

“I wanted to be one of them.”

She is.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, ECHL, Former Coaches & Players, Hockey, Kevin Kaminski, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, Pro Hockey Ticket Pricing, Washington Capitals, Washington the Hockey Town| Permalink| Comments (14)

The Importance of Being a January Baby

By pucksandbooks
Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Chris Bourque, Mathieu Perreault, and John Carlson all enjoyed standout training camps with the Washington Capitals this month. Bourque is still enjoying his. To slightly varying degrees, all three enjoyed prodigy player status early on in their hockey careers. On a hunch, I checked their respective birth dates. All three share the birth month of January. What’s the importance of that in a hockey player’s development? To listen to the view of one of hockey’s most learned and thoughtful commentators on the matter, it’s just about everything.

Hall of Fame netminder and celebrated author Ken Dryden, in his superb overview of hockey’s hold in his homeland, Home Game, notes that in Canada, a hockey player’s birthday is virtually determinative of his development:

“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?

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Baseball, Chris Bourque, Football, Hardcore Hockey Fans, Hockey Legends, Hockey Rituals, Jaromir Jagr, John Carlson, Mathieu Perreault, Morning cup-a-joe, Other Sports, Peter Bondra, Prospects, Sergei Fedorov, Soccer, Training Camp, Washington Capitals, Wayne Gretzky| Permalink| Comments (6)

A Name No Longer Mentioned

By pucksandbooks
Wednesday, September 24, 2008

One player’s name certainly is emerging from training camp’s first week — by virtue of its omission.

That of Olaf Kolzig.

You don’t hear it mentioned among the press, by fans in the Kettler stands, certainly not by Capitals’ players or coaches. Everybody seems to have moved on from the April agony and the summer transition trauma.

HockeyWashington, so consumed by the drama of L’affair Nameplate five months ago, five months later seems to have reacted to a Kolzig-less training camp with a collective “Meh.”

I for one am a little surprised. I expected some manner of media frenzy (particularly on Day 1 of camp) pegged on “this the first day of hockey without Olie in Washington in more than a decade.” But it didn’t happen, and it isn’t going to, and it’s worth reflecting on why.

There are I think a handful of factors accounting for this striking silence for a hockey hero, but foremost among them is the fact that the Capitals in goal this September have an abundance of exciting talent. Over the past three days there were three highly competitive scrimmages that took place — with jobs on the line and highly skilled players littering all three competing rosters– and yet no team ever tallied more than 3 goals in any of them. I saw scores of breakaways and a pair of shootouts, and I saw goalies winning the overwhelming majority of those showdowns. And specifically, in the likes of Simeon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth, I saw a tandem of talent I’d never seen before at a Caps’ camp. Observers of this Capitals’ training camp, I believe, are too preoccupied with a fresh and great storyline in net to think back to that of even the recent past. Which, in Olie Kolzig’s case, represented a fading talent.

Capitals’ fans in the final third of the 2007-08 regular season saw a significantly improved Olie Kolzig in net, and with late February’s trade with Montreal they also saw scintillating virtuosity in his rival Cristobal Huet. The regular season’s final loss was on Kolzig, in Chicago, and it was ugly. Thereafter, Head Coach Bruce Boudreau rode Huet, who started and finished the team’s final seven games — all victories, culminating in a near miraculous Southeast division crown. They may not have admitted it then, but Kolzig’s defenders had to have seen the writing on the wall.

Indeed, even when new contract talks with Cristobal Huet fell apart, re-signing Olie Kolzig was never an option. The team needed to move in a new direction.

But the old netminder himself apparently didn’t see any such signs, and this leads to my third reason for the collective, quiet acceptance of his absence. When Kolzig very publicly postured that he had still no. 1 minutes and a no. 1 contract for a contending club ahead of him, he needed, for credibility’s sake, at a minimum, one or two contending summer suitors to make a play for his services. Instead, he ended up in Tampa Bay, for Matt Bradley money. The market spoke. Capitals’ management, which endured a torrent of message board tirades over their perceived handling of Kolzig, was vindicated.

Initially, most rightly viewed Kolzig’s public swagger and competitive perseverance as the byproduct of a special athlete’s pride. And most fans I think were inclined to cut Olie the Goalie a heck of a lot of slack in light of his enormous community contributions. That too is understandable. But Kolzig never articulated any acknowledgment of the team’s turning the corner, for the markedly, durably better, at a time when the rest of Washington had quickly gone hot over hockey. Instead, he remained in a self-centered posture. That I think in turn allowed many Capitals’ fans to turn the page.

A fourth and perhaps pre-eminent reason I think exists for this quasi-forgetfulness of athlete: the thirst for lasting victory. Fair or not, Kolzig, save for one Cinderella season in ‘97-’98, was associated with an organization’s mediocrity and rebuilding. For a decade solid Olie Kolzig was the face of this hockey organization, and it was one Washingtonians could be proud of. But the team — his team — always fell short. Today Alexander Ovechkin is the face of the Washington Capitals, displaying a charisma the likes of which we’ve never seen in a hockey player in this town — maybe not among any pro athletes ever in this town. Part of the primal appeal of this current Caps’ team is its being led by the greatest hockey player on the planet, but nearly just as important is its being comprised of a young and exciting core that’s going to be around for a while.

A season ticket holder I spoke with on the Kolzig subject back in April put it best: “I love Olie Kolzig,” he told me, “but I love winning more.”

Olie’s gone but of course not forgotten. How could he be? These days, we’re just too busy going about the business of following winning. We’re overdue that — and damn it’s fun.

Filed in Bruce Boudreau, Cristobal Huet, Former Coaches & Players, Jose Theodore, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Michal Neuvirth, Olaf Kolzig, Simeon Varlamov, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (25)

Open File: Duchesne Cup Championship

By pucksandbooks
Tuesday, September 23, 2008

[Check out the first published photos of the presentation of the Duchesne Cup.]

I alone among camp chroniclers am sporting a playoff beard during the Duchesne Cup Challenge, but I was also a big Gator fan.

Bruce Boudreau gets the credit for conceiving the Duschesne Cup (recommended viewing: Lisa Hillary’s coverage of it), and initially, I thought it was merely a homage to a fan- and organization-favorite former Cap, now sadly gone from us. But it’s actually more than that. It’s also a powerful reminder to the team’s prospects — particularly those drafted late, or even signed as free agents — that dedication and drive and a team-first ethos can lead to an unheralded prospect’s making a long and prosperous NHL career, against the odds. Duchesne, you may recall, was an eight-round pick by the Caps and made the team in his very first training camp. The three-day competition is also a fabulous way of generating enthusiasm among the players for the start of camp.

Recall Boudreau’s referencing prospect Anton Gustafsson at last week’s Rookie Camp in the context of his father’s name being “synonymous with the Capitals.” Now with his idea for the Duchesne Cup we have leading our team a coach who is conspicuous in showcasing his affinity for this organization’s heritage.

Does it get any better than that?

You know you’re at a Washington weekday training camp session when the snazzy suit seated next to you in the stands has an “Issue Paper for the New Congress” in his lap and is marking it up during the Zam break. We have eminently gifted policy pros in this town, ever aiding our political leadership, but it’s good to know that some of them have their priorities straight.

Players in this Cup-deciding, lunch-hour showdown are on the ice and warming up. I’ll be updating periodically.

It’s Varlamov vs. Theodore in net. 0-0 a little more than halfway through the first. As with yesterday’s scrimmage, fast-paced and hard-hitting. Each squad has had a power play. Theodore just stoned Ovechkin on a clear breakaway. Brashear returned the favor for the B squad, powering down the left wing with no one in blue swerving in to obstruct, but Varlamov flashed the right leg pad to snuff him out. Play’s been pretty balanced, with quality scoring chances at both ends.

Ovi thwarted again by Theodore in tight!

And we have the game’s first goal! Jay Beagle, at 6:29 (thereabout — running clock), breaking in all alone after a deft touch pass from Andrew Gordon along the far boards. Beagle went backhand up high just inside the crossbar and goalpost to Jose Theodore’s right. 1-0 A squad.

Oskar Osala took A squad’s third penalty of the opening frame, but Ovechkin got sprung for another clean breakaway only to be snuffed out by Theordore again! That’s two breakaways and another unobstructed chance in tight and Theodore’s gotten the better of Ovi all three times.

Fifteen seconds after Ovi’s second breakaway, he steals a puck from the B team in the neutral zone and goes in on a breakaway again! This time . . . he scores! 2-0 Squad A.  That tally came with about a minute left, and the period ended 2-0. A-squad took three penalties that period but paid no price for them. Continue reading ›

Filed in Bruce Boudreau, Corey Masisak, Former Coaches & Players, Gaetan Duchesne, Internet, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Lisa Hillary, Media, Prospects, Tarik El-Bashir, The Duchesne Cup, Training Camp, Washington Capitals, Washington Post, Washington Times, Washington the Hockey Town| Permalink| Comments (9)

Ten Top Storylines for the Start of Training Camp 2008

By pucksandbooks
Saturday, September 20, 2008
AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn

AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn

(10) Gabby from the Get-go. Capitals players had plenty of time to come to grips with Bruce Boudreau’s system, what with his arriving from Hershey at Thanksgiving. In his 61 games in 2007-08, Boudreau went 20 games over .500 (37-17-7). Had that projected over the full season, the Caps not only would have won the Southeast handily but absolutely contended for first overall in the East (with 104 points, Montreal finished 10 better than Washington). It bears mentioning that Boudreau had to learn most of his new hockey club in mid-season just as they had to learn his system. This fall, Boudreau knows his roster quite well, they know him now by the title of Jack Adams holder, and he starts the season with a club as healthy and hungry as any the Caps have seen this decade. Let the good times roll.

(9) Renewed Might on the Right. What might have the Capitals’ fortunes been in the 2008 playoffs had they had the services of captain Chris Clark and his 30-goal skills and leadership? And what might a fully healthy Eric Fehr finally look like? We should find out in 2008-09. Both have told media late this summer that they’re “100 percent” and ready to go. We know what Viktor Kozlov, Matt Bradley, and Clark can do. Fehr is the wild card. But reasonably healthy, that quartet ought to offer some much-needed scoring balance on the right side of the Caps’ forward ranks.

(8) Is Karl Alzner NHL ready? In what appears to have been the final foray for the Caps in the NHL Entry Draft lottery, for some while anyway, the Caps selected Calgary Hitmen shutdown rearguard Karl Alzner with the 5th pick in the 2007 draft. In his draft class Alzner was lauded as being the “most NHL ready” of defense prospects. Nothing about Alzner’s ‘07-08 season suggested otherwise. He captained Canada’s Junior team to yet another gold medal, and he was named WHL Defenseman of the Year and WHL Player of the Year. The Caps may find themselves with an intriguing and difficult call to make on Alzner this training camp: today he may well be one the team’s top 6 talents on the blueline, but would his long-term development be better aided with top minutes in Hershey this season?

(7) Center by Committee. The Capitals have a clear no. 1 center (Nicklas Backstrom) and, in ability, potentially three no. 2s (Nylander, Fedorov, Laich). Brooks Laich will get a long look on a wing. Additionally, there is fantastic defensive play and faceoff ability between Dave Steckel and Boyd Gordon. Bruce Boudreau is virtually certain to carry 13 forwards out of camp, and you have to believe five of them will be centers. But who sits? And who earns no. 2 minutes? Will there be a trade?

(6) Who’s no. 1 in Net — in Hershey? Rarely at the start of a new season is there intrigue about the goalie rotation down on the farm, but the goalie story in the Caps’ organization is a lead one in 2008-09. George McPhee has indicated that in Michael Neuvirth and Simeon Varlamov he has two AHL-worthy 20-year-olds; neither belongs in the E. Additionally, Daren Machesney has developed solidly in Hershey. One option could be to loan out one of the kids to another American League club. But both 2006 draft picks possess talent such that there respective stays in minor pros could be brief ones. Meanwhile . . .

(5) It’s Certain That There’s Some Uncertainty in the Washington Net. Jose Theodore was signed by Washington the moment that contracts talks with Cristobal Huet fell apart. Theodore possesses nearly 450 games of NHL experience spread out over more than 10 years. His career has been marked by moments of exemplary play commonly followed by conspicuously mediocre results. He has Vezina and Hart trophies on his mantle and pitchfork and torch scars on his gear bag. Playing behind a strong team of forwards and defenders, expect him to look like a world-beater during many regular season nights in 2008-09; the postseason will be more the barometer of his signing. Somewhat overlooked in the Kolzig-to-Huet-to-Theodore transition — all of it carried off in less than 9 months’ time — is that the Capitals’ blueline corps will have to adjust to yet another new netminder’s angles and rebounds tendencies. And it’s a short preseason.

(4) Is Semin a Star? There’s absolutely no doubt that left wing Alexander Semin is an elite, world-class talent. His wrist shot is simply one of the finest on the planet. But to date he has not put together a complete season of health and high production. With the Caps’ top-six-plus skill, 2008-09 should Semin’s season to shine.

(3) Potential Pitfalls of Press Clippings. It was just late last November that the Washington Capitals resided in dead last territory in the NHL, their rebuild strivings generating little returns. One coaching and netminder change ushered in a division title, a sold out home rink, and a wild-about-hockey Washington, and one of the great from hell to heaven rises in Washington pro sports history. The summer delivered an abundance of awards recognitions for the feat. And the Caps’ feel-good story of last season has fostered a pervasive ‘they’re-the-team-to-watch-out-for‘ forecast for this season. But the team is hardly dynastic, and they’ll compete with plenty of quality at the top of the East (Philly, Montreal, and Pittsburgh) and throughout the league overall. They’ll also have fewer games against their Southeast rivals this season — hockey’s weakest division.

(2) Golden Era of Ovechkin. If you believe Wayne Gretzky, we haven’t seen anywhere near the best yet from Alexander Ovechkin. The Great One believes that Ovi can score 90. Today the hockey world is Alexander Ovechkin’s oyster. He enjoys a best-in-his-sport status, he loves the challenge of making Washington a hockey town, and in 2008-09 he will skate in possession of the richest contract in Washington pro sports history. Now 225 pounds and a training dynamo, he is arrived at something close to his physical prime. There is among his fast-accumulating hardware one lone conspicuous omission. His aim in ‘08-09 is to secure that one, too.

(1) As Good as It Gets? There were three striking qualities about Verizon Center in the final weeks of the 2008 season: it was consistently sold out; it was overwhelmingly red and partisan (except to Pierre McGuire’s eyes); and it was gloriously raucous and loud. It was an environment that I think caught even the Caps off guard; it seemed about two years ahead of forecast — if management could even imagine such environs here at all. Was it a fluke in response to a torrid and historic run, or is that the reception that hockey is hereafter to receive, the home team now competing, likely for a sizable number of years going forward, with coveted skill, depth, and youth? Washington’s hockey fans have been the butt of disrespect and ridicule for decades. A full season of Red Rockin’ during a lot of winning may squelch that slander permanently.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, American Hockey League, Boyd Gordon, Bruce Boudreau, Chris Clark, Cristobal Huet, Daren Machesney, Dave Steckel, Eastern Conference, Eric Fehr, George McPhee, Hershey Bears, Jose Theodore, Karl Alzner, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Michal Neuvirth, Montreal Canadiens, National Hockey League, Nicklas Backstrom, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Prospects, Sergei Fedorov, Simeon Varlamov, Training Camp, Verizon Center, Washington Capitals, Washington the Hockey Town| Permalink| Comments (1)

A New Era of Gustafsson Starts in Washington

By pucksandbooks
Monday, September 15, 2008

Oh to be a hockey-indifferent girl in the Gustafsson household. Dad Bengt of course is a hockey legend, both as an NHL player and international coach. Son Anton is a first-round NHL draft pick, and following in father’s footsteps pursuing an NHL career with the Washington Capitals.

Father and son, as you might imagine, talk a lot of hockey together in their home in Sweden.

“My younger sister, always, after the dinner, stands up and throws the little food that she has [left] and says, ‘All the thing you can talk about is hockey’ . . . [she's] so pissed off,” older brother Anton told media at Kettler Capitals Sunday afternoon, a couple of hours after his first-ever workout in a Caps’ sweater.

“Mom’s pretty pissed off, too,” he added, smiling. “She talks [hockey] a little bit, but it’s pretty much our [guys'] talk,” he added.

Caps’ fans of both genders have been talking about the Gustafssons a lot this summer. Nearly three months since the Caps selected Anton in the first round of the draft in Ottawa, the son’s arriving in Washington to wear a Capitals’ sweater remains a striking novelty. We haven’t experienced this before; it isn’t just any Washington Capital alumnus name that’s been stirred by the draft selection but a truly legendary one — one of the all-time best ever to wear a Caps’ sweater. Anton’s being a first-round talent has whetted the appetite of Caps’ fans wondering if the son can possibly approach the achievements of father. That’s unfair but understandable.

The name Gustafsson, Bruce Boudreau said Sunday, “is synonymous with Capitals.”

Anton was late getting out to meet the media Sunday after enduring an especially hard two-hour skate with his fellow Rookie Camp campers, and then being introduced to the rigors of NHL fitness. Head Coach Bruce Boudreau concluded the skate with a solid 10-plus minutes of Herbies, a session torturous even for spectators to watch. The ill effects of the conditioning drill were most noticeable on European prospects Gustafsson and Dmitry Kugryshev. Both fell to their knees at one end of the Kettler sheet, gasping for breath. After 10 minutes of Herbies, Anton was crumpled in a corner, annihilated with fatigue. Mathieu Perreault, Boudreau admitted afterward, became light-headed and nearly feinted from the duress.

Gustafsson suffered a herniated disc in his lower back this past April, which obviously influenced his being available for the Caps at the 21st spot in the June draft. While he’s “90 percent” fit these days, he admitted that the flight over from Sweden Friday and its jet-lag, and Sunday morning’s arduous skate, had him seeking out extra and prolonged assistance in the trainer’s room. Doctors have told him that he shouldn’t expect to be fully healed for two years, but that time and training will do the trick. He missed July’s Development Camp because of his injury, but two months later he’s made good progress, and out on the sheet Sunday he showcased a strong stride . . . if not quite NHL stamina.

He will return to his Swedish team in Sweden’s second league, a level Gustafsson described as akin to the AHL in talent. His rights belong to the Frolunda organization, and Sweden’s pro hockey leagues have already begun regular season play. He will return home this coming Friday. Sunday afternoon he discussed how his team’s management, while supportive of his coming over to Washington this week, nonetheless wasn’t thrilled with losing an important player in-season. He plans to play one season more with his current team and then, in 2009-10, make the leap up to the Swedish Elite League, with Frolunda.

Anton was asked Sunday about skating in his father’s shadow.

“It’s always hard. Many expect me to be as good as [Dad.] I hope I will make it.”

“Many, many say, ‘There is Bengt’s son,’ and I want to be known as Anton. When they see my father they will say that is Anton’s dad. That’s what I want.”

Son has never watched a single tape of his father play as a Washington Capital. There are no such tapes in the Gustafsson home. Just as well — the father’s presence, for the son, looms large enough as it is.

Filed in Anton Gustafsson, Bengt Gustafsson, Bruce Boudreau, Dmitry Kugryshev, Former Coaches & Players, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Mathieu Perreault, Prospects, Rookie Camp, Training Camp, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (0)

Making Right in the Rafters on the Right Wing

By pucksandbooks
Wednesday, September 3, 2008

Something felt very very right about the Capitals retiring Dale Hunter’s number back in March 2000, and my hunch is that a similar sense of appropriateness will accompany the retiring of Mike Gartner’s no. 11 this December. The Caps announced yesterday that they would be retiring Mike Gartner’s sweater then.

Huntsy was the greatest captain in Capitals’ history (and still is), and his was a career iconic in its emblem of old time hockey. Garts is bettered as the most prolific right wing in Caps’ history only by Peter Bondra, he is already a member of the pro hockey Hall of Fame, and he was a star hockey player in red, white, and blue at a time when Washington really didn’t know how to acknowledge stars in hockey. He will receive his just star status here on December 28.

I forget who said it — it may have been Ken Dryden — that great skaters aren’t developed, they’re born. You couldn’t have watched Mike Gartner without noticing how extraordinary a skater he was. Beyond his blinding speed — and for my money, he was faster than Peter Bondra — there was an effortless but nonetheless technical brilliance to his skating, one that certainly seemed genetic. When I authored a series of critiques of the NHL’s decision last summer to jettison the traditional hockey sweater in favor of its present Amish-confining look, it was with a profound and lasting association of watching Mike Gartner’s three Caps’ colors flutter like a flag in a coastline gale as he power-glided past well-positioned defenders, for 10 years here in D.C. It’s sad for me to think that until the present fashion fad fades contemporary youths won’t have that special association.

When a hockey player skates as Mike Gartner did, in his uniform he ought to look distinctive out on the sheet from his peers.

Mike Gartner scored 708 goals in his NHL career, and nearly 400 of them here in Washington. You’re damned right he deserves what’s coming to him December 28.

Still, there are those in hockey who would dispute both Gartner’s number retiring by the Caps and his Hall of Fame selection. To them I would address this question: if on the day of Gartner’s drafting by the Caps in 1979 — on that very day — you could have accurately crystal balled no. 11’s playing 19 seasons and scoring more than 700 goals in the NHL, what would you have said about his career that day? That it was . . . alright?

Garts played seven of his 19 seasons in All Star fashion, but he along with Larry Murphy was especially associated with the Caps’ ’80s playoff failures. He played on six Caps’ clubs that ever seemed doomed come springtime. And so along with Murphy he was dealt by the Caps for Dino Ciccarelli and Bob Rouse in 1989.

It was one of the more intriguing trades in Caps’ history. With the benefit of hindsight it looks like a no-brainer loser for the Caps — two Hall of Famers dealt away in the prime of their careers for two very nice hockey players. And were David Poile awarded a do-over of that deal, the wager here is that he’d keep his two Hall of Famers. But in the maddening moments of the Caps’ ’80s playoff collapses, some shakeup was deemed necessary. In pro sports, perception is often reality, and in the heartbreak of the postseason moment circa 1989, it just seemed like Garts would light the lamp October through March just fine, then pepper Billy Smith’s pads when it counted most.  

In a very real sense Gartner and Murphy were scapegoated for Caps’ team failures two decades ago. This December 28 is partly about reconciling that unfairness.  

Just as important as Gartner’s sweater retiring is the accompanying sense that stability and order are arriving to the totality of the Capitals’ operations. Loose ends are getting tied up. Greats from the past who’ve gone under-mentioned or altogether forgotten are being brought back into the fold. It was magnificent to see Bengt Gustafsson in Verizon Center last season. It’s been cathartic to see Rod Langway involved again in team functions. This season Garts is at long last getting his much deserved due. That gorgeous new center-ice video screen at Verizon Center is sure to show highlights of no. 11’s magnificent career here on December 28; newer Caps’ fans in attendance then are in for a treat. 

HockeyWashington has greatness in its present and rafter-raising heroism in its past. The two are converging magnificently these days.

Filed in Former Coaches & Players, Mike Gartner, Morning cup-a-joe, NHL Trades, Peter Bondra, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (11)

Captain Clark: “100 percent” a Go

By pucksandbooks
Friday, August 29, 2008

At the onset of Labor Day weekend, it was most encouraging to see Capitals’ right wing Chris Clark in his training clothes, fresh from rigorous labor out on the Caps’ Kettler ice sheet earlier today.

Word broke about two weeks ago that the team captain had made a significant recovery from the debilitating groin injury that all but shelved his 2007-08 season. Today, I wanted a progress report from him with an eye toward his fitness after a couple of weeks of daily skating at Kettler and with an eye toward the start of training camp in three weeks.

“I have to ask you the obligatory question — you are X percent recovered today, and you believe you’ll be X percent recovered come the start of camp?” I asked.

“One hundred and one hundred,” Clark replied, with a broad smile.

Credit for Clark’s full recovery goes to Vancouver physiotherapist Rick Celebrini, who also supervised ex-Cap Brian Sutherby and his struggles with a nagging groin injury a couple of years ago. Clark will return to Vancouver this weekend, flying out Sunday and spending a couple of days with Celebrini for a final “peace of mind” checkup. But it’s already ’all systems go’ for the former 30-goaler — he has no restrictions in his August training at Kettler.

I asked Clark if he’d wished he’d gone to see Celebrini back in November, just as his injury hit, with the hopes that the celebrated specialist’s treatment might have taken hold and allowed him to return last season, most particularly for the playoff series with the Flyers.

“I thought about that, but the injury wasn’t serious, it was just slow to heal,” he said. In other words, there just wasn’t any urgency to pursue specialized treatment during the first half of the season. Clark’s injury just didn’t mend as such setbacks usually do, and the arrival of the offseason, joined by the prolonged lack of healing, dictated his traveling across the country to see the renowned physiotherapist.

This week also brought news about foreign language and pro sports — the LPGA Tour this week announced that proficiency with English would be mandatory beginning in 2009. It’s an issue that affects the NHL; in the New York Times’ account of the new ladies’ tour policy, it noted that a handful of NHL clubs had a similar requirement in their rooms. I wanted the Caps’ captain’s vantage in the matter – specifically, is English proficiency an issue in the Caps’ room? Has he as captain initiated and promulgated such a policy?

Turns out, even with a handful of English-speaking-challenged players on the Caps’ roster, there are no communications issues. Everyone on the team, Clark noted, recognizes that for the purpose of communications unity, of getting on the same page, the team has to communicate in English.

“I played in Europe, and I gravitated to guys [who spoke English],” Clark told me. “That’s always going to be the case.”

An issue could arise, Clark conceded, if the number of non-English-speaking players reached something akin to a critical mass, but the Caps now don’t have anything close to that challenge, so there is no explicit language policy, dicated by the captain or team management. Even with Alexander Semin, he noted, “he understands English well . . . once in a while, if there’s some confusion, Sergei [Fedorov] or Alex [Ovechkin] will explain something to him.”

Filed in Brian Sutherby, Chris Clark, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Other Sports, Sergei Fedorov, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (3)

An End of Summer Letter to Comcast SportsNet

By pucksandbooks
Thursday, August 28, 2008

My Friends at Comcast SportsNet:

On behalf of the entire OFB team, I want to express appreciation for your enthusiastic support of OFB and Washington’s hockey blogs, and convey my team’s anticipation for your coverage of the Caps in 2008-09. It’s our view that on a number of fronts SportsNet markedly upgraded the breadth and caliber of broadcast coverage of the Caps and hockey for the region last season, and we anticipate bigger and better things from you this season, during what may well be the most anticipated Caps’ season in team history.

Today, however, I’d like to share my concern with the thorough dropoff in hockey coverage on Comcast this summer. Please regard my reflections as aiming at strengthening an already strong broadcast product; Comcast SportsNet is home to knowledgeable and devoted hockey experts, and the outlet’s in-season coverage of the Caps is something the area’s hockey fans ought to take pride in. Your Caps’ page is terrific looking and deserves more credit for the quality of its content as well.

Around the time that SportsNet signed off from the NHL Entry Draft in Ottawa in June it more or less seemed to sign off on covering hockey for the summer, save for a brief blip (Day 1) from Capitals’ Development Camp in mid-July. Of course it’s not that there’s a frenzy of activity in hockey in July and August generally (the region’s hockey blogs slow considerably then as well); I guess my hope was to see, amid the predictable and necessary local media Redskin frenzy, very brief, very modest remembrances of last hockey season wedded with high-octane marketing messages for the new one. A few mere broadcast morsels might have gone a long way to carrying over the feel-good vibe for hockey that SportsNet so successfully cultivated last spring.

Specifically, I wonder if something more might not have been achieved with the novelty of Anton Gustafsson’s selection by the Caps at the June Entry Draft. We in Washington following the draft on TV caught one or two engaging interviews with father and son in Ottawa, but nothing substantive followed. The Gustafsson family charm — to make no mention of the novelty of the moment — seemed to beg for more broadcast product.

The younger Gustafsson’s selection really is an amazing moment in Capitals’ hisory, when you think about it. His father Bengt of course ranks among the most accomplished players in team history. He’s also one of the most accomplished coaches in international hockey, having won gold at both the Olympics and World Championships — in the same year (2006)! In June he watched his son become a first-round NHL draft pick — picked by the same club with which he fashioned a distinguished NHL career.

This very special hockey family easily could have been the subject of a special, in-depth Comcast feature. I’m imagining something like a 30-minute program — much like the one you guys produced for the Capitals’ 2006 Entry Draft — Capitals Under Construction. This time, however, the feature’s focus could have been on one draft pick and his family’s distinctive link to Washington’s hockey team.

How remarkable such a feature could have been had it melded footage of father dangling and dazzling in his classic old Caps’ sweater in the NHL’s ’80s brand of firewagon hockey with contemporary footage of son Anton just emerging as a world-class talent in Sweden’s professional ranks. The feature might also have offered the reflections of one or two or three long-time NHL scouts (European ones, perhaps) offering their comparative assessments of the games of father and son. It might not have been a bad idea, either, to solicit the views of long-standing Caps’ season ticket holders, who could have shared their reflections on father while also expressing their eagerness to see the son in action in a Caps’ sweater.

Now imagine if you’d produced such a program and aired it the night before the start of training camp next month, immediately followed by a broadcast of father Gustafsson’s 5-goal game (on five shots!) against the Flyers in 1984. What a welcome to Washington to the Gustafsson family that would have been. The feature program could have aired at least a handful of times during hockey’s quiet months of July and August, and served as a novel bit of nourishment for the region’s hungry hockey fans.

You may realize that beginning this summer many of those fans began tuning in to the NHL Network, now offered on select cable systems about the region, to satisfy their puck-lust. I think it should be Comcast’s aim to retain them all 12 months on the calendar.

Another idea for a fan-friendly feature in summer might have been to sit down with Head Coach Bruce Boudreau not long after his Jack Adams win and explore in depth — again in feature-length fashion — his extraordinary run in Washington last season. You already know how accomplished a story-teller he is; so why not roll the cameras and allow him, removed from the soundbite setting of the in-season arena, to tell his insider’s tale? My prediction is that the editing on your end would have been distinctly minimal. Washington this summer is home to the greatest coach in hockey — but who visiting our city this summer would have learned that while here?

Washington this summer is also home to the greatest player in all of hockey. Beyond Comcast’s producing something substantive such as a feature-length profiles, I also wonder at the absence this summer of quick-hitting broadcast blurbs related to Alexander Ovechkin’s remarkable rise to the very top of his sport. When he had all that hardware surrounding him in his stylish tuxedo up in Toronto in June, you guys asked us for some photos we published of it. Those stills in some fashion should have been aired on Comcast every day this summer, just for mere seconds, so that the tens of thousands of tourists in our town could have been reminded that they were visiting a city home to hockey royalty.

Filed in Anton Gustafsson, Bengt Gustafsson, Bruce Boudreau, Comcast SportsNet, Entry Draft, Hockey Towns, Media, Morning cup-a-joe, National Hockey League, TV, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (9)

Nurturing the Fashion Passion of HockeyWashington

By pucksandbooks
Monday, August 25, 2008

What does Rock the Red mean to you today, well away from its inauguration and deployment during the 2007-08 season? What does it mean to the Capitals now? How should it be cultivated, nurtured, and deployed in 2008-09?

Also: was it hooey and hokie or a heartfelt rallying cry for you? Do you want to see more of it in the new season? Should Verizon Center be Redded Out for Cristobal Huet’s return with the ‘Hawks on Opening Night?

Let me submit that what we sat among and saw on television in the stands last spring was special. It was an uprising. Of passion-fashion. It was a community powerfully connecting with its hockey team.

(It actually forced old media print columnists to come and cover hockey.)

Let me also submit that it wasn’t fad or fleeting in its heartbeat — that it’s an indigenous state of the contemporary hockey mind here. Team officials in Philadelphia tried to replicate what was originated here in their rink, but they had to distribute thousands of orange t-shirts in their rip-off act, and in the end, it came off as copycat, forced, and generic.

There will be more genuine Caps’ fans in Verizon Center this coming season than perhaps in any season preceding, as thousands of Washingtonians have purchased season tickets this summer. The opportunity will be red-ripe to Red Out the building whenever the team wants to.

Personally, I have one deeply ingrained reason for wanting to see the scheme continue — but with great care: the sight of an orange-and-black-less Washington rink for games against Philthy — playoff games at that! — remains something of a dream theater to me.

In real time last spring there was a searing sense that the Caps had, with the look, connected with their much-maligned fanbase in durable fashion. Metro trains never looked so gorgeous. Folks painted their faces and dyed their hair. Some wore red socks. Men in red dresses never looked so . . . mainstream.

That Alexander Ovechkin would lead our hockey team to great feats like the against-all-odds Southeast Division title last season was, and is, from my vantage, merely predictable byproduct for his other-wordly game. But that he could engineer, in Pied Piper red-fashion, the obliteration of the enemy’s colors and pawns from our building, precisely when they most wanted to be there, that’s special. I’m not sure I thought I’d ever see that happen.

Of course, in identifying Ovechkin as architect and engineer of our awesome new atmosphere I’m conflating his on-ice heroics with the clever atmosphere actions of the team’s marketing pros. And AO alone among Caps’ players shouldn’t be exclusively credited for 07-08’s home rink euphoria. But he is, for lack of a better description, our banner boy — certainly the face of the franchise. He is the Pied Piper of Pucks in this town.

It’s amusing to think that perhaps AO foreshadowed the Caps’ special spring scene at home back in July 2007, when the first installments of the team’s new colors and look made their way to Russia.

Those who participated in the Red Outs, as well as those Caps’ fans watching on television at home, likely are of one mind when it comes to rolling out the Red again: it ought not to be a commonplace occurrence, it ought never to be trite and trifling. It ought to be summoned only for truly special occasions. It’s like a team’s special occasion jerseys or sweaters, in a sense — you always want them to remain special.

Good news on that front. Tim McDermott, the Caps’ Senior VP, Chief Marketing Officer, this morning told me, “Red will be our brand campaign/theme again this year . . . we will select a few high profile games for a Rock the Red/Red Out theme.”

And note that the Red Rally Cry still has to be tested against Pennsylvania’s other team. Hmm . . . should we Red-Out all games against the two Keystone Staters? And by extension, should we avoid the fashion-passion statement against all Southeast division foes, further damning an already depressing division alliance? Or, the Caps and HockeyWashington might opt to Red Out the Phone Booth on November 10, against Tampa, and welcome back Barry Melrose to the NHL in spirited fashion.

And welcome back a certain netminder, too.

Going forward, should the team, on its website, make the selection of Red Out nights an interactive force, and poll the impassioned on their fashion in advance of select regular season games? Should season ticket holders have a special say? For certain there should be specially priced Killian’s Red at the concession stands.

There was a marvelous viral quality to the rollout of the Red last spring. It was a beautiful infection, anything but unhealthy. Long may it afflict us.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Cristobal Huet, Morning cup-a-joe, Olaf Kolzig, Puck Sodas, Verizon Center, Washington Capitals, Washington the Hockey Town| Permalink| Comments (15)

Digital Ovechkin’s Still Got the Moves

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Friday, August 15, 2008

In the interest of equal time to EA Sports and 2K Sports, here’s a clip from the upcoming NHL 09 that features the Washington Capitals’ Alexander Ovechkin, Mike Green, and even John Erskine. And yes, you see Cristobal Huet in there as well:

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Cristobal Huet, John Erskine, Mike Green| Permalink| Comments (2)

Another Ref in NCAA Division I Hockey

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Monday, August 11, 2008

The Frozen Four in Washington, D.C., will feature two days of thrilling competition . . . as well as two referees on the ice.

While the NCAA’s decision is hardly breaking news — it was announced in June that they would implement the system for all games this season — it is interesting to see former assistant coach for the Washington Capitals and current Providence College head coach Tim Army firmly in favor of adding a referee. After all, Army was with the Capitals in 1998 when the two-referee system debuted in the NHL so he’s had ample experience with it. Per the Friartown Free Press:

“This system will allow for a stricter enforcement of the rules, thus enhancing the overall speed of our game,” [Army] said this week. “The emphasis on speed will create more open lanes that can be exploited with quick puck movement. Speed and possession will produce better transitional and cycling play which will increase offensive activity in the scoring areas resulting in greater goal production.”

Army clearly feels that, after working out some initial kinks (e.g., a significant spike in penalties called), the two-referee system has helped the game more than it has hindered play.

The extra body on the ice does create more traffic . . . something that switching to an international-sized rink would remedy, of course, but that change will likely never happen due to the expense of changing arenas and the lost revenue from having fewer 100-level seats. Yet if the referee pair works well together and calls games consistently (granted, a big “if”), away-from-the-puck infractions are more often caught due to the extra man with the orange armband.

Regardless, the additional ref has certainly doubled the opportunity for clever referee taunts.

Filed in College Hockey, Former Coaches & Players, Frozen Four, National Hockey League, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (0)

More Draft Analysis, and a Killer Is on the Loose Down South

By pucksandbooks
Monday, August 4, 2008

The July issue of Center Ice Magazine, which covers amateur and pro hockey in the Southern U.S., offers some additional assessments from veteran scouts of the Caps’ two first-round picks this year.

“[Gustafsson], 18, was the fifth-rated European skater in the draft, according to NHL Central Scouting, and has spent two seasons with the Frolunda junior team in Sweden. He recorded 15 goals and 17 assists (32 points) in 33 games of an injury-shortened season in 2007-08. “Anton is a highly skilled player with strong puckhandling skills and playmaking ability,” NHL director of European scouting Goran Stubb said. “He is an effective passer through traffic who also has a good selection of shots. He’s a tall, strong and talented two-way center with good vision and a fine understanding of the game. He plays a mature game even when playing against opponents who were two or three years older.”

Carlson is a 6-foot-2, 212-pound 18-year-old who was born in Natick, Mass., and resides in Colonia, N.J. A rookie in the United States Hockey League (USHL) with the Indiana Ice in 2007-08, Carlson finished second among league defensemen in scoring with 43 points (12 goals, 31 assists) in 59 games. He played in the 2008 USHL All-Star Game and was an assistant captain on the U.S. team at the 2007 Under-18 Memorial of Ivan Hlinka Tournament. Carlson was the 17th-ranked North American skater by NHL Central Scouting.

“John Carlson is a big, burly defensemen. He is a real good skater and a strong skater,” said Jack Barzee of NHL Central Scouting. “He runs the power-play from the top of the umbrella and he has a very heavy shot. He’s a very self-assured kid and rightfully so — he’s a boy, yet in a man’s body and very physically strong . . . I knew when I first saw him that he was a first-round pick. He was a guy I had seen before as an under-ager. He had all the tools — size, skill, physical presence and charisma.”

The Capitals acquired the 21st selection, used to take Gustafsson, from New Jersey in exchange for the Capitals’ first-round pick in 2008 (23rd overall) and second-round pick in 2008 (54th overall). Washington acquired the 27th selection, used to take Carlson, from Philadelphia in exchange for defenseman Steve Eminger and the Capitals’ third-round pick in 2008 (84th overall). Washington has now made 15 first-round picks in the last seven years, four more than any other NHL team.”

The issue also details the demise of the Youngstown Steelhounds — coached the past two seasons by ex-Cap Kevin Kaminski. Earlier this summer the Central League issued a press release which stated that the Steelhounds “are no longer participating in the league.” The team and the CHL have been in a legal dispute over assessments and fees and other financial issues, according to the magazine. Another reason the league may not have been viewing Youngstown as a long-term venture: the ‘Hounds were the eastern-most CHL franchise, and more than 750 miles away from their closest competitor. Kaminski, however, has latched on elsewhere, taking over behind the bench of the Mississippi RiverKings.

At his introductory press conference before Mississippi’s hockey media last month, Killer said, “We’re going to be a team that’ll battle for every inch of ice for sixty minutes. With today’s rules and style of play, you need skilled players to compete. But, we will also provide an exciting, hard-nosed brand of hockey with a team that our fans will enjoy watching.”

Filed in Anton Gustafsson, Central Hockey League, Internet, John Carlson, Kevin Kaminski, Media, Print, Prospects, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (4)

From Thrifty to Opulent in Three Seasons

By The OFB Team
Monday, July 28, 2008

Here’s how cheap owner Ted Leonsis is right now: He’s got a $60 million hockey team here in town. The salary cap for next season has been set at $56 million, but there’s no penalty for being over the cap by 10 percent in the summer so long as a team is under it a week before the start of the season. The Caps most definitely are over the cap right now.

At least they are saving money in net; after the Caps acquired Cristobal Huet from Montreal this past February they had nearly $10 million worth of backstoppers on the payroll — it’ll be a little over $5 million this season.

Nine defensemen are on the books right now, but Brian Pothier’s $2.5 million is almost certain to come off, and General Manager George McPhee this summer has indicated that he won’t carry more than seven defenders. So two salaries are being lopped off from the blueline. And if Bruce Boudreau opts to keep 13 forwards out of camp, another salary would be sheared off from among the forward ranks.

The Caps bought ought Ben Clymer this summer, but that means they take a modest salary hit for him this season and next.

In the weeks ahead, McPhee must decide between two courses of action in plotting to get under the cap: (1) shear off enough to just get to $56 million, or (2) move bodies, or salaries, enough to afford himself some maneuverability during the season to address injuries that may arrive. Really the only way to achieve the second strategy is to move a large salary.

Forwards
Alexander Ovechkin 9,538,462
Michael Nylander 4,875,000
Alexander Semin 4,600,000
Sergei Fedorov 4,000,000
Chris Clark 2,633,333
Viktor Kozlov 2,500,000
Nicklas Backstrom 2,400,000
Brooks Laich 2,066,667
Donald Brashear 1,200,000
Matt Bradley 1,000,000
Eric Fehr 735,000
Boyd Gordon 725,000
Tomas Fleischmann 725,000
David Steckel 512,500
Ben Clymer 250,000
Total 37,760,962
Defensemen
Mike Green 5,250,000
Tom Poti 3,500,000
Brian Pothier 2,500,000
Shaone Morrisonn 1,975,000
Karl Alzner 1,675,000
Milan Jurcina 881,250
Jeff Shultz 750,000