Er hatte viele neue Verträge, zum zu vermitteln, und er hatte unerwartete Ausbruchjahreszeiten von den Gleichen des Mike Grüns und der Bäche Laich, das herauf seine Lohn- und Gehaltsliste fährt. He also may not have anticipated Sergei Fedorov making the impact he did in just a couple of months’ time, making a new deal for him a wise idea. Lastly, he endured player agent mischief from Cristobal Huet’s representative. When all was said and done, he managed to ink every player he wanted from last season, save Huet, and do so before August 1. How many GMs can make that claim?

Filed in Brooks Laich, Cristobal Huet, Front Office, George McPhee, Mike Vogel, Players, Sergei Fedorov, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (15)

All Aboard! Capitals Sign Shaone Morrisonn

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Saturday, July 26, 2008

The Washington Capitals’ final outstanding contract situation is resolved: Shaone Morrisonn was awarded a 1-year contract via arbitration according to the Capitals’ press release. The Caps’ 10 leading scorers from the 2007-08 regular season are now under contract for the upcoming season.

Morrisonn, 25, played his third full season with the Capitals in 2007-08, recording 10 points (one goal, nine assists) and 63 penalty minutes in 76 games. He had a +4 plus/minus rating, including a +14 mark in the 55 games under head coach Bruce Boudreau. Morrisonn finished fourth on the team with an average of 20:16 of ice time per game. Morrisonn played in all seven Capitals playoff games, despite suffering a broken jaw, and recorded one assist.

The contract, worth $1.975 million per Katie Carrera at Capitals Insider, shores up the Caps’ top defensive pairing. With Morrisonn back patrolling the Capitals’ blue line, one hopes that the chemistry between Morrisonn and Mike Green leads to even better things for the pair this season.

Filed in George McPhee, Shaone Morrisonn, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (8)

NHL.com Prospect Spotlight: The League Likes the Look of Caps’ Q Leaguers

By The OFB Team
Tuesday, July 15, 2008

The promise of the Caps’ prized prospects from the Quebec League, Mathieu Perreault and Francois Bouchard, has caught the attention of the NHL’s web site. Tuesday’s superb feature includes some eye-opening assessments from Caps’ GM George McPhee. On Perreault’s size:

“While the knock on the 5-foot-8, 151-pound Perreault is his small frame, Washington General Manager George McPhee has looked beyond that in making his evaluation.

“He’s not a big kid, but he’s a very bright player and we’ve always said that if you’re good enough, you’re big enough,” McPhee told NHL.com.

We’ve been big supporters of Perreault’s since we laid first laid eyes on him at his first Development Camp, but in this piece he flexes a bit of moxie in responding to critics who see only his size: “I feel I’ve already proven I’m better than a sixth round player,” he told NHL.com. He is also inspired by another undersized Q graduate — Daniel Briere.

“(Briere) is a smaller player like me, but he’s not scared of anything and very smart on the ice,” Perreault told NHL.com. “He’s the type of player I want to become. Ever since I started playing hockey, my size has really been a motivating factor and the fact (McPhee) would say something like that means a lot. Really, though, my size is never something I think about on the ice. I just go out there and play my game as if I were a bigger hockey player. I won’t change a thing and if (McPhee) thinks I’m doing well, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing.”

Is there quality character stacking up high in this organization or what? In noting that Bouchard was among the final cuts made at 2007’s training camp NHL.com demonstrated that it had done its research on the Caps’ other Quebec prospect. This is the type of reporting that’s all too infrequent in mainstream hockey media.

Filed in Development Camp, Francois Bouchard, George McPhee, Internet, Mathieu Perreault, Media, National Hockey League, Prospects, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (0)

It’s Official - Sergei Signed

By The OFB Team
Monday, July 14, 2008

Last week General Manager George McPhee confirmed that Sergei Fedorov agreed to a 1-year contract with the Capitals.  There was no official announcement as there was some paperwork left to finalize as well as a signature.

Everything is now official as the Capitals have announced the signing.  Per club policy, terms were not announced, but others have reported the deal as one year, $4 million.  From the press release:

“We are happy to have Sergei back,” said vice president and general manager George McPhee. “What he brings to the club extends beyond the rink. He is a leader and a player that everyone on our team wanted back. We look forward to him helping us compete this upcoming season.”

Filed in George McPhee, Sergei Fedorov, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (1)

“Washington Got an Elite Goaltender”

By The OFB Team
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

The Russian reaction to Capitals’ goaltender moves from Sovetsky Sport, including Alex Ovechkin’s take on things (translation courtesy of Dmitry Chesnokov):

The Caps management did everything right. The club saved about $1 million. The club also got an experienced goaltender. And now they will start to develop Varlamov and bring him closer to the first team, even though he will most likely start the season in the AHL. Considering the fact that Theodore’s contract is only for two years, the plan is to have Varlamov as the number 1 starter by the start of the 2010-2011 season.

Alex Ovechkin thinks this is the case. He confirmed his opinion in a conversation he had with Pavel Lysenkov:

“I think there is a possibility for Varlamov to debut in the NHL this season. At least Semion will compete for the number 2 role with Brent Johnson.”

What do you think about Theodore’s arrival in Washington?

“We needed a good goaltender because we were losing Huet. And our management made a thought-out move. I have only played once against Theodore in my career. It was last season; we played Colorado at home and won 2:1. Although, I didn’t score.

It is a shame that Huet didn’t stay [with Washington]. He was a great goaltender. But our future now lies with Theodore, and I am sure he won’t let us down.”

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Chicago Blackhawks, Colorado Avalanche, Cristobal Huet, George McPhee, Michal Neuvirth, Simeon Varlamov, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (3)

Washington’s New View in Net, Take 2

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

As Pucksandbooks pointed out in his recent post, his assessment of the Capitals’ goaltender situation was his own. Now I don’t dispute Pucks’ facts, nor are his conclusions irrational — but from my perspective they seem a bit dire and premature mere hours after the signing. So, as a counterpoint, here’s my take on the situation which, while hardly sunny, is a more optimistic outlook.

Let’s start with the bad: There’s no doubt that a combination of bad planning and bad luck has left the organization with a goaltender dilemma — one that has been hanging over the team, Sword of Damocles-like, for years now. Olie Kolzig’s career naturally progressed from stellar to solid to adequate as he aged; a successor needed to be a top team priority before Kolzig’s ability to carry a starter’s workload was in doubt. As Pucks pointed out, the organization made such an attempt by bringing in Maxime Oulett from Philly; sadly, Maximus turned out to be more of a minimus.

Varlamov and Neuvirth are top prospects and progressing quickly; it is certainly feasible to see one if not both in Caps’ uniforms come 2010-11. Yet, really, a top-tier netminder was needed five years ago to avoid the team’s recent stop-gap measures. Easier said than done, to be sure . . . building and maintaining a team is tough. But if it were an easy job then it wouldn’t pay well, and GMGM couldn’t afford all those snazzy suits.

While the team’s need for a “bridge” goaltender, and its difficulty in addressing that need earlier, led to their shaky netminder situation this offseason, the team could do little to change the past on July 1, 2008.

So let me say this: the organization made the right call with Huet. The information slowly revealing itself indicates that, while the Capitals tried to lowball Huet initially, they were more than flexible in eventually giving him exactly what he asked for . . . only to have Huet reject the contract like James T. Kirk scoffed at alien STDs.

Once Huet made the business decision to squeeze a bit extra from another team, the Caps immediately snagged the best guy still available: Jose Theodore. General consensus saw Huet and Theodore as the two best ‘tenders in this year’s admittedly goalie-light free agent pool. Some would say they were equal; some feel Huet was #1 and Theodore #2 or #1A.

Regardless, once Huet made it clear that he wanted more money and a four-year deal, the Caps acted quickly to get the remaining free agent with the best potential as a starting netminder.

Huet returning for 3 years at a reasonable price would have likely been the best outcome for the Caps. But Theodore is no slouch; their styles are different, yet in many ways Huet and Theodore have similar pasts, similar potential, and similar stats. Remember, too, that expectations for Huet would have been intense based on his 20 games in a Capitals sweater . . . a mercenary like Huet may be one of those archetypal contract-year wonders who slip back to normalcy once they get their big deal. Tying up $22 million for four years of average play is not what the Capitals need — particularly not with a pricey Alexander Semin contract just a year or two away.

Has the loss of Huet impacted the Capitals’ chances of a deep post-season run in the next two or three years? Perhaps a bit — but mostly due to the team adjusting to their third starting goalie in less than a year, and the impact that may have on defensive strategies and cohesiveness, than a significant drop-off in goaltender skill.

Change is scary; changing a goaltender doubly so. But with a well rounded roster, stars like Ovechkin and Green, and top-notch coaches and staff (notably in Theodore’s case, superstar goalie coach Dave Prior), the 2008-09 Capitals hardly project to be bottom-feeders.

Let’s see Theodore don his new Capitals’ sweater and get a few games under his belt before deeming his signing a failure or a success.

Filed in Colorado Avalanche, Cristobal Huet, George McPhee, Montreal Canadiens, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (20)

Goalie Shopping 2008: Skydiving with a Suspect Parachute

By pucksandbooks
Wednesday, July 2, 2008

Well, I suppose it’s worse to be in Cleveland, where their star hoopster apparently is making love-eyes at the Big Apple. We know for sure where Alex Ovechkin will be in 2012. And 2018. Then again, one more goalie to play in front of like Jose Theodore, and the Gr8 may rethink the merits of that new pro hockey league in Russia. Could you blame him? When you’re a hockey town in training and you’re looking down on Cleveland, things ain’t so swell.

It’s almost criminally cruel to have seen vanquished what we did yesterday in mere hours’ time. Namely: the Capitals’ Stanley Cup aspirations for the next two years. Or perhaps — and here I’ll channel my inner Puck Daddy — you think a journeyman netminder is somehow guiding the Caps to glory between now and 2010? Please, pass me a little of the crystal meth you’re consuming. Or perhaps you believe Capitals’ GM George McPhee, who’d have you believe there’s precious little difference between Cristobal Huet and Jose Theodore, despite the fact that the Caps offered their new no. 1 netminder — in the 31-year-old prime of his career — the lavish term of two years. And if not sub.-no.1 money, mediocre no. 1 dough. That term is code for: Simeon, get your game on, fast, in Hershey.

The point isn’t that Theodore and Huet are about the same age and have won the same number of Stanley Cups (zero). Or that their respective numbers aren’t all that different. It’s that Theodore has been in the league a lot longer, has been booted out of cities for his play, has broken a lot of hearts, and requires an oppressive trap to try and hide his inconsistency. Which the Caps won’t be playing.

It’s that one has been an All Star lately. It’s that one would have made a real run at the Vezina had he arrived in D.C. earlier this past season. Huet got UFA-to-be dealt out of town by the Eastern conference’s no.1 team, donned a strange sweater and played behind stranger defenders in a crisis-every-night environment, for a rookie coach recently promoted from the ‘A,’ and . . . dominated the league.

Forgive me for wanting to sign up for a few more years of that. And while the Caps made a spirited attempt to do it, the cold hard reality is that there was no safety net for failure. More on that in a moment.

In Gabby’s get-up-and-go system, netminders get tested all right. It’s wise to have a talented and consistent netminder facing the necessary barrage when it arrives. Of Theodore, it can be said that he possesses talent.

Theodore’s claim to fame was winning the Vezina and the Hart in the same season, a while ago, in 2001-02. The next season his goals-against average ballooned up by almost a goal a game. Almost a goal a game. He was allowed to wear pads that season. Then in 2003-04 his goals-against plunged back down into elite status. Then, post lockout, it skyrocketed back up — well over a goal-a-game up, this time — to the point where a second Montreal Riot was fomenting before he was shipped out. The sigh-inducing numbers litany can be found here.

Let’s put it this way: news of the signing was about 45 minutes old yesterday when an MSM reporter who shall not be named emailed me and said, “We’ll take in an Ovechkin 5-goal game next season — in a 6-5 loss.”

I have a rule for playing the Because-he’s-now-wearing-our-sweater-unprecedented-consistency-and-elite-performance-will-miraculously-emerge game: with your wager go instead with the 10 years’ performance pattern you know, hedging on its hard lessons.

It is positively true that Cristobal Huet treated the Capitals’ organization shabbily during the prelude to and opening of summer free agency. It is also likely that the Capitals were in no position to match or beat the term and largesse Huet agreed to in Chicago. Be all that as it may, it’s nonetheless hard to deny the profound sense of something great and magical irrevocably being lost in yesterday’s stunning reversal of city-enveloping puck fortune — really the first such in the Bruce Boudreau Era.

It’s also hard to avoid recognizing this increasingly disturbing trendline: the planet’s greatest hockey talent really has yet to be accorded a netminding talent, in durable fashion, commensurate with his status. Gretzky had Fuhr. The Flower had Dryden. Lemieux had Barrasso. Bourque at the end had Roy. Ovie gets a geezing Olie, a smattering of backup BJ, a cup of coffee with Huet, and now JT the Propecia spokesman in pads. The hope inside the organization is that perhaps in two years’ time — after Ovie’s labored some five NHL seasons — one of Michael Neuvirth or Simeon Varlamov is ready.

Yesterday was the culmination of years of failure by the Capitals’ organization to adequately address an heir for an aging Kolzig. You cannot blame management for not trying — they obtained, for aging Adam Oates, what they reasonably thought would be a worthy successor (first-round prospect Maxime Ouellet). By 2006 and Ouellet’s clear failure, they went into desperation mode, selecting two goalies among the first 34 players drafted in 2006. It appears as if those were strong selections. It also appears as if they occurred about four or five years too late. The rebuild, in front of the net, is over.

Late yesterday afternoon George McPhee attempted to equate the replacement of Huet with Theodore akin to that of Dainius Zubrus with Viktor Kozlov. But second- and third-line wingers are absolutely replaceable, every summer, every week of the calendar year. No. 1 netminders, not so much. Get it wrong in goal and every other move you make is academic.

Something truly magical happened to the Capitals late this past February when Cristobal Huet arrived here. In their negotiations with him, the Capitals clearly believed that. But in those they weren’t ready for business failure.

At least, not Rock the Red ready.

Get ready for firewagon — and abbreviated postseason — hockey.

Filed in Cristobal Huet, Front Office, George McPhee, Michal Neuvirth, Morning cup-a-joe, Prospects, Simeon Varlamov, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (48)

A Day of Dastardly Dichotomy

By The OFB Team
Tuesday, July 1, 2008

On this the opening day of ‘08-09 NHL free agency Washington Capitals’ fans confronted the opposing twins of personnel movement outcome: morning elation with Mike Green’s signing and afternoon agony in the club’s failure to come to terms with season-salvaging, starting netminder Cristobal Huet. The Capitals this afternoon, having reached an impasse with Huet and his agent, signed Colorado’s Jose Theodore to a two-year deal.

An absolute bulwark of the Caps’ stunning late-season surge to a Southeast division crown, Huet’s heroics won’t be returning, the fallout of which is this sobering question: have the Caps’ Cup contention plans necessarily taken a step back? It’s a demoralizing outcome, most particularly in light of widespread reports, from reliable organization sources, that Huet’s return was largely a fait accompli.

It would be difficult to imagine a netminder better auditioning for the role of go-to guy, of in-his-prime, no. 1 stud, than Huet’s with the Caps this past spring. He went 11-2 in his 13 regular season starts with the Caps, posting two shutouts, a stunning .936 save percentage, and a microscopic 1.63 goals against. Those numbers weren’t as impressive in the playoffs against Philadelphia, but after the Caps fell behind three games to one in the series, Huet was rock solid and at times spectacular in net in nearly leading the Caps to a dramatic series comeback.

As for Theodore, this from the Caps’ press release:

Theodore, who will turn 32 on Sept. 13, won the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s most valuable player in 2001-02. The 5’11”, 182-pound native of Laval, Quebec, is a 12-year professional who spent the last two seasons with the Colorado Avalanche. He was 28-21-3 with three shutouts, a 2.44 goals-against average and a .910 save percentage in 2007-08, including a 21-13-2 record, a 2.24 GAA and a .919 save percentage in his last 37 starts.

2007-08 was indeed a rebound year for Theodore, but that’s also cause for concern for Caps’ fans. His has not been a career of model consistency, to put it charitably (he was run out of Montreal). In his previous two seasons, with Montreal and Colorado, Theodore put up sub-.900 save percentages and above 3.00 goals-against numbers. Perhaps more troubling is this: Avalanche Head Coach Joel Quenneville collapsed a trap around him this past season, almost certainly boosting his numbers.  

Disappointment over Huet’s departure should not necessarily draw savage criticism of General Manager George McPhee, who was poised today with a viable Plan B. According to the Washington Post’s Tarik El Bashir, the Caps met Huet’s demands of three years and $5 million per only to learn of his wish to test the proverbial waters, apparently with the Chicago Blackhawks. 

Tonight a stunned HockeyWashington, still in mid-summer swoon over so spectacular a 2007-08 season, has seen the sport’s best momentum here in 30-plus years come to a screeching halt.     

Today in D.C. there’s palpable disappointment surrounding the personnel outcome for the most important position on the ice. A beautiful bride has run off; left behind is her ok-looking bridesmaid.

Filed in Colorado Avalanche, Cristobal Huet, Free Agents, George McPhee, Montreal Canadiens, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (42)

Green Gets Greener

By The OFB Team
Tuesday, July 1, 2008

On Canada Day, the Caps announced the signing of a very important Canuck: Mike Green, for 4 years.

From the press release:

The Washington Capitals have signed defenseman Mike Green to a four-year contract, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today. In keeping with club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Mike has developed into an impact defenseman in the short time since we drafted him, and he will be a key part of our team moving forward,” McPhee said. “We look forward to his further contributions as we continue to improve the hockey club.”

Filed in George McPhee, Mike Green, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (24)

We Could Use a Few Signings, Couldn’t We?

By pucksandbooks
Friday, June 27, 2008

These are salad days for salaries in the NHL. Yesterday came word that the salary cap for 2008-09 would rise to $56.7 million, with a salary floor ($40.7 million) higher than the league’s cap just back three seasons ago, in the first post-lockout regular season.  Stunning. As the salary cap is directly linked to the league’s revenues, which are directly linked to its gate receipts, it’s seems clear that a few folks other than Tiger Woods and Tony Kornheiser are interested in hockey.  

Meanwhile, there remain outstanding — unsigned — some necessarily expensive parts to 2008-09 for the Washington Capitals. The tally: Christobal Huet, Brooks Laich, Shaone Morrisonn, and Mike Green. Boyd Gordon and Eric Fehr need new deals, too, but I don’t imagine those will be that expensive. Right now both Matt Cooke and Sergei Fedorov look like salary cap casualties, luxuries likely unaffordable in ‘08. Since I last wrote about matters financial Capitals’ GM George McPhee has managed to sheer off about $2 million in payroll for next season by dealing Steve Eminger to Philadelphia and buying out Ben Clymer. (Ray Shero’s fruitless negotiations with Marian Hossa this month apparently have sheared off $7-8 million from the Penguins’ payroll for next season.)

However, it’s beginning to look like McPhee will need that $2 million to pay Mike Green just in the autumn portion of the calandar next season.

Ah yes, Mike Green. For the congenitally white-knuckled of Caps’ fans, his breakout season in 2007-08, combined with apparently every name New York Ranger leaving Broadway, portends his departure and the swift end of hockey’s renaissance in Washington. But count me among those who think it far from a certainty that Green’s gonna attract a bevy of offer sheets next Tuesday.

For one thing, as great as his game looks, Green’s had only one big-number season, and the price in first-round draft picks for signing him would be exorbitant (as many as five). Additionally, both the owner and the general manager are on record stating that the club will match whatever offer comes Green’s way. For another, offer sheets for restricted free agents (see Tomas Vanek) are in a very real sense one GM’s performing labor for a colleague. Lastly, Green, though a young and inexperienced great talent just as Dustin Penner was last summer, is a primary building block for a contending Caps’ club. Penner wasn’t last summer, nor is he today, one of the 50 best forwards in the NHL. Penner’s was a stupid contract conceived by a stupid GM. Brian Burke allowed stupidity to reign supreme for a moment, but his Ducks won’t soon be looking up at the Oil in the standings.

In Green the Caps know what they’ve got – an already impressive no. 1 rearguard whom they were awfully lucky to nab with a 29th pick in the ‘04 draft, one who has a great deal of progression and maturity ahead of him. Likely, too, Mike Green also knows what he’s got in D.C., and specifically in Bruce Boudreau’s system: the green light to pile up points for a really big deal around the time he’s in his prime. 

Mike Green will get signed alright. But it won’t come cheap. In fact, Team Green may be pointing to Alexander Semin’s 2009-10 salary ($5 million) and understandably if myopically bargaining that Green’s of greater value to the team than Semin. In an ideal world, Team Green would acknowledge the client’s youth and inexperience and appreciable development still ahead and ask to be made the team’s highest paid defenseman . . . but not like say Anaheim’s best defenseman.

Few however imagine ideal worlds with attorneys and player agents in them.  

Speaking of interesting contracts, remember that “home team discount” deal Sidney Crosby signed? It will pay him $7.5 million in 2013. The thinking here is that Sidney will be a pretty good hockey player in 2013, when he’s still not yet 30 years old. Do you know how many NHLers will be earning more than $7.5 million then? (Mike Green might well be one.) One of them will be Vinny Lecavalier, according to ESPN. Indeed, as early as 2009-10, Crosby may not even be the highest paid Penguin. The intrigue with the Penguins never ends.  

Given the number and prominence of Capitals’ restricted free agents, this wasn’t supposed to be an easy summer of negotiating for GMGM. It was made tougher by the breakout seasons by Laich and Green, as well as Morrisonn’s emergence as a top-pairing performer. And while last weekend was filled with the promise of securing hockey’s future, this one is about placating the present. It’s messy but necessary business.

It’s a time to be anxious but not a time to be pessimistic. 

Filed in Alexander Semin, Boyd Gordon, Brooks Laich, Cristobal Huet, Eric Fehr, Evgeni Malkin, Free Agents, Front Office, George McPhee, Matt Cooke, Mike Green, National Hockey League, Pittsburgh Penguins, Sergei Fedorov, Shaone Morrisonn, Sidney Crosby, Steve Eminger, Ted Leonsis, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (35)

Monday Morning with George McPhee

By The OFB Team
Monday, June 16, 2008

On Monday morning we joined Tarik and Corey and a few other media outlets out at Kettler Capitals Iceplex for a pre-draft gab session with Capitals’ General Manager George McPhee. We put a tough question to him:

“A two-part question for you. The team’s enjoyed terrific success at the draft the last four or five years, particularly relative to say your first years here. How do you account for the remarkable discprepancy in success? Also, do you conduct a lessons learned on drafts with your scouting team after say 5 years’ time — lessons learned in terms of hits and misses?”

He told us, “That’s a very good question. I agree with you that our drafting recently has been a lot better than early on.

“A lot of it has to do with experience. We hired a young staff, and it was going to take them some time to get up and get going. And that’s a lesson you learn as a manager. We had a young staff, and we’ve constantly tried to upgrade our systems and how we do things, and we do review every draft.

“We do it basically three years out. At our January meeting we go through who did we draft three years ago, and I try to take notes after every draft — what we were thinking going in; what happened in each round; what happened before each pick; what did we want to do and what did we do; who said what. And then we pull out all those notes three years later and start talking to our scouts about it in our meeting. And if you do it right it’s really helpful. You learn a lot from it.

“In the early years the scouts were sort of walking on eggshells when we were doing it. But if you do it right and people are comfortable with being accountable you get better. And we have been getting better. We’ve found different ways to process information we’ve been getting for the drafts.”

McPhee also was asked about picking much deeper in rounds beginning this June after choosing from a lottery perch the past couple of drafts. “It’s always hard picking,” he said. “If you’re picking in the top four or five, you better get the right guy — you can’t miss [on] them.”

“You don’t get to pick in the top three or four or five very often — if you are, somebody else is going to be making the picks pretty soon.”

Filed in Blogs, DraftGeek, Entry Draft, Front Office, George McPhee, Internet, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Media, OFB, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (1)

Ain’t No Party Like a ‘Vechkin Party

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)
Sunday, June 15, 2008

Ovechkin practices his mind-reading (Photo: Mike Rucki)
WASHINGTON, D.C.—Alexander Ovechkin is a machine. On the ice and off he constantly gives his all, to the delight of Capitals fans and lovers of hockey everywhere.

Yet even Ovechkin looked a bit tired on Friday night at the party in his honor at chic D.C. restaurant Teatro Goldoni. Given his recent schedule, that’s no surprise. When asked what his favorite part of Thursday night was, he replied, “Finally going to sleep,” and seemed at least half-serious. Still, Ovechkin gamely posed for photos and gave a bevy of interviews — he even dedicated 5 minutes to an impromptu blogger roundtable consisting of me, Greg “Puck Daddy” Wyshynski, and Jon “JP” Press.

Wyshynski mentioned to Ovechkin that one of the 134 voters did not give him a Hart vote despite each voter picking their top 5 candidates, a revelation that seemed to surprise him as much as it surprised us earlier. After some consideration as to who the ‘hater’ might be, Ovechkin jokingly replied, “Um… maybe Tarik?” Tarik got just as good a laugh out of the joke when we relayed it to him later in the evening.

Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis summed up Ovechkin’s attitude perfectly as he addressed the festive crowd early in the evening: “On the way home I asked Alex what he thought about the awards. He said he’d trade them all for one Stanley Cup.”

The best “frozen moment” of the evening was seeing three decades’ worth of great Capitals together. Rod Langway, Peter Bondra, and Alex Ovechkin could arguably be considered the best Caps of the 80s, 90s, and 2000s respectively. Seeing Bondra and Langway celebrating Ovechkin’s quad-fecta of awards warmed my Capitals heart.

Rod Langway, Alex Ovechkin, and Peter Bondra (photo: Mike Rucki)

Phil Pritchard was there as well, the Hockey Hall of Fame Resource Centre Vice President and Curator — better known to hockey fans as the white-gloved caretaker of Lord Stanley’s Cup. Engaging and friendly to all, Pritchard too looked a bit haggard as he watched over the four awards. Yet his passion for hockey’s precious metal was always clear.

These trophies, unlike the Stanley Cup, don’t travel with the winners for the most part. Rather than Ovechkin escorting them to Moscow, for instance, Pritchard had an 8-hour post-party drive to bring the hardware back to the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. The trophies will return to the D.C. area for opening night of the 2008-09 season and likely for a visit to the Capitals’ training facility at Kettler some time during training camp.

I remembered to bring my Ross replica trophy for a photo op with the real thing — these detailed replicas were sold at Canadian McDonald’s locations in 2003; I picked up the Ross in Halifax. Six of the trophies had replicas that year and, according to Pritchard, the plan to make replicas of the remaining trophies the following season was derailed by the lockout.

I shall call it... Mini-Ross

I also have a Stanley Cup replica ready to pose for a similar photo in DC with the real Cup… hopefully soon.

Continue reading ›

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, George McPhee, Mike Vogel, NHL Trophies, Nate Ewell, Peter Bondra, Rod Langway, Spike Parker, Ted Leonsis, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (19)

This Ain’t a Bet on Big Brown

By The OFB Team
Thursday, June 12, 2008

About the worst-kept secret in Washington these days is that Alexander Ovechkin later today will accept the Hart Trophy as the league’s MVP. You know already of leaked t-shirts that speak to the feat. The Capitals earlier this week announced that tomorrow they’ll host a showcasing of NHL trophy hardware and a free skate out at Kettler during mid-day. Now comes word that should AO prevail tonight he’ll appear before D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty tomorrow to receive the key to the city!

What a letdown should Jarome Iginla instead win the Hart!

Ain’t happening.

Here’s how the Caps’ communications pros relayed the word late yesterday:

“In the event that Alex Ovechkin is awarded the National Hockey League’s Hart Trophy naming him the league’s Most Valuable Player on June 12, DC Mayor Adrian M. Fenty will present Ovechkin with a key to the city during a fan celebration.”

The ceremony, should it be suitable to acknowledge, will be in front of the John A. Wilson Building at 1350 Pennsylvania Ave. NW at 4:00. Alex and the mayor would be joined by Ted Leonsis, George McPhee, and the Ballou High marching band.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, George McPhee, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, National Hockey League, Ted Leonsis, Washington the Hockey Town| Permalink| Comments (2)

A Second Act in D.C. for Sergei Fedorov? Let’s Hope So

By pucksandbooks
Friday, May 30, 2008

Likely Sergei Fedorov, in the initial hours and days after arriving in Washington late this past February, thinking ahead then to what was almost certainly his final game as a Capital on April 5, gave some thought to returning home to his native Russia and signing one last lucrative pro contract before hanging them up — or finishing the 2007-08 NHL as a rental Cap and retiring altogether. And who could have blamed him? He’s as decorated a star player as we’ve seen in the last quarter century: a six-time All-Star; a Hart Trophy winner; a Selke Trophy winner; thrice a Stanley Cup champion. What’s left to accomplish here?

Additionally, Sergei’s brother Fedor, a 2001 draft pick of Vancouver, plays in the Russian Super League with Moscow Dynamo, and older brother has spoken publicly of his wish to play with younger brother before retiring. Again, who could blame him?

And yet from his national team and NHL teammate Alexander Ovechkin we learned this week that Fedorov is keenly interested in playing more hockey as a Washington Capital. That’s right, one of the most decorated superstars in hockey of the past quarter century, having accomplished really everything an NHL player could in a career, wants one more run at glory, in the District of Columbia.

The upshot of which is this: Sergei Fedorov believes he has something still to accomplish as an NHLer, as a Cap.

My how hockey times have changed.

Traditionally, the circumstances surrounding a player like Fedorov and the Capitals this summer would have made resigning thoughts ludicrous and impractical. The Capitals, after all, already have a healed up Michael Nylander under contract and star-in-the-making Nicklas Backstrom to center their top two lines. They have, including bonuses, about $8 million in centers for their top two lines next season. Behind them they have exceptionally capable and emerging talent in Brooks Laich; one of the better young defensive forwards in the entire NHL in Boyd Gordon; and in Dave Steckel a top-notch guy on draws and, like Gordon, an exceptional penalty killer. Fedorov is 38, and in terms of raw production about half of what he was with Detroit in 2002-03.

Fedorov’s versatile and all — capable even of playing top-4-pairing defense in this league still — but you don’t resign a near-40 forward in the flickering embers of his career to multi-millions to play a bit part, right?

Right. You resign him partly because 2007-08 taught you the value of having quality depth up front. You resign him because you envision him as more than a veteran catalyst toward a Cup run.

And, you don’t place all your chips on ‘08-09, either. More on that in a moment. But resigning Fedorov, in light of the outstanding contracts already piled high before General Manager George McPhee, means more pressure against the cap and likely the inability to resign one or two contributors from last season.

Fine by me.

The sentiment among virtually the entirety of HockeyWashington early this offseason is thus: get Feds resigned.

Perhaps this consensus is predicated on this perception: the fit between player and team at this moment in time is as perfect as perfect can be in the sport. It’s more than just the veteran hero-Russian mentoring the young Russian studs Ovechkin and Semin. Actually, ethnicity has nothing to do with it. In point of fact, Fedorov’s arrival in the Caps’ room this spring seized the attention of every member in it. They told us as much game after game in March and April. This was a three-time Cup winner standing up and holding court during tough times, night after night, and he had credibility with every Capital teammate. And he made a difference.

Then, as if to put an exclamation point on his stature, he went off to Halifax and Quebec City this month with the Russian national team, centered the top line between his two young Capitals’ countrymen, and helped forge the World Championship’s most potent line. Other NHL GMs certainly took notice of Fedorov’s performance in the NHL postseason and at the Worlds, but there’s one and only one GM who should have had his socks knocked off.

Who thinks that Fedorov’s work in Washington is done after 10 weeks’ time? Who thinks that another year or two of Feds would be anything but beneficial for Alexander Semin especially and the Caps more generally?

Did I suggest a new deal reaching out toward two years as a Cap? Multi-millions potentially at 40? Yep. The retaining of this extraordinary talent ought to be pursued with the notion of his playing a lead role on a Caps’ Cup-contending team, and in all likelihood we’re talking 2009-10 rather than next season for that.

Which makes the courtship of Feds this summer the most intriguing offseason personnel challenge for the Capitals since the summer of 1990, when they lost once-in-a-generation talent Scott Stevens. Sergei Fedorov at this stage of his career still carries a bit of magic in his game, but he also brings a bit of moxie to a room full of kids. More importantly, he sure appears to have melded with them. And at this stage of his career he’s paid Capitals’ management the greatest possible compliment: he wants to stick around what management has assembled.

Lose out on Feds and the Caps have the look of a 3-to-7 seed in the East next season. Bring him into the fold and send a message to the rest of the league: you want nothing to do with our power play, we have depth you crave, and the glory future is now.

Fedorov returned to the Caps could play a role we’ve never quite seen of a player in the twilight of his career: that of utility playmaker, on the first, second, or third lines; first- and or second-unit power play QB; first-unit penalty killer; taker of key draws in the Caps’ end at the end of tight games; and mentor. He likely also would play a role that isn’t defined by placement on ice or slotting in payroll. I don’t even know if there’s a name for it in hockey.

It just sure seems to need to happen.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Boyd Gordon, Brooks Laich, Dave Steckel, Free Agents, Front Office, George McPhee, Hockey Legends, Morning cup-a-joe, Players, Sergei Fedorov, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (27)

Alzner Done with the Hitmen

By Gustafsson
Friday, May 23, 2008

Yesterday, I was able to participate in the conference call with newly signed Karl Alzner and General Manager George McPhee. It was a call short on time, but not on content.

I asked Karl if the team had expressed their expectations of where he might play this fall — Calgary, Hershey, or Washington. He told us that conversation had not taken place. He plans to arrive at camp in the best shape of his life and give it everything he has. We wants to make a good impression and stay with the Caps.

When asked about what part of his game needs work, he replied that it would be his offensive game. He doesn’t think he’s good enough on the offensive blue line. He mentioned Mike Green’s play and how he wants to be more like Mike and less like Karl.

George McPhee spoke for the second half and put one question to rest. Karl will not return to juniors. George said he has nothing left to prove at that level. I asked George if a spot on the Caps is Karl’s to loose or if he has to have an outstanding camp to make the team.

“I don’t know how to characterize it properly other than to say if he comes to camp and if he is good enough to play here and make us a better team, then he will play. If he is a month away or three months away, then he’ll play in Hershey until he is ready to make us better. We’re completely open-minded. This is a good team now and we like where we are going, but we’ll make room for someone who will make us better. We expect that he can make us better.”

George was asked about the health of several Caps. Brian Pothier is still showing symptoms, but improving. They will keep an eye on his condition and come September, “if he can play, he’ll play and if he can’t, he won’t but it will be his decision.” Michael Nylander was cleared to play on the 5th of May and considered playing in the World Championships, but decided to skip the tournament and return healthy next year. Chris Clark has made good progress and expected to be ready to go in time for camp.

A transcript was not available, but Corey Masisak typed up his notes that captured the majority of the call. His notes were much better than mine, but that’s why he’s a pro.

Filed in Chris Clark, George McPhee, Karl Alzner, Michael Nylander, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (1)

The Cost of Becoming Competitive

By pucksandbooks
Friday, May 16, 2008

NHLnumbers.com is an invaluable resource for monitoring the allotments of millions of dollars to NHL players, and judging your team’s standing in relation to the NHL’s salary cap. It also allows you to play armchair GM a bit during the offseason, and fantasy-negotiate with your team’s restricted and unrestricted free agents. The salaries and contract duration for every NHL player — as well as those on two-way deals –are delineated there. The numbers there aren’t iron-clad accurate, but the accounting of them is sourced from multiple, reliable venues, including the NHLPA, and they ought to be I think accorded credibility while also afforded latitude for the at times complex financial arrangements teams have with individual player contracts.

Long before the Caps were crowned Southeast division champions last month team management knew that its player costs for 2008-09 would be appreciably higher. Even with Olie Kolzig’s departure the January contract extension for Alexander Ovechkin and the performance of restricted free-agent-to-be Mike Green assured that. And, obviously, Kolzig must be replaced.

To appreciate, though, just how significant a hike in payroll the team will endure, I calculated only the on-the-books-for-next season contract commitments. Those numbers confirm that the rebuild is over.

Keep in mind that the Caps will have counting against their cap hit a healthy number of players who may not play for them next season. Chris Bourque, for instance, may or may not make the club, but he will earn $525,000 from the team. Ben Clymer almost assuredly will not play for the club, but he will earn $1.1 million next season.

(In 2007, the Caps had a buyout with Nolan Yonkman that counted for $75,000 against the cap. They paid Frederic Cassivi $40,000. That’s pretty much peanuts when you’re talking tens of millions of dollars in a cap, but it’s illustrative of how a payroll balance sheet in the NHL has more on it than just the 20-odd sweaters skating on the sheet below you on a given regular season night.)

The Caps spent about $11 million on defensemen last season — and one million of that went to Clymer. They spent just a hair under $7 million in net. The bulk of that obviously went to Kolzig. Goaltending won’t necessarily be cheaper next season as in addition to resigning Huet or another no.1 at a premium price, both Simeon Varlamov and Michal Nuevirth will move into pro careers with the organization.

And the team spent just about $23 million on forwards in 2007-08.

Deadline acquisitions such as Huet and Sergei Fedorov are prorated against the cap, which is particularly helpful in a case such as Fedorov’s, as Columbus picked up the lion’s share of his $6-million-plus salary last season.

According the NHLnumbers, the Caps by early spring 2008 were on the hook for just under $42 million in salaries and bonuses counted against the cap — whereas at season’s start, when the team was closer to $39 million in payroll, it had about $12 million of cap room to spare. One of the reasons George McPhee was able to be so aggressive at the February trade deadline was the cap space he had this past season. Look for him to have a lot less of that in 2008-09.

Recall that when hockey returned post-lockout in 2005-06, the salary caps was at $39 million. In 2006-07, it jumped up to $44 million. This past season it stood at $50.3 million. The salary cap was envisioned as a system of cost controls for the owners, but in three short years it sure has risen fast, hasn’t it? Draw your own conclusions, but recall how the resolution of the 2004-05 labor impasse was characterized — with the owners having the players over a proverbial barrel. I’m not sure it’s quite worked out that way.

We won’t know for some months still what the salary cap will be for 2008-09, but educated guesses peg it in the mid-fifties-million range.

Player ‘07 - ‘08 Salary Cap Hit ‘08 - ‘09 Salary
Alexander Ovechkin $3,830,000 9,000,000
Alexander Semin $1,300,000 4,200,000
Mike Green $833,000 Brinks truck
Cristobal Huet $630,000 Brinks truck
Chris Clark $1,050,000 $2,750,000
Nicklas Backstrom $2,400,000 $2,700,000

Accounting for just those players’ salaries on the team’s books for 2008-09, NHLnumbers has the Caps committed to forty one and a half million dollars for next season. Alexander Ovechkin’s salary accounts nearly a quarter of that. Moreover, consider that the ranks of the unsigned for next season include a no.1 netminder; Mike Green; Sergei Fedorov; Brooks Laich; Matt Cooke; Matt Bradley; Shaone Morrisonn; Steve Eminger; Boyd Gordon; Eric Fehr; and Quintin Laing.

Oh, and Karl Alzner.

Now Brian Pothier’s $2.5 million is included in that $41 million-plus figure, and his future is quite uncertain. But even if the Caps were to gain cap relief for Pothier, the signing of just Green, Alzner and a goalie, you have to figure, is going to push the payroll fairly close to $50 million. Conceiveably, that might leave the Caps with less than $5 or $6 million of cap space to sign seven or eight name bodies familiar to Caps’ fans. And of course, no NHL team wants to be pressed hard against the cap.

To state the obvious, it will be George McPhee’s most challenging offseason in terms of player contract negotiations and cap management.

Filed in Front Office, George McPhee, NHL Salary Cap, National Hockey League, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (19)

Farewell to Our All-Time-Best Netminder

By pucksandbooks
Thursday, May 8, 2008

It seems reasonable to posit that Olie Kolzig’s play as a middle-thirtysomething netminder during the first two seasons after the lockout was distinctly solid. Not spectacular, clearly, but quite solid. He didn’t have the most formidable blueline corps in front of him, which to some extent his numbers reflected, but few in the sport would have pointed to those seasons and suggested that Olie Kolzig was no longer a no. 1 netminder in the NHL.

Heading into 2007-08, we knew that Kolzig the gracefully aging elder statesman was a superbly conditioned and distinctly dedicated professional athlete. He spoke very openly about the adjustments he was incorporating in the twilight of his career to ready himself for a new and long season and its rigors. This was an explicit acknowledgment that he was feeling the effects of Father Time. Still, he appeared to be aging a bit like wine. During training camp he spoke of playing another two or three seasons after ‘07-08, under a new contract, hopefully with Washington.

Last fall, the present and the forecasted future for Olie Kolzig seemed promising, without a scintilla of wishful thinking attached to it.

The difficulty, the angst, as it’s settled in among Kolzig’s legion of loyal fans here this spring derives singularly from what settled in upon Kolzig’s game this past season. Most glaringly, October through January: really bad numbers. Now Olie Kolzig, save his Vezina season and his spectacular run through the postseason in 1998, has never really been about stellar numbers. But this season’s were unprecedented in their wretchedness. At one point deep into the season the statistical Olie Kolzig didn’t rank among the league’s top 40 netminders. George McPhee wouldn’t have dealt for a no. 1 netminder bearing looming unrestricted free agency unless he believed he needed an upgrade — immediately — in net. The acquisition of Cristobal Huet proved to be one of the GM’s most impressive personnel moves in his 10-year run in Washington.

No one would reasonably have suggested that with Kolzig in net instead of Huet the Caps would have won 11 of their last 12 regular season games and stolen a Southeast title away from Carolina. The lone loss during that run was with Kolzig in net.

Moreover, there was something peculiar and unnerving about Kolzig’s very public rebuke of Bruce Boudreau to the Washington Post’s Mike Wise at a time when the team was really gelling and making early rumblings of transforming its season. He intimated that the locker room had become a home for Hershey Bears, and that he was a bit out of place in it. He very explicitly called into question the head coach’s faculties in handling goaltenders. The bellyaching seemed out of character. It seemed distracting. Knowing what we know about Kolzig and the franchise deep in the spring of 2008, one wonders if that wasn’t the breach from which there was no repair.

Which brings us to early this offseason when every apparent indicator suggests that Olie Kolzig has played his last game in a Capitals’ sweater. The situation strikes many of the team’s fans as outlandish, as cruel and cold-hearted to the core on the part of management. These fans are reacting as fans should. Caps’ management, however, is acting precisely as it should.

The fans, understandably, want the franchise’s all-time best netminder to enjoy the promising harvest from a rough rebuild. Kolzig having guided the team to its only appearance in the Stanley Cup finals, this thinking goes, it’s only cosmically just that he’d lead them into postseasons ahead, when the Caps would enjoy roles as favorites rather than long-shots and underdogs. He’s been through so much this sorry decade, his sympathizers sigh. And it’s true. But fairness and cosmic justice and Hollywood endings aren’t the domain of the National Hockey League.

This is about business. The business of winning hockey games. And the cold hard reality is that in this Olie Kolzig NHL offseason the skill set he has to offer is at odds with the present composition and ambition of the only NHL hockey organization he’s ever served. Gordie Howe shouldn’t have left Detroit, ever, but this isn’t a mythical, age-resistant athlete we’re talking about. Olie Kolzig, somewhat sadly, but also somewhat predictably and certainly rather naturally, is aging away from the Capitals’ ascension.

He may well find gainful if non-no.1 netminder employment elsewhere in the NHL this offseason. And as with Peter Bondra, Dale Hunter, and Calle Johansson before him, if that comes to pass it will be jarring and painful to see him compete in a sweater not the Capitals’. Against the Capitals. The man who stood so tall when all around him hockey was so small here actually working to defeat the Caps? I could almost feel an opposing force emanating from the keyboard as I typed the thought.

But by April 5, when Cristobal Huet backstopped the Caps into storyline-of-the-year contention, the business writing was bright on the arena wall. No longer losers, with losers’ payrolls, the winning Caps now need to pay up for services very well rendered. (Think Mike Green.) The team needs not Olie Kolzig so much as his $5.45 million per.

Kolzig and his agent, to judge by their public pronouncements, believe that #37 is worthy of no.1 dough and no. 1 minutes, somewhere. The Caps can’t deliver either to him. It’s really that simple. There is also the matter of their having a capable backup netminder under contract at a budget-friendly rate for ‘08-’09. And Brent Johnson’s contract will expire right about the time it would appear probable that one of a stable of young, highly skilled, recently drafted netminders is ready to ascend to an apprenticeship behind Cristobal Huet or someone like him.

It’s business — the business of pro hockey. Uncomfortable at times to be sure, but never sidelined for sentimentality.

Enough about business, though. Olie Kolzig deserves his night of honor, he deserves to have his sweater retired, when the timing is right, and the wager here is that it’ll happen. Kolzig with his commitment to his club and his leadership in his hockey community came to embody what fans cherish most about pro athletes: he was the rare superior performer and role model. His fans deserve a night to shower him with a decade’s-plus worth of admiration. But until that night, gone now seemingly forever is Verizon Center’s chant of “Olie, Olie, Olie.” The place won’t quite be the same.

Hall of Fame netminder Eddie Giacomin played 10 seasons for the Rangers before being dealt to Detroit. He famously discussed his return to Madison Square Garden to face New York as a Red Wing, where Rags’ fans stood and thundered down — drowning out the national anthem — chants of “Eddie, Eddie, Eddie” while Giacomin stood in his new crease with tears streaming down his cheeks.

“The New York crest is embedded in Eddie Giacomin’s heart,” he said of that night and New York’s impact on his hockey career.

Giacomin never won a Stanley Cup. He also never forgot where was his home in hockey.

Let it be said — God willing one day soon — that this player, his organization, and his fans realized that Olie Kolzig is Washington’s Eddie Giacomin.

Filed in Bruce Boudreau, Cristobal Huet, Front Office, George McPhee, Morning cup-a-joe, Olaf Kolzig, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (46)

The Capitals’ Top 10 Storylines for 2007-08

By pucksandbooks
Monday, April 28, 2008

10. The Rebuild Is Over. Owner Leonsis uttered this proclamation during the preseason, later claiming that the season’s barometer for success would be qualifying for the postseason. Through the middle of November both seemed delusionally wishful thinking. But when the right guy arrived behind the bench, when the Caps’ skilled young core was encouraged to attack, the team took off, rampaging from last in the league at Thanksgiving to a Southeast Division crown on the regular season’s final Saturday. The right pieces indeed were in place, and the team’s future has never been as promising.

9. Backstrom: the no. 1 Pivot of the Future — and the Present. Really nobody knew what Nicklas Backstrom’s rookie season in the NHL would bring. During last July’s Development Camp, he seemed to struggle a bit with making plays on a smaller sheet. But he looked better at the end of camp than at its start, and by September’s training camp he looked even more adjusted. Like other skilled players in Glen Hanlon’s system, he struggled. Like other skilled players under Bruce Boudreau, he blossomed.

His 69 points on the season represented the second-most prolific rookie season in Caps’ history (behind a certain precocious Russian in 2005-06). Most telling: 60 of his points came in the final 61 games. He adjusted all right. He played his finest hockey of the season when you want a player to — in the postseason. In so doing he defied a long tradition of rookies fading under the rigors of an 82-game season. And he rightfully earned a nomination for the Calder trophy.

8. One Seriously Sorry Sheet. Washington’s never been known to offer a quality sheet of ice for its NHL games, but the matter gained unprecedented urgency when in December team captain Chris Clark spoke with commendable candor to the Washington Post about the indefensible ice at home. This surface wasn’t merely bad aesthetically, it was, suggested Clark, injurious to players. Clark himself lost virtually the entire season to a groin injury. Flyers’ winger Mike Knuble injured his leg when he caught it in a Verizon Center rut in the playoffs. And game 7’s sheet was so ill-prepared that arena workers could be seen repairing it on their hands and knees in the moments before puck-drop — and throughout the game.

Whatever greatly skilled and exciting roster Capitals’ management assembles for the future, it won’t much matter if at home it’s asked to compete on an ability-leveling and integrity-sacrificing surface.

7. Deadline Day Doozies. Trade deadline day was supposed to be quiet for the Caps. It turned out to be anything but. General manager George McPhee engineered a dramatic infusion of postseason experience and skill in areas of weakness on February 26, including securing a no.1 netminder in Cristobal Huet from Montreal for merely a second-round pick in the 2009 Entry Draft. All three players acquired on deadline day played pivotal roles in the season’s final 18 games.

In his Capitals’ debut on February 29, Huet stopped all 18 shots he faced in backstopping the Caps to a 4-0 win in New Jersey. He went 11-2 in his 13 starts for the Caps, winning the final nine games he started. In the biggest game the Caps played in years, Sergei Fedorov, acquired for 2007 second round selection Teddy Ruth, was named the game’s first star in the Caps’ 3-1 win over Florida on April 5, which vaulted the team to the SouthEast title and the postseason for the first time since 2003. He was especially adept in the faceoff circle. Matt Cooke played a less significant part statistically during the stretch run but recaptured his active, pest-like play from years ago in Vancouver night in and night out. All three veterans were credited with providing vital leadership to the young and inexperienced Caps.

6. Mike Green: the no. 1 Gun Arrives. If there was one overarching question confronting the Caps’ blueline heading into the 2007-08 season, it was: is there a no.1 Gun among? If last September you thought there was, you knew something the rest of hockey didn’t. In 2006-07, Mike Green played 70 games for the Caps, tallying just 2 goals and 10 assists. He offered glimpses of high-end promise, but he also seemed years away from becoming consistent and reliable and earning a top pairing assignment. But this past season Green blossomed into a dominant, mature-for-his-years force. He led the entire league in goals by a defenseman during the regular season, and he followed that with a superb playoff series — so much so that Flyers’ head coach John Stevens very publicly made it known that Mike Green was a weapon his team had to strategize to stop. The no.1 Gun on the Caps’ blueline has arrived.

5. AO: The Best Hockey Player on the Planet. Alexander Ovechkin’s hardware-hogging brilliance during 2007-08 earned him broadcasts of “Ovechkin Ovations” on the NHL Network and, more importantly, ascension over the Nova Scotian as the game’s greatest talent. His 65 goals during the regular season were the most scored by a Capital in franchise history, and he became just the 19th player in NHL history to score 60 goals in a season. By the end of the regular season he’d staked unassailable claims to both the Richard and Ross trophies and was a near mortal lock to command both the Hart trophy and the Lester Pearson award for his most valuable performance. At one point no less than the Great One suggested that his seemingly unbreakable record of 92 goals scored in a single season could be within Ovechkin’s visored viewfinder.

4. Canning Glen; Finding the Right Guy Right up the Road. After winning their first three games of the season, the Capitals proceeded to lose 15 of their next 18 and plummet to the very bottom of the NHL standings. While Glen Hanlon may well have been the right coach to preside over the rebuilding Caps beginning not long before the team began its purge of high-priced, under-achieving talent in the 2003-04 season, autumn 2007 seemed to deliver a resoundingly rotten verdict on his ability to advance the team to where management deemed appropriate for 2007-08.

No one would suggest that Hanlon didn’t offer the organization his fullest possible effort. But by late 2007 that effort wasn’t working. “He knew as soon as he saw me this morning,” McPhee told the Washington Post on Thanksgiving day. “He said, ‘I wouldn’t have known what to do today.’ ”

Enter Bruce Boudreau, aka “Gabby.” On Thanksgiving Eve Bruce Boudreau was in his third season behind the Hershey Bears’ bench. He’d enjoyed an auspicious first two seasons there: a Calder Cup title in his first season in Hershey in the spring of 2006 and a return to the finals the following season. He’d won a Kelly Cup title in the East Coast League as well. Still, to many Capitals’ fans, he appeared to be just another “no name” plucked from the farm.

Probably it was with this in mind that Hershey Bears’ Senior Manager for Communications John Walton authored a memorable open letter to Capitals’ fans on the day that Gabby was announced as the new Caps’ coach. “Know this first and foremost,” Walton wrote in his letter. “He’s a winner . . . For what it’s worth, we have seen the magic here. We’re more than willing to share.” Continue reading ›

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, American Hockey League, Bruce Boudreau, Calder Cup, Chris Clark, Cristobal Huet, Development Camp, Eastern Conference, Entry Draft, Front Office, George McPhee, Hershey Bears, Ice, John Walton, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Matt Cooke, Media, Mike Green, NHL Network, NHL Trades, National Hockey League, Nicklas Backstrom, Philadelphia Flyers, Print, Sergei Fedorov, Stanley Cup Playoffs, TV, Ted Leonsis, The Big Deal, Training Camp, Verizon Center, Washington Capitals, Washington Post| Permalink| Comments (11)

At Kettler the Day After

By pucksandbooks
Wednesday, April 23, 2008

You can cross one name off your list of free agent concerns for the Capitals this offseason — Head Coach Bruce Boudreau. Speaking with reporters at Kettler-Capitals Iceplex just moments after wrapping up a season-concluding meeting with the team this afternoon, the coach confirmed that he’d had discussions with General Manager George McPhee about a new deal. He didn’t want to speak in specifics, and he wanted to defer to the GM for a more formal acknowledgment, but he did say, “I’m gonna be coaching the Caps a little while.” He was smiling.

The coach also confirmed that Alexander Ovechkin played hurt in his first playoff series. He suggested t