In Glacialis Blog

Suus’ suscito nobis ut suscipio nuntius of hockey appreciation ex readership sursum in Hockeys’ Domus, in Canalis, tamen forsitan magis sic ut nos suscipio is ex an dissimilis outpost of puck perturbatio. Yesterday nos suscipio is transmaritanus ex lector Robert in Etlan, Va., a cognatus vegrandis defero in Shenandoah Valley:

“nos ago in Madison Duco quod est super 1.5 hrs. SW of Beltway. Nos have a populatio of tantum super 14k. Super 12 annus abhinc a iugo of frater quisnam grew sursum lascivio glacies hockey in Canalis certus verto an novus publicus tennis villa in a volvo hockey rink. They quod alius constructum sideboards ex plywood quod 24s×’. Is coepi vegrandis nam nos have 3 divortium per fere centum ludio ludius.EGO eram nunquam a hockey fan, permissum unus a ludio ludius; secundum totus is eram quoque tepidus hic quod volvo vesica hadnt’ been reperio etiamnunc. Nam meus kids es magnus fans quod es duco dies insquequo season patefacio tametsi meus filia’ infractus armo ( ex soccer) may preoccupo suus ex res calx insquequo January. operation est iam res partially subnixus Ortus quod Rec Dept., quod dum nostrum superficies est in pulchellus scabrosus vultus, EGO reputo nos can adepto per. Maybe tunc annus, nos can erigo satis crumens impetro a vere bonus resurfacing officium.Tenus EGO teneo, nos es solus vicus hockey league in nostrum area. Quod EGO reputo populus quisnam participate in talis leagues aut lascivio vel vigilo es recedentia magis amo ut volo ingravesco Caps fans quod peto venatus, sumo paraphernalia, audio venatus vel ordo NHL Center Glacies ex satellite vexillum, ut nos did permaneo week. Per via, meus 11- annus vetus filius has monumentum alica of totus Russian ludio ludius in NHL.

Usquam, EGO accersitus Caps ceterus dies quod asked a Caps rep si illic eram quisquam Caps could operor ut develop nonnullus quasi affinitas inter team quod nostrum league. Is did narro they dedi vendo tickets pro mezzanine area pro $19 si nos could adepto 50 populus quisnam volo ut persolvo ut. Ut’ nice tamen Im’ non certus nos could adepto 50 populus. In praevius annus a amplus humus nostrum has famulor a Richmond hockey venatus quod sumptus super dimidium quantus quantus. Nos dont’ have Mediocris- typus reditus hic. (nostrum textus site, incidentally, esthttp:/www.madisonhockey.com//)

In summa, Im’ non verus certus quis Id’ amo Caps efficio, tamen EGO reputo they have a vested penitus in seeing leagues talis ut nostri ut have developed talis fanaticus solator of hockey ex tenuis aer, operor puteus quod prospicio. Id’ quoque amo video vidi visum nostrum parentes quod ludio ludius develop an identity per team.

Ullus informatio?”

Robert:

Primoris, gratias ago vos pro socius nobis vestri defero’ novus- instituo diligo res per hockey. Nos nunquam defessus of auditurus esse talis fabula. Unus of decorus of hockey est ut is has plures lacto off- glacies iterations: solum hockey, plerumque ludio ludius in schola palestra trans rus ruris; volvo; quod unus of plurrimi underrated of totus recreational pastimes, vicus hockey.

Sursum north, in Civitas quod Canalis, cautus- in tennis villa es plerumque redundo in hiberna quod skated super. Is hiberna, quattuor nostrum es gonna servo nostrum fingers crux crucis parumper gelu tendo of tempestas sedo in in Etlan unus weekend ut forsitan nonnullus of suus centum hockey ludio ludius can lacesso sursum nonnullus skates — ut rink of vestri should exsisto adsuesco assuesco totus annus ’ rotundus! Nos quoque reputo suus’ fantastic ut Etlans’ Ortus quod Recreation Dept. est strenue suscipio is in suscipio of hockey.

Caps es graviter involved in growing hockey in amplexus defero — nos suscipio vox of sulum quod sulum unus of suum saluto ut schola quod hospitium quod civilis gelamen, quod aegre a week obduco vacuus talis a saluto. Erant’ non certus si theyve’ suscipio a trinus sicco occasus in vestri gutter of silva, tamen substructio in vestri genus of venatus illic quod populus suscipio is, they should.

Obviously, itd’ exsisto a magnus investment in vicis quod facundia impetro a segment of vestri defero ut Lavatio parumper Caps’ venatus. Etiam, nos spes unus weekend accidit. Memor, quoque, ut illic’ a magnificabiliter usus in captus in narro a Imbuo oriens skate per team procul Kettler Caput, quod est solvo quod publicus publicus totus season porro. Aliquantulus porro sursum via, in Ipsa, Pa., pro hockey usus est prosapia budget familiaris quod inter optimus intotus of hockey. Permaneo, Caps procul terminus of sulum season habitum a venditio of suum paratus, quod ut sino recreational hockey ludio ludius ( quod monumentum contraho) obvius ut valde apparatus sepius procul valde pretium.

Wed’ amo audire quam season progressio in Etlan, sic commodo subsisto in tactus. Quod si vos operor redundo ut foras rink, nos teneo of utique unus OFBer prorsus’ cuspis suus Jeep occasus obviam Shenandoah Valley in a Imbuo oriens quod suo in fun.

Quis plurimus caught meus intentio per permaneo nox noctis’ 2-1 pre se ferre damnum ut Flyers dum audio ut ‘Net dico of Kolbe quod Vogel eram vox ut odio an off- dies sequens dies, superstar porro Alexander Ovechkin quod Alexander Semin hopped in a car mane in dies quod iter itineris usque Philly ut vigilo suum castra- materia contendo in vesper. Illic es precious pauci off dies per castra, quod praeter satis rink vicis pro illa duos in septem-plus mensis ahead. Vogel eram infigo per factum. Sic eram Ego.

Is propono of emineo camaraderie evulsum intus a amplus contineo contigi dignitas recenseo. Tergum in medium- estas, ut procuratio commotus quod surculus roster sursum pro melior, nos primoris philologus of guys res intrepidus impetro tergum in suum apparatus quod sicco in glacies una procul Kettler Caput. Quod is vere venio, in infigo numerus, weeks ahead of persona satus of palaestra castra. Guys volo ut skate hic, una.

Procul castra’ kickoff, in Interventus Dies, caput Sarcalogos Expedio partis aliquantulus of suus transmaritanus incursus ut suus teammates spanned trans globe. Is volo lemma tergum in urbs mane, ut loco distractions of moving quod subsido secundum lemma ut suum contraho focus could exsisto in maximus novus season statim pro lemma. Is eram, is videor, an securus exigo.

Iam caput nimirum plumbum per exempoator, quod a Expedio, suus gubernatio is estas fundo ultra Northmanni. Is re- subcribo per Caps, procul mercedis quod pactum tractus irrefutably magis vercundus quam quis hed’ have arcesso in patefacio venalicium tunc estas. In a placitum dico dissero paciscor, is referenced suus expers futurus a secui of quis Caps erant aedificium edificium. “ego volo futurus a secui of is, [of] qua erant’ caput capitis” is said. Illic est haud guarantee of in- glacies prosperitas huic season vel illorum ahead, nimirum, atqui Expedio, suus somes memorably battered intus redivivus, volo protelo nixus.

“Weve’ got a valde cella” est verum a vulgaris refrain huic lusum quod singulariter is league, tamen illic has been quispiam ornamentum super Caps’ vindicatum of unus. Iens tergum copiose three seasons, tergum usque ut mane hora of dispiriting exigo quod roster incumbo, nos primoris auditus vindicatum ex nonnullus of aedificium edificium clausus quod vel nonnullus of roster placeholders super caliber of Caps’ cella. Ut species eram certainly subpono ut haud vegrandis inhonestus per Olie Kolzig. Tamen is quoque has potuisse enhanced per a manus manus of repens draft ordo, plures of members quorum consuefacio themselves ut orbis terrarum of pro hockey una, in repens annus, in Portland, Pelagus, quod Ipsa, Pennsylvania.

Vel magis ingens, chemistry has been enhanced per solvo procurator acquisitions emineo pro suum team- primoris ethos: Res Bradley, Ben Clymer, Vepres Pothier, quod iam, is videor, universus of 2007 solvo procurator ordo. Solvo procurator in parcus tempus of pro lusum typically supervenio portans caritas tags quod magnus egos quod rare meld seamlessly in suum novus environs. Nos pulvis’ auditurus esse ullus illius in D.C. illa dies. Verum, ut Caps subolesco ex basement habito ut impleo, incrementum portatus nonnullus alio acerbitas: nonnullus of gluten of preteritus iugo of seasons ero abicio, facio cella pro maioribus talentum. Is palaestra castra, nos es eruditio quoque quam is animadverto est motum motum.

The chemist est nomen George McPhee. Ultimately verdict in suus tentorium in urbs ero effectus in wins versus damnum, ocius quinymo quam laxus. Tamen ut GM hes’ successio in a vitally maximus si sub- opinio super frons: contraho smiling visio quod trado collectivism in partis car veho quod estas crus.

Illic’ an ferrum ut chemistry instituo in NHL obfirmo cella: haud alius U.S. lusum teneo global varietas of NHLs’ athletes recolligo in a singulus team, atqui haud alius lusum teneo suus Ive’-got- vestri- tergum- procul- totus- vicis ethos, primoris per quartus versus, ex Proicio Flon-ner ut Finn. Suus’ a criterion nunquam agnosco in fantasy leagues ( moneo nos of suum superficiality), atqui nusquam est magis maximus ut a team.

Suus’ a dies of sileo non tantum pro Lavatio Caput’ ludio ludius quod cogo — puteus, ludio ludius utique — tamen pro teams’ fanaticus communications baculus pariter. Res sicco procul Kettler quantus quantus EGO have been preteritus 10 dies, EGO lucrum a profundus appreciation pro commitment of Nate Ewell, Julie Petri, Paul Rovnak, quod Mike Vogel, inter alius. Suum dies per castra suscipio mane quod terminus tardus, quod nunc of annus theyre’ non tantum facilitating unus of graviter interventus flows subsequens castra in annus tamen quoque putting una in-season communications uber, talis ut Interventus Rector. Suus’ forecast futurus a attonitus tardus September Sunday hodie, quod Spero theyre’ totus sicco having fun in fun quod recharging suum batteries.

pause in in- glacies factum est a bonus vicis sumo prosapia of quis Caps have perficio eatenus in quis EGO puto est plurrimi maximus palaestra castra in norma’ history. EGO no punctum per meus saluto lustro hockey-savvy caput capitis quoque captus in cotidie effectus procul Kettler, ex procer quod broadcast opinio ut socius bloggers ut fans in sto, quod herewith Im’ misceo suum plumbum storylines of castra ut balanus per meus own.

• Superbus Papa. Ive’ ordine seen Erus Leonsis ut palaestra castra testis per preteritus 10 dies, quod dum suus’ verus hes’ haud diutius involved per dies- ut- dies operations of AOL, is somes a districtus communications vir. EGO reputo quis’ venio per suus palaestra castra penitus campester speculum ut of ceterus nostrum: species quod depth of norma in propono est sic infigo vos es iuste subigo facio trinus sicco illic quod simplex ostendo sum in verto angulus of teams’ competitiveness.

• Nylander ut versus 2. Duos annus abhinc Michael Nylander left Lavatio ut a valde bonus hockey ludio ludius. Is cado hes’ reverto tamen perfectus sic videor ut exsisto magis a astrum. Hes’ a dynamic playmaker, in confuto valetudo. Quod dum fere sulum in hockey is estas forecasted an Ovechkin-Nylander caput capitis- versus iugum, via tergum in July Caput capitis Cogo Glen Hanlon valde palam civitas suus intention of experimenting per caput capitis-6 porro iunctura, quod eatenus in castra, emineo chemistry videor habeo melded inter Alexander Semin, Michael Nylander, quod Nicklas Backstrom ut Hanlons’ secundus iunctum.

• Lubricus Swede Secui II. Narro of Backstrom, sit irrefutably questus levamentum in North American- amplitudo ovis of glacies — condita progressio “ in a cotidie basis,” ut laudo meus amicus Mike Vogel. Procul orbis terrarum Championships in Moscow in May, quondam Solio quod Swedish Populus Team Caput capitis Cogo Bengt Gustafsson told nos ut Backstrom would planto ut transitus successfully quod rationabiliter celeriter, quod is eram vox. Tim Leone sursum in Ipsa reputo is in Backstroms’, quod Caps’, optimus penitus pro him habeo a vas of capulus per Gero is season. Aint’ venio.

• Suus’ meus puck, quod Im’ servo is. Caps dont’ ( etiamnunc) have a dominor shut-down tutaminis, sic Glen Hanlons’ ars pro amplio defensabiliter lascivio is season sileo per suus stipes suscipio possessio of puck magis sepius quam in preteritus duos seasons, ut sepius they fugo is inter rink in futile formo. Si vos have puck magis sepius quam vestri contradictio, vestri calx isnt’ adepto apt ut visio 40 vel 50 offa sulum nox noctis, quod trado quinque vel six calx plurimus nox noctis. Eatenus, is ars videor futurus captus habitum. In palaestra castra’ scrimmages quod per Caps’ primoris three preseason venatus, vos can animadverto magis puck possessio quod fewer netminders collapsing ex fatigo.

• Caput, Meus Caput/ Filius of Kono-Dahlen-Halpern. Ive’ changed meus visum in cloning, propter Sarcalogos Expedio. Voluntas haud irreverens ut Dale quod suus secretum sudo, tamen should Expedio caput Caps ut a Sto Vas titulus una of tunc three seasons, is mos have futurus contemplor ut optimus quod plurimus maximus caput in team history, having rector team ex sterilis of an unprecedented solum sicco ut pollicitus terra. Quod sitting hic in September 2007, EGO wouldnt’ sto in versus ut beneficium obviam is. (animadverto Carolina ‘05-06, Tampa ‘03-04.)

Is est Sarcalogos Expedio’ team- primoris, duos- via versatility ut has Glen Hanlon fantasizing super a duos- via, labefactum tertius versus per versus of valde Steve Konowalchuk, Jeff Halpern, Ulf Dahlen trio of pauci annus abhinc. Ut versus, youll’ repeto, eram sic dominor ut Ron Wilson patefacio iustus super sulum venatus per is. Is eram quoque unus ut eram a lynchpin ut Caps’ postseason participation. cogo has told interventus ut hes’ vultus pro 60 calx ex suus tertius versus is season, quod donatus defensabiliter acumen of Expedio quod Boyd Gordon, quod Res Pettingers’ obscoena pop, suus’ rectus ut precor KDH comparison.

Im’ quoque non wagering in Expedio’ obscoena uber stringo, dramatically, per rectum of suus dropping tenus versus 3. Ut is innotesco sui in Interventus Dies, hes’ prodigo preteritus duos seasons captus amoveo obviam amo of Zdeno Tutela quod caput capitis defensabiliter pairings. Minor sic, is would videor, orsa is season.

• Profundus Depth. Caps is weekend have 35 ludio ludius pugna pro macula in oris nox noctis roster. Suus’ rationabiliter securus ut forecast alius quinque cuts, tamen insulto ex super 30 ut 23 est alius res. Ut loco is charitably, Caps’ es in uncharted tractus, stipes- obfirmo, in terms of skater species theyll’ exsisto showcasing sicco procul Kettler in week duos of castra. Is est plurrimi basic quod foveo subcribo of super prosperitas of redivivus.

• Three venatus, three plumbum. Per three pre se ferre venatus, Caps have tantum quondam agri a iuste veteran versus — permaneo Thursday nox noctis in Ottawa. They patefacio in Carolina, obviam a comparatively veteran Turbo’ versus, vestio tantum John Erskine quod Mike Viridis in blueline ut guys per significant NHL usus ex permaneo season ( quod per BJ in net). In totus three venatus Caps have ludio ludius significant contentus per a plumbum ( bis per duos- calx plumbum). Illic subsisto erroris (poena) quod sollicitudo (poena) aplenty, tamen nos shouldnt’ perdo os of quod Cogo Hanlons’ ars of lascivio a magis puck possessio venatus est uberte perspicuus. Gratia lucror magis sepius, a team must primoris fundo competitiveness, tunc perficio plumbum in venatus. Caps have artificiosus utriusque mane huic preseason.

tunc step est occludo paciscor quondam vos have plumbum.

• Ut did Torontos’ procer interventus adeo opus in Lavatio? Semel in meus hockey vita, EGO excito sulum dies gnarus ut per meus oriens capulus EGO postulo ut saluto textus sites pro utriusque of Washingtons’ magnus newspapers gratia insisto occulto illic of Caps’ palaestra castra. Illic es lima illic basically cotidie. Quod bonus ones. Additionally, blog lima illic. Is est ut is should exsisto, tamen ut nostrum procer guys — quod plurimus singulariter Vicis’ Corey Masisak, cuius’ tantum captus in pello pepulli pulsum of a mortuus legend — bonus in vos.

• Acer- indutus men. Suus’ non usquam near ut maximus ut talentum upgrade, tamen huic autumn of similitudo mischief, Caps have showcased optimus- vultus novus threads in universus league. Quod suus’ not even close. I’ll be particularly grateful when those snazzy white uniform system tops are rightfully returned to wearing on home ice.

No Ovy or Captain Clark on the ice today at Kettler. They were given the day off. The team, Nate Ewell told me, got back in town from Ottawa near 2:00 this morning.

Also, Tarik has word that Flash will be John Hancock-ing his name to a new, two-way deal any moment now.

A week to the day after the Kettler Capitals Complex afforded me empirical evidence of hockey’s return, I headed up Rt. 83 North to take in Media Day and the opening of training camp for the Hershey Bears this morning. I noticed that the Maryland and Pennsylvania trees bore the earliest tinges of autumn’s colors, and so the confirmation of hockey season’s arrival indoors last week was matched by one outdoors this. I rarely pass up a chance to visit our affiliate, the best in all of hockey, and today delivered me my first immersion in the formal start of a Bears’ season.

One of the first things I noticed was that the Capitals’ new crest rests opposite the Bears’ on Giant Center’s center ice. I also noticed the AHL training camp’s size: on opening day it is modest in personnel relative to an NHL camp — a total of 33 skaters (and just three goalies) dressed for Bruce Boudreau and his staff during two sessions this morning and afternoon. More of course will join in the days ahead, as the Caps make more cuts.

And just a handful of fans perched themselves down low for today’s opening session at 10:00 a.m.

I was roaming around the dark Giant Center concourse all alone near 10:00 when by accident I spotted Tim Leone of The Patriot News and the Bears’ John Walton above me. They knew a confused newcomer when they saw him, and diverted their path and came downstairs and escorted me to a productive work area.

Leone and I juiced up our laptops in Giant Center’s press box before heading down close to the glass to try and make out the identities of the skaters. The Bears neither name nor number their training camp sweaters. But before we left the press box Leone pointed to an odd-looking box in the middle of his laptop screen into which he was typing.

“A blog [for the Patriot News] I’m now responsible for,” he told me. “I blame you,” he added with a smile.

As we watched Head Coach Bruce Boudreau put the mostly anonymous Bears through a rigorous skate I had the thought that while there is perhaps less glamour at camp in Hershey there is every bit the drive and passion among the camp invitees and the coaches possessed by their NHL counterparts. Boudreau today looked and sounded like his charges were in the midst of a mid-January losing streak, and he was going to work them out of it. After the morning’s first session Leone asked Boudreau about his bark out on the ice.

“Look, I tell the guys, ’shame on you if you’re not ready to come.’ There’s a lot of money [to be made] in hockey, in the AHL and NHL,” he said.

I wanted to know of the coach who and what he saw in his nearly week on the ice at Kettler Capitals that might have made him excited about the prospects this season for both the Bears and the Caps. He sounded a strong note of pride in his players.

“All my players can help the Capitals,” he claimed. “There’s a reason we’ve gone to the Calder Cup Finals two years in a row. We’ve got good players.”

He then ran off the list of all of last season’s Bears still at Capitals’ camp. “They’re all going to help the Capitals at some point this season,” he said. (Continued)

One aspect of the change in training camp venue from Piney Orchard to Kettler Capitals I’m coming to enjoy a great deal is the lengthy elevator rides from Ballston’s 8th floor down to the shopping and eatery levels. It’s not the most efficient set of elevators I’ve ever encountered, but the company I often get to keep within them tends to alleviate a lot of impatient aggravation.

You never know who is going to hop in Kettler’s elevators with you; but about 30 minutes after the conclusion of practices and scrimmages each day, many players and organization personnel make dashes downstairs for hot eats and such. Often on these rides either I eavesdrop on interesting puck chatter or initiate a friendly chat with a prospect or vet or coach.

Back in July, during prospect development camp, I was sharing an elevator one afternoon with three players. One was an American, the other two players from the Western Hockey League. They were discussing the vagaries of travel, and at one point the American player asked his Canadian counterparts how often they flew.

“Never,” they replied. “Our shortest bus ride is about 7 hours — 12 in bad weather,” they added. The American was dumbstruck.

This is not stop-the-presses stuff, but to me it’s darned interesting, and with something like a prospect camp as a backdrop, it reminded me of the sacrifices and commitments these remarkable athletes make in their long-odds pursuit of careers in professional hockey.

This afternoon, a good hour after the 11:30 scrimmage had ended, I moved into elevator waiting position next to Eric Fehr. Eric is really easy-going and pleasant to talk to. But these days, he has to be a bit tight-lipped — he’s under a gag order from management about discussing his injury.

“Can’t talk about the injury, I know,” I said to him, smiling. He was holding what looked to be a book report for a high school English class.

“It’s all in here,” he replied, holding it up for me to inspect. The cover had his name and I think the word ‘Medical’ on it.

Just as the elevator doors opened, behind us arrived a freshly showered Nicklas Backstrom and what was clearly a Swedish media contingent (everybody was blond) encircling him. We all boarded.

I was standing next to Fehr. To my immediate right a Swedish reporter began a fresh dialogue with Backstrom, in their native tongue. My Swedish being rusty, I turned to talk to Eric again.

“Were you back in Manitoba this summer?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

I was curious to know a bit about summers in Manitoba, having never been there and hating Julys and Augusts in D.C. and their oppressive heat and humidity. I like to hear about places that offer comparatively cool temperatures — I guess I air condition vicariously in that regard.

“We actually get the greatest extremes [in temperatures] in all of North America,” Eric told me. “We get minus 40 and 40 celsius.”

My metrics fluency is like my Swedish, so I asked Eric for a bit of a conversion.

“We go over a hundred [degrees] in the summer,” he told me.

“Did it ever get so cold in winter that you couldn’t skate outside on the ponds there?” I asked as followup.

“Oh yeah . . . it’d get cold enough they had to close school.”

We parted company a few moments later. Downstairs I dined on tasty Mexican food during a late lunch. An hour later I headed toward the elevators again to get up to G6, where my car was parked. Just as the doors were set to close Caps’ goaltending coach Dave Prior joined me. Behind him was Assistant Coach Jay Leach, and some others I didn’t recognize. Prior stood next to me, meaning his ride wasn’t going to be silent.

“How do you think your netminders are looking, coach?” I asked.

He smiled. “How do you think they’re looking?” he replied.

I asked him if he’d ever known of a training camp when the Caps had so much an abundance of talent in net. He made an important clarification in my observation. One of the organization’s prized prospects, Russian Simeon Varlamov, isn’t at camp. Back in July, he told me, when both Michal Neuvirth and Varlamov were at Kettler for the development camp, he realized how fortunate he and the Capitals were.

“Those two goalies,” Prior told me around G4 of our ride, “they’re top-rated in their respective countries.”

Next I asked the coach about Olie Kolzig’s relationship with all the younger goalies. I wanted to know if they sought him out for advice, guidance, technical assistance, or if perhaps they were intimidated by him.

“Olie . . . what he does is pick up [their spirits] after I get through with them,” he replied, smiling.

I guess it’s pretty universal to fear getting stuck in an elevator — everything so confined, the victims so uncertain of when rescue is going to arrive. I wouldn’t wish it upon myself, but if it had to happen, I’d like it to out at Kettler, during training camp, on a day perhaps when Don Cherry or Barry Melrose was taping an interview with Alex Ovechkin.

10:55: The task of live blogging from a week two, mid-week morning camp scrimmage has fallen to these incapable hands. I’m reminded of the inscription inside the Habs’ dressing room — “From failing hands to you we pass the torch” (I think that’s right). Anyway, that’s my message to my bloggermates this morning — pick up the torch from me some time this afternoon.    

The salient news of the moment is that the league looks like it’s going to go back to the pre-lockout regular season schedule, though the exact permutation isn’t known. While that means longer road trips for the Caps in the years ahead, it will be nice for fans to see every team in the league, methinks. Consider the current dynamic of select clubs out West getting to see the likes of Ovechkin and Crosby once every three years at home. Or we in D.C. getting to see Jarome Iginla so seldom. Even better, it would seem to mean fewer Southeast Showdowns. 

Scrimmage is scheduled to commence around 11:30, incidentally.

I am also very interested in chatting a bit with Donald Brashear about this maybe-story of the new uniform system potentially proving injurious to its wearers (on the ice). The ‘Net is abuzz about the Cam Janssen injury last weekend (shoulder, his uniform system top tore, allegedly easily). I don’t know if I’ll be able to catch up with him this afternoon, but I’ll try. I tend to doubt the view that this is some manufactured, reactionary, knee-kerk conspiracy cooked up by the haters of the new look. I say that because had there been such a scheme, I’d have led it. 

Of course we need a heck of a lot more data and analysis beyond this incident to draw any firm conclusions, but if it proves true, can we agree that perhaps, just perhaps, the core aspects of hockey — such as what its players wear — ought to be left in the capable hands of hockey people, and not general sports corporations who are Johnny-come-latelys to our game?

11:20: We have Zamboni. Also, a spartan crowd. Washington professionals, save me, are hard at work today.

11:35: The ice is drying and what was a meager turnout is now close to passably healthy. Maybe 100 folks are in the stands.  

I’ll be updating.

11:43: We have scrimmage. Hanlon, at least at the outset, appears to be treating it as a controlled one. Yep, there are whistles and instruction from him. Your faceoff forward pairings:

Flash- Kozlov- Ovy (in blue)

Backstron- Nylander Semin (in white) 

11:48: We have the scrimmage’s first goal — Matt Bradley, a tap-in, on a bit of a seeing-his-linemate (of the moment), eyes-in-the-back-of-head dish from behind the net from Nicklas Backstrom. 1-0 White.

11:54: Another Blue line — CBourque Wilson Klepis. It’s from Hershey, obviously. The Sweetener Line?

The crowd continues to grow. Now that I think about it, the scrimmage’s start was close enough to folks’ lunch hour that we’re probably getting a healthy lunch-hour turnout. I saw Ted gazing down on the 10:30 practice for a while.  

High Noon: A line in White: Brashear- Clymer Steckel. I thought Tarik’s file on Clymer this morning heart-wrenching in a sense (for Ben personally) but also healthy in the sense of it as an indicator of the organization’s maturation from a roster of many muckers into more one of skill and speed in the Top 6 followed by two lines of two-way grit and guile. And some skill.  

Still 1-0 White, but there has been quality puck movement and some decent chances at both ends. No hitting to speak of, and this has been more or less true since the start of camp. Idle thought: is the chemistry within this organization so strong that the players like each too much too drop ‘em? That’s not a serious question. It’s still reasonably early in camp.   

12:10: Here are some D pairings for you: Erskine Eminger and Schultz Pothier in White; Jurcina Poti in Blue.

I am aware of my privilege in being here and how some of our readers, enconsed in their offices, appreciate the modest slivers of report I’m able to offer, but I’m not sure I’ll be repeating this gig. I am, by virtue of this exercise, acutely aware of Mike Vogel’s long-standing opposition to writing during game action. It’s not just that I’m apt to miss a slick pass or the development of a play from its defensive zone breakout; I am an alien to the overall flow. Still, I’m aware again of all of you poor schleps slaving away for the Man. This will really piss you off: I may chat for like 15 minutes with some of the guys at the scrimmage’s conclusion and then make my way down to Bailey’s for a sinfully early happy hour. 

12:17: Another D pairing: Pokulok Green, in Blue. Foreshadowing of a top 4 unit for Coach Boudreau up in Chocolatetown this autumn?   

A couple of camera crews are in between the players’ benches monitoring the action. I do not know for whom they’re recording.

1-0 still. The play has been crisp, and Hanlon, after initially appearing to be holding the reins in on the guys, has actually allowed a free-slowing scrimmage to take place. There are no refs, so he blows the whistle when he wants lines changed or some situational formation established. But by and large, they guys are just going at it.

12:25: WE HAVE A FIGHT! Clymer and Morrisonn! It’s mostly just a slow dance and a tangle of arms, no damage done, but something set them off (Tarik’s file this morning, in Ben’s case?)

12:30: It’s shootout practice time. Hanlon is pitching pucks out at center ice and guys are taking turns going in on Cassivi and Neuvirth. Kozlov’s backhand tucked behind Freddie was slick.

Good news: a decent number of goals were scored. Or does that say something discouraging about our netminding?

Update (1:30): I was able to get in the room and chat with Brashear about the Janssen-new sweaters intrigue, and basically, right now, he’s not concerned about it. Sweaters that perhaps tear more easily, he pointed out, can actually be beneficial to the valorus members of hockey teams who seek fairness of play and respectful treatment of their teammates out on the ice. Their arms would be liberated sooner, you see. But he also noted that whatever the new enforcement dynamic that’s now in place — and there may well be none — “It’s the same for everybody,” he told me.

So for now at least we can focus on the fact that outside the Caps and only a handful of other teams in both the NHL and AHL, the new look is generally a demonstrable aesthetic downgrade.  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

• Yes the new guys are important, but don’t overlook our core. Hanlon noted that the Caps finished 25 points shy of the playoffs last season. “The free agents [by themselves] can’t make up 25 points,” he said. There is a tendency to overvalue high-priced, free agent newcomers as saviors swooping in to lead a surge in the standings. Hanlon pointed to the emergence last season of so many young players on Pittsburgh’s roster, guys who, like the young Caps of the past couple of seasons, played together through rough times. Like Therrien in Pittsburgh last season, Hanlon is looking to his core to come through this season. “Our remaining 16 or 17 players have advanced,” he said.

• It’s AO’s planet, we just share it with him. “Your English has gotten better,” one reporter observed after Alex answered the first question posed to him, and the reporter wondered if AO had worked on it during the summer.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Six things about the summer caught my attention as indicators of profound change for the Caps — and arrived as profoundly optimistic in their impact.

(1) Two prominent signings this summer radically reoriented the perception, however superficial and unfair, that D.C. was a hockey deadzone, akin to residing and laboring in an Anbar region among pro rinks. First, George McPhee inked premiere playmaking pivot Michal Nylander, leaving the 2006 Stanley Cup finalist Edmonton Oilers a jilted bride at the free agent altar and occasioning an embarassing tirade and desperation responses from Oil GM Kevin Lowe. Nylander spurned other notable offers, too. Second, Captain Chris Clark, fresh off a career-best 30-goal campaign, and with years of productive hockey still ahead, forsaked free agency next summer and re-upped with the Caps on a three-year deal that will keep him in a red, white, and blue Caps sweater through 2010-11. Within days of the signing he told a conference call of reporters “I want to be a part of it, [of] where we’re headed.”      

(2) The team’s Draft weekend uniform unveiling was a marvel of community outreach and engagement. It was a Friday night that won’t soon be forgotten. There was so much anticipation about the uniform redesign itself, but early into the evening long-time Caps’ fans had their thoughts directed at a welcomed and long-overdue reunion with Mike Gartner and others Caps’ greats from the past. The evening gave the organization perhaps its first and best opportunity to showcase Kettler Capitals as a landmark facility. When the team wants to host a special evening for its fans, it can devote one sheet of ice to ceremony and another to fans skating with team members, for instance. Everyone who was involved with the facility’s conception and rise ought to feel as if they’ve revolutionized the experience of local residents interacting with professional hockey up close and in welcoming fashion.

(3) July’s Rookie Development Camp knew no rival in the team’s history as a community event generating a healthy bit of hockey buzz. Bloggers flocked to it. Print beat reporters were pressed into unprecedented coverage. Fans by the hundreds congregated in Kettler’s stands every day of the week-long camp for business-hours scrimmages. And the concluding scrimmage, fully three periods of stopped-clock Saturday night fun, drew a SRO crowd to Kettler.

(4) Team dean Olaf Kolzig, not known for wide-eyed, irrational exuberance, told the Washington Post in late August that “with the team we have in the room right now, we are a playoff team.” Kolzig in fact has been commendably frank in acknowledging the practical realities of the rebuild in real time in recent years, so his State of the Caps Union late this summer should have everyone’s notice, in town and around the league. He also told the Post “We’ve got the makings of being a very good team for a long time.” 

(5) Caps’ players from around the globe arrived back in town from offseason training conspicuously early, earlier than ever before, eager to get ‘em laced up. I went out to Kettler in early August and ran into Boyd Gordon, and younger and more veteran players have been skating together for weeks. This team is excited about its prospects in 2007-08, and it’s amped to get the season started.

(6) Karl Alzner’s play in the August Super Series has drawn lots of praise; people who previously were slotting him as a good #3 blueliner are now citing his ability to control a game, play in any situation, etc. Sam Gagner ultimately earned MVP honors for the series, but Alzner accumulated a healthy share of MVP talk himself. Now, it’s just one series, and a lot of development still needs to take place with the Burnaby, British Columbia, native, but it’s possible the Caps may finally have themselves a legitimate #1 defenseman in the system. The Caps didn’t make what appeared at the time to be splashy moves or selections at the Entry Draft in Columbus, but they may have departed with a cornerstone blueliner for the next decade-plus. 

It’s not reflected yet in the broadcast allotments or print layouts of the usual mainstream suspects, but there is profoundly palpable change in the hockey air of D.C. early this fall. Some of it is attributable to the sheer maturation of the Caps’ rebuild — the really rough roads are in the team’s rearview mirror. But increasingly, I believe, there’s been widespread recognition in the new media that “the plan” as it was originally conceived years back by ownership and management has been largely well executed, and that the fruit of its harvest is making for a comparatively sweet September 2007.       
    

Light a candle tonight for the welfare and recovery of an aged hockey player. I’ve had five days to prepare for my arrival on summer ice among and against a band of contemporary collegiate hockey players, as a beer leaguer who’s literally double their ages. The goal is simple: survive.

There is quality professional summer hockey taking place at Kettler Capitals this week, and across the Potomac, at the Cabin John Ice Rink in Montgomery County, there is quality amateur hockey also taking place, sullied a bit by my presence (a blogger double the age of the collegians). This misadventure is one part morbid curiosity (can I hang at all?) and one part fleeting vanity (do I possess still any moves that might elicit from my youthful ice mates age-dismissing praise?). I also thought it might be fun to chronicle.

Every summer at virtually every rink there are summer camps for hockey youths. This week at Cabin John, the Sport International Hockey Academy is guiding Montgomery youths through their puck paces. “40 hours of non-stop hockey” for ages 6-17 is how the camp advertises its week. The camp’s counselors are comprised of D-II and D-III flatbellies from Northeast colleges; I’ll be attempting to last a mere two hours in their company tonight.

Spending their mornings and afternoons with ankle-biters and many skating novices, the counselors are understandably starved for some serious ice time come evening. They also want to stay in shape. That’s where I come in. I take a Sunday shift at CJ on the Zamboni, and I am empowered with keys to the facility. Weekday evenings there in the summer are pretty much dead by 8:00. See where this is going?

Have I mentioned the advantage of youth these collegians will have on me?

Until this week I hadn’t been on the ice all summer. Worse, my off-ice summer training regimen has consisted largely of lifting draft Vogels. I’ve gone Tkachuk. Last weekend I made two trips to the gym to jumpstart my aerobic qualifications for tonight. But that’s like changing the oil on a ‘78 Chrysler Town&Country for a cross-country cruise to Cali.

On Monday night, I shared Cabin John’s minature studio rink with a beer league teammate, where we tossed the biscuit around a bit and got our feet used to being in skates again. A bit “winded” we were, early on, on that small surface.

Hit the gym again last night. There’s no small victory in these bursts of renewed fitness activity that haven’t already produced injury. I’ve also thrown down a bit of a nutritional gauntlet this week: no Dairy Queen, and wheat tortillas with my burritos. Last Friday night I tried Rolling Rock Light with my home movie viewing. The horror in the bottle was more terrifying than ShowtimeBeyond. (Under the category perhaps of wedding re-gifting, I still have five bottles to donate to any OFB reader.)

The odds are overwhelming, I think, that about 20 minutes into tonight’s skate I’ll be UpTkachuking.

But there’s no turning back. I’m treating tonight as a seminal moment in my hockey career. This autumn delivers one of those calamitous, ending-in-zero birthdays for me, a widely acknowledged crossroads between sun-setting athletic viability and out-to-pasture, well-past-prime leisure pursuits that quietly are lamented by the young in rinks. Tonight I will learn where Coach Life is slotting me on my shifts in 2007-’08: grinding on the fourth line with other grey-hair-eds or still hopping the boards for second power play unit potency.

Wilson Blvd. entrants to Ballston Common Mall this August are immediately greeted by an enormous new sweater banner for the Caps. It has to be 30 feet high. It’s two-sided and it looks awesome.

The Caps will inaugurate their formal training for the upcoming season on Saturday, September 8, when the rookies arrive at Kettler Capitals. The following Wednesday the rookies will travel to the Virtua Center Flyers Skate Zone in suburban Philadelphia and scrimmage against young Flyers.

Next September Philly will return the traveling favor and send their kids to Kettler Capitals for a scrimmage. This is precisely the kind of exciting broadening of the region’s hockey experience made possible by having a flagship facility in which to train. We were a part of the vibrant atmosphere in last month’s concluding Saturday evening scrimmage at the Caps’ Development Camp. Imagine the atmosphere with the Orange and Black in the house next fall.

How exactly does an NHLer spend his summer preparing for the rigors of the NHL’s 82 games-plus season? We know vaguely that many of them retain the services of personal trainers, that they skate a fair bit with other NHLers in informal gatherings at rinks across North America, and that few sit around indolent all summer chugging beers (hockey bloggers fill in capably in that task). Specifically, though, how do these remarkable athletes train and prepare for their lengthy immersion in the planet’s fastest, roughest, and, come playoff time, most grueling team sport? It’s a question I wanted to pose to a Capitals’ player this summer, and with the help of Capitals’ Director of Media Relations Nate Ewell this week, I was able to.

When I first learned that Boyd Gordon had arrived back in D.C. in the first week of August, I was startled. Western Canadian Caps have historically trained back home in Western Canada and arrived in town much closer to the start of September’s training camp. But far from cutting short his offseason training regimen, Gordon told me that he’d completed a demanding training schedule in Vancouver, of fully three months, in British Columbia’s mountains and at a fitness facility among the likes of Trevor Linden and Kris Beech. Now he was back in D.C. to continue his preparations for the upcoming season  largely because so many of his Caps’ teammates want to start skating together well in advance of camp. Beginning next week, Gordon told me, a healthy contingent of Caps will be skating together out at Kettler Capitals five times a week, in “hour-and-a-half, maybe hour-and-forty-five [minute]” conditioning stints featuring “drills, scrimmaging . . . and then the [serious] skating.”

I got fatigued just listening to Gordon’s description of “running mountains” in Vancouver for three months and then getting serious on the ice out at Kettler this month. On Wednesday Gordon was giving Caps’ broadcaster Craig Laughlin a hand with the instruction of 25 or so summer camp Mites on the Kettler ice. I began my inquiry of him wondering when he individually transitioned from the rest and relaxation NHLers needed after completing the bruises-and-bone-battering slate of last season to the get-serious-about-next-season training regimen.

“I don’t usually take that much time off from working out,” he told me. “I had surgery on my ankle at the end of last season and took off four weeks. The ankle feels great,” he claimed.

“So about four weeks off with the surgery, but then I get stir crazy.”

Vancouver has some pretty serious mountains and hills, and apparently Gordon views their variety and severity as a training lure. He is also drawn to British Columbia’s temperate summers.

“It’s cool, you don’t have to get up early to go running and stuff. Every day’s different. You go five days a week, sometimes four depending on how early in the summer [it is].”

The fatigued-from-listening blogger interrupted to inquire about the possibility of training-free weekends. Beers with buddies . . . a furlough from the fitness frenzy. Weekends, Gordon assured me, are for recovery and a bit of a mental break.

“Every guy’s different [in specific fitness routine], but June [workouts], it’s almost exclusively off ice,” he explained. Gordon spent his June pumping his legs up the British Columbia peaks and working with equipment and weights at a Vancouver facility frequented by pro hockey players. Summer’s schedule for NHLers appears designed to deliver them to September training camp emerged from fitness routines that improve their overall strength and conditioning but also address areas of need in their physical development. But the programs also have to guard against training extremes that could burn out or injure the players. (Continued)

Tired of traveling to Maryland or Prince William County for practice, a number of Northern Virginia women banded together to form the Beltway Bandits Women’s Hockey team to serve Arlington, Fairfax, Loudoun, and DC. They travel for games from Richmond to New Jersey and now call the Kettler Capitals Iceplex their home.

The Bandits are champions of the 2006 Summer Sizzler Tournament in Aston, PA, and last season came in 2nd place in the division, and 4th place at USA Hockey SE Districts.

The Bandits will be holding tryouts later this month for the 2007-2008 season at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex.

It is requested that interested players attend both dates on:

Thursday, Aug 23rd 9:45 11:15pm
Tuesday, Aug 28rd 8:00 9:30pm

For more information, email the bandits at banditshockey@gmail.com or visit their website at beltwaybandits-hockey.com.

Encouraged by the positive reaction to the scrimmage video from day one, I rolled some more tape yesterday during the final scrimmage. I told Al Koken, who was standing next to me, that I have a new respect for his colleagues behind the camera. He replied, “they’re the best in the biz.”

In the words of the Warner Wolf, “let’s go to the videotape.”

Friday night’s scrimmage went a bit off script: the coaches decided to incorporate specialty teams play midway through both periods, with the teams alternating manpower advantages for the balance of the back half of the stanzas. There was also this pleasant surprise: sudden death overtime play. In the second 5-minute OT session Nicklas Backstrom swept across Simeon Varlamov’s crease with a cross-ice feed from linemate Francois Bouchard and tucked in the game-ender, giving Team Blue a 3-2 triumph. Don’t be surprised if that forward combination is one we see sirening red lights behind enemy cages in the years ahead.

That overtime flair was exceeded moments earlier by the save of the week, authored by Michael Nuevirth. Sean Backman flipped a clever, two-defender elluding pass on the left wing to Bryan Lerg, who raced in unimpeded on Nuevirth. Lerg made a terrific lateral move in tight, and lifted a game-winner targeting the unguarded top right shelf. Somehow, Nuevirth snared it with his glove. A number of us watching from center ice thought the game had ended on the shot.

This night, however, belonged to Jeff Lovecchio. The 6 ‘2, 195-lb. left wing completed a 34-pt. season for Western Michigan of the CCHA in ‘06-’07. The native of Chesterfield, Mo., has had a super solid week. Tonight he showcased his impressive speed, strength, and offensive zone grit better than any other forward.

“Lovecchio stands out because he works so hard,” Head Coach Glen Hanlon said afterward. “But remember he’s 22.” Hanlon spent some moments with reporters after tonight’s scrimmage delineating the careful evaluative process club officials are undertaking in an atmosphere that at times features five- and six-year age discrepancies among players out on a shift.

Another lasting image this week is what Joe Finley regularly does to undersized forwards (in other words, every one he faces) who run out of time and space in his end. You know how offensive linemen in football get credited with “pancakes” for flattening opposing lineman with technically brutal blocking? Well, Finley is inviting a category I’d term “rag doll-ing”: he simply thumps opposing forwards to the ice in close quarters with little effort of his shoulders.

More than a few veteran observers of pro hockey have this week pointed out that the week’s scrimmages appear to have been dominated by the blueline talent. While the scoring hasn’t been conspicuously low in the two, 30-minute, running clock formats, the shot volume has been. And the camp’s goaltenders have seldom been called upon to be spectacular. But consider what the camp’s forwards are facing in terms of blueline experience. Sean Collins is an ‘83 birthyear, with four seasons of NCAA hockey completed. Sami Lepisto is a veteran of the Finnish Elite League. Oscar Hedman is a vet of the Swedish Elite League. Karl Alzner is a big-bodied, top 5 pick renowned for his on-ice maturity. Joe Finley has just two seasons of NCAA hockey under his belt, but he’s bigger than Ballston Mall’s parking lot. And then you’ve got an awful lot of quality goaltending behind these defenders. Advantage absolutely to the D.

Seen and Heard at Kettler Capitals

* 2005 first-rounder Sasha Pokulok still hasn’t been cleared for contact skating, and while he’s participating in morning drills this week, quietly there is growing sentiment within the Caps’ organization that Pokulok’s blueline candidacy with the big club is fast approaching flickering candle status.* Earlier this week I learned that the voice of the Hershey Bears, John Walton, will debut his own hockey blog in advance of the upcoming hockey season. That should be special, particularly if Walton can set aside some modesty and upload a few of his famous calls, like Eric Fehr’s Eastern Conference winner in Game 7 sudden death in the spring of 2006. Think Ozzy Osbourne, unsedated, meets Howard Dean, actually nominated. The brigade from Hershey, Pa., grew tonight with the Patriot News’ Tim Leone arriving for his first visit to Kettler Capitals. He had a chance to chat a bit with Bears bench boss Bruce Boudreau, and when I asked him if anyone had particularly caught the coach’s notice this week, he said “Andrew Gordon sure has.”

* Those of you who’ve been OFB readers for more than a month know of my regard for Leone’s coverage of the Bears. Tonight he shared a kind word with me for my file on the old Hershey Arena earlier this spring, and he alerted me to the fact that he has a chapter on the great old barn in his history of the Bears, titled Hershey Bears: Sweet Seasons.

I hopped on over to amazon.com right as I returned home and found this reader review of Leone’s book:

“Well-researched and very interesting history about one of the oldest and most interesting ice hockey teams in the world. Interesting and in-depth, but very readable. For me, though, the book is worth it for the photographs alone. A must-read for any Bears fan or hockey historian.”

It’s already been added to my summer reading list. Put it on yours.