This ain’t bad, either: the Caps are now finished for the season against perhaps the East’s three best teams, Philly, Ottawa, and Montreal. Their record in those 12 games? 8-4.
There was a brief moment Tuesday night in Columbus — now known as McCreary’s Mischief — when the battle-scarred Caps’ chronicler in me reverted to a pessimistic fatalism of previous seasons. It was that sort of bizarre event that seemed so . . . Capitals-esque. But my composure returned, I kept watching, and rather rationally I think I adopted a muted expectation that all was not lost, that this Capitals’ team was different. And so why wouldn’t Tom Poti pick that moment to score his first goal of the season, and of course you know who not long afterward send the home crowd out into the Ohio night dejected from sudden death defeat.
It’s interesting to note that in 1983-84, a 101-pt. Capitals’ club — the very first 100-pt. Caps’ club — had three of its members earn heavy hardware. Bryan Murray won the Jack Adams, Rod Langway garnered his first Norris Trophy, and Doug Jarvis won the Selke. That’s the only time the Caps have won three of the league’s prestigious awards from the same season. That was a summer of awards that portended a period of distinct prosperity — the club’s first. This Capitals’ club won’t earn 100 points this season, although it might arrive at 95. Who might you think are frontrunners for the Hart, Adams, and Calder trophies at this moment?
Per the Washington Capitals press release:
The Washington Capitals have acquired a second-round choice in the 2009 Entry Draft from the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for center Brian Sutherby, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced.
Sutherby, 25, played five games for the Capitals this season and scored one goal. He had 61 points (26 goals, 35 assists) in 257 career games for Washington.
What did the Washington Capitals accomplish with their preseason this September? A good bit, I think. First and foremost, they accomplished the most important task: they avoided serious injury — we’ve no indication that Alexander Semin’s ankle sprain is serious. The second most significant accomplishment, in my opinion, was seeing a healthy number of fresh faces perform at a high level and well integrate with the returning Caps’ core. Tomas Fleischmann, it appears, has won first line right wing duty. He’ll be centered, at least initially, by Viktor Kozlov. So two-thirds of Washington’s top line is new this season. It looks more playoff worthy than either of its previous incarnations the past two seasons.
Speaking of looking playoff worthy, the Caps break camp boasting one of the most intriguing second lines in all of hockey — assuming Alexander Semin’s ankle is merely a day-to-day ailment. Nicklas Backstrom’s poise and production from his very first exhibition game on exceeded I think even management’s rosiest forecast. Look for him to improve month by month as his freshman season progresses, and for him to be lodged on everybody’s short list of Calder candidates come spring. Like the Caps’ top line, the second, centered by Michael Nylander, is 66 percent new this autumn.
Line three will have a new look as well. Boyd Gordon will center it, and Matt Pettinger will flank him on the left. But another Hershey Bear, Dave Steckel, made real loud noise (especially in the faceoff circle) this training camp. He may best draw man in the entire organization, he plays a smart game, and he partners exceedingly well with Gordon. (Caps’ fans can only hope Gordon and Steckel replicate in Washington their two-way work from Hershey’s postseason run to Calder glory in 2006.) Captain Chris Clark appears to be a bit of the utility infielder for the first three lines — he’s likely to see duty on all three this season. At times he should skate on Gordon’s right, at others — perhaps as with this week, when a teammate up top is injured — he’ll skate in the top 6.
That Caps’ fourth line, just 30 hours before opening night rosters must be submitted to the league, may still have five bodies vying for assignment: Donald Brashear, Matt Bradley, Brian Sutherby, Brooks Laich, and Ben Clymer. In recent seasons the Caps’ roster has had the look and feel of too much muck and grit too high up front. This autumn, a lot of it has been pushed downward, and a logjam has emerged. It’s been at least five years since the Caps could credibly claim three lines capable of producing points with any reliability. They’ll be able to in 2007-08.
There’s considerably less turnover and churn on the blueline: only Tom Poti arrives from outside in the top 6. Caps’ management is looking for its blueline corps to mature and blossom organically, and this September, there were encouraging signs of marked improvement from within. Milan Jurcina returned to Washington brimming with bulging biceps; his teammates coined for him the nickname “Juice.” He doled out dozens of bruising hits last season after arriving from Boston, and 2007-08 could see him stake a legitimate claim as an impact, top-2 physical force.
When the Caps sent Mike Green back to Hershey last spring they instructed him to go offensive. He did. That burst of production from the blueline continued this preseason, when for much of it Green led the Caps in scoring. He was on nobody’s radar for power play point duty three weeks ago; now he may be part of the unit’s second pairing.
Last season Brian Pothier, out of necessity, was forced into roles and minutes he wasn’t accustomed and suited to. Look for him to flourish in a more stable — and within an overall more talented — defensive unit. But he is also capable of performing at a high level — anyone who saw him skate for Mike Sullivan and the United States at last spring’s World Championships would agree.
There were no questions about the Caps in net heading into camp. There are none departing it.
There is health. There is the league-wide sense that while the rest of the Southeast stood pat, the Caps upgraded. There is buzz. There is optimism. All is good. Now, it’s time to drop the puck.
The swollen and bruised Russians are dressed and practicing this morning. None were making the trip to Carolina today anyway. Their commarade Ovechkin is anything but beat up; he was in his usual Acela Express super stride, and he made a point of turning this morning’s 9:30 practice partly into his own personal competition with Olie Kolzig, dancing hip jigs at scores and uttering rink-wide-audible, English-blended-with-Russian oaths at his failures, during every drill. (For his part Kolzig didn’t man his crease quietly during the challenge.)
Another entertaining portion of the day’s first practice arrived at its end, when Hershey Bears’ bench men Bruce Boudreau and Bob Woods, who ran practice, placed 10 pucks on the two bluelines and divided the session’s skaters into two teams for a quasi-shootout showdown. I was wondering how early into camp I’d see the Caps try and address last season’s shootout woes. My recollection is that Hershey didn’t fare much better, so it may have have been a mutually beneficial endeavor. But this drill was as much relatively relaxed fun as anything else, and you could hear and see the enthusiam in every skater.
Players were seated on the two benches, and rotated taking shots. When a player failed in his shot he had to retrieve the puck and skate it back to the blueline and “tag up” with the next skater. The competition only ended when one team had bettered its goaltender with all 10 pucks. Jacub Klepis was by far the most impressive shooter, potting three behind losing netminder Kolzig in very elite hands fashion.
You try and remind yourself that barely a long weekend’s worth of camp has been completed, but with it so compressed now, actually, by day’s end, camp will be about one-fifth completed. The Caps have already made cuts.
Over camp’s first three days Brian Sutherby has been a standout performer. His stride, too, has been strong — he’s absolutely flying out there, skating as well as I’ve ever seen. After today’s first session I asked if him if he’d done anything new or distinctive with his training this summer. This biggest change, he told me, was getting back on the ice a lot earlier than usual.
“I started skating twice a week in early June, which a lot of guys don’t do,” he said. “I also worked on my strength, just trying to get stronger.”
“I want to get lower [in my stride]. You see how low guys like Nylander and Crosby get in their strides . . . taller guys have to work at it.”
His long battle with a troubling groin appears to be in the past. “It’ll never be 100 percent,” he told me. “I battled it a long time, and it feels great now. I think I’ve put [that concern] to bed for the most part.”
I also asked him to try and place this year’s camp into context with the other half dozen or so he’s completed with the Caps. I wanted to know how far he’d thought the organization had come since his arrival in it.
“Compared to the first couple of camps, we’re getting right there, with where we want to be,” he told me. “Back when I first got here, we were supposed to be good — we had guys like Jagr. Now it’s a lot different. We have a lot of depth. We have a lot of young guys but they’ve got 150, 200 games in the league.”
Reminder: today’s matinee exhibition opener in Carolina will be audiocast on the Caps’ web site, with Mike Vogel teaming with Steve Kolbe on the call.
As Training Camp slowly (so slowly) approaches, we decided to take a quick look at some of the new faces, returnees, hopefuls and last-chancers that will be vying for a spot in the Caps’ forward corps. Battles at many slots are expected, and this may be one of the most competitive camp in Caps’ history.
First, we’ll examine the forwards, a group that received an infusion of talent down the middle and added a veteran scoring winger:
Nicklas Backstrom – The youngster is seemingly a lock for the big squad. A slick-passing center with hockey sense and puck-control, the most impressive thing about his game at this point may be his attention to the other end of the ice. His awareness and positioning without the puck, coupled with his creativity and vision should be a boon to either of the Caps’ elite left wingers. Foot speed is a concern, and while he won’t arrive in North America to the same fanfare that Alex Ovechkin did, the “Next Great Swede� will have all the eyes of his country upon him.
Herewith, our attempt to devise a depth chart for the Caps to coincide with the recent completion of the team’s annual Rookie Development Camp. It’s important to note that with it we are not forecasting specific line combos but rather attempting to slot players by position according to their professional production and most recent performances in evaluative settings. It’s also important to note that a number of forwards in the Caps’ system play more than one position up front. The Russian elites and Matt Pettinger appear locks on the left side for well into the next decade, whereas the right side seems to carry many more question marks.
We’ve envisioned this as a file hopefully sparking spirited reaction and respectful challenge. We welcome your proposed modifications.
The Caps this morning announced the resigning of defenseman Steve Eminger and center Brian Sutherby. Terms were not disclosed.
Update: Tarik has the details  both received one-year pacts, Eminger’s for a million bucks, Suts at 800k. Also, the Caps today announced the signing of free agent, depth center Jason Morgan. The 30-year-old Morgan got a cup of coffee with the Minnesota Wild last season (four games) and 57 with Houston of the American Hockey League.
What kind of fan does this make me  the Caps aren’t going to qualify for the postseason this year, but I don’t even want them to? I acknowledge that professional athletes have fiery competitiveness in their DNA, and I am aware of GMGM’s longtsanding assertion that there’s a real crapshoot quality to the NHL’s postseason, but to me conspicuously flawed clubs have no business bearing brass ring aspirations. I have no interest in seeing this Caps’ team, as it’s currently comprised, go into a round one series with a second-line center by committee, a mish-mash of mid-level and inexperienced blueliners, and wildly unbalanced scoring among four lines.
I can speak only as a fan, but it seems to me there’s only one reason to venture into the postseason: to win. How plausible is postseason winning for an outfit that’s yet to prove it can be competitive regularly with the Florida Panthers? All manner of consolation prizes to the postseason  of “experience” and “character” building  strikes me as diversionary prittle-prat, the domain of losers. Me = not interested in door prizes.
Generally by February the interminable NHL season reveals the true identity of its member clubs, and what we know of the Caps after nearly 60 games this season is that they’re still searching for their durable identity. Mercifully, the organization allowed the delusionally inaccurate marketing slogan “Always Intense” of a couple of seasons ago to wither into oblivion. (They’re rarely intense in Sunrise.) Here’s my free marketing advice for a slogan: “We’re building something.”
And that’s really good news.
Olie Kolzig’s injury yesterday occasioned what I regarded as a surprising torrent of “our playoff hopes are dashed now” reactions from fans and media. (Tarik this morning at least termed them “feint.”) Those plausible hopes were dashed a couple of weeks ago. How does a battered 12th or 13th place in the conference outfit consistently better the points tallies of upwards of a half dozen clubs above them, all of whom possess more experienced bluelines and better balanced scoring? And above them aren’t the Florida Panthers.
I understand as well as anybody the accumulated shoulder slumping of years’ worth of being on the outside looking in as far as the playoffs are concerned. But I’m preferential to the Buffalo style of organization building: you’re bad when you’re on the outs, but once in, you’re very, very good. And there are other similar models; it pains me to say it, but the Pens may be on the cusp of arriving at that status. At least they might soon wreak their havoc in another conference.
It’s been a season of mixed developments for the Caps. They’ve found a terrific captain in Chris Clark, settling for a while a glaring leadership void. Boyd Gordon has enjoyed a grand development leap. Alexander Semin is on the cusp of superstardom. Mike Green has played brilliantly, quite well, and poorly  about what you’d expect from a talented rookie logging veteran’s minutes. And in an admittedly brief audition Green’s ‘04 draftmate Jeff Schultz has demonstrated poise and promise. But there have been, too, glaring and daunting instances of regress. Brian Sutherby’s atrophied offense, Ben Clymer’s merit-based benchings; even one-dimensional play from #8. Kris Beech’s flop was wholly predictable.
I’m accused at times of being a glass-is-half-full optimist, even when the losing is at its ugliest, the line combinations their most cluttered, the standings woes their most worrisome. This morning my metaphor is aeronautical. Our playoff charter is at the gate, but mechanics are still working on it, the flightplan is still being verified, and inside the terminal, on two walkways moving passengers in opposite directions, the walkway toward boarding bears a better volume than its counterpart.
(Channeling Elton John) (Kidding) Sir Elton almost certainly didn’t have the 2007 postseason aspirations of the Washington Capitals in mind when he recorded ‘Candle in the Wind,’ but this morning said candle is tottering in Tornado Alley. It’s been pleasant imagining our torment in the Igloo drawing to a Baltimore Colts-like close this season, but tomorrow afternoon, I suspect, we’ll be reminded of Kansas City’s proximity to mobile home mayhem as Sidney & Co. State Farm claim our season. And right about now I wouldn’t mind auditioning Elton in front of Kolzig’s crease.
There are nemesis teams . . . and then there are the Florida Panthers. As in the last-place-in-the-Southeast-all-season-long Florida Panthers (until this morning), whom we can’t remain competitive with into a second period. A fourth-place club in the Southeast last season, they took seven of eight from the Caps then. The first clear sign this winter of funnel cloud formation for me was the Saturday matinee immediately before the All Star break, a rematch with the Cats precisely a week after the 7-3, 50-plus-shots-surrendered mauling in Sunrise. A lifeless Caps team on January 20 whimpered into the break on the short end of a 4-1 game.
Realignment, anyone?
Then they returned from the break and laid an egg in Carolina. They won the next night’s rematch, but that was misleading: they were solidly outshot, and they were the beneficiaries of numerous Carolina miscues laid at the feet of our snipers.
Injuries tell a fair portion of this season’s mid-season collapse, but they do not account for the quasi-regular lifelessness gutting the competitiveness out of games before many fannies have found their seats. Ronnie Wilson’s last couple of Caps’ teams had the Dahlen-Halpern-Kono line to thwart early opposition surges, settle things down, home and away. It also chipped in timely goals. This Caps’ team doesn’t. It also doesn’t have a superstar forward yet able to embrace high stakes showdowns and will his undermanned team to a tough victory.
Yet.
Nor is the blame to be shouldered solely by the super-skilled sophomore. Last season’s less talented Caps, overmatched virtually every night, fairly thrilled its fans with its tenacity, its perserverence, its gumption and guile. And what sets this season so disspiritingly apart from last is that the very agents of that heart-and-soul outfit this season are . . . AWOL. I don’t envy GMGM as winter turns to spring and he confronts personnel decisions all of us thought long settled by last season’s grinding success.
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