In Glacialis Blog

Primoris res’ primoris: Caput Sarcalogos Expedio, quisnam took a ferinus, undeflected Alexander Ovechkin slapshot directus ut suus caput capitis in tertius period Friday nox noctis, est in rationabiliter bonus vultus. Secundum team, is sino haud infractus bones, haud concussion, quod suscipio vieo ut suus auris (dont’ teneo quot). Dont’ teneo suus statua pro cras nox noctis in St. Louis, tamen gnarus is guy, abyssus’ reperio a via infirmo sicco cobwebs, confuto poena, quod plumbum suus copiae copie obviam Puteulanus.

• Nunquam a bonus informatio ut talea unus of plagiarius’ teres goaltenders ut an mane plumbum, singulariter ut is has 9-0 MoJo obviam vos iens pro him ut is est. Caps socius secundum mane, a iugo of fluky reus succurro ‘Nucks ut suum primoris duos calx, quod Caps erant lascivio reprehendo- sursum totus nox noctis.

• Non ut pitch deputo obviam a parietis, tamen venatus pes ex is unus moris’ exsisto summitto ut leagues’ Muneris of Officiating quod IDd’ ut “ puer did boys in virga dico a stellar unus hic” Faux poena, parum instances of tribuo hockey ludio ludius ( utrimque) sanctio pro unsportsmanlike, quod altus virga galore vicis “Refs vos sck*” chants ex domus fidelis. Ovechkin in proprius had suus chicklets seemingly ordine labefactum ex Canuck virga vesica wielded altus.

• Per super six minutes left in alter period, Olie Kolzig kept suus team in venatus per iugum of cuspis- vestis, fanny- erigo- in-- sto servo in Henrik Seditio.

• Aliquantulus laxus in alter, Viktor Kozlov, puck sub imperium in suus virga quod parum pressure in him altus in suus own terminus, requiro seeing a prolixus- patefacio-down-- medius Alexander Semin pro would would have been a certus tersus breakaway. Ut would have been a tracto video vidi visum, duos of venatus’ premiere talentum in a unus- in- unus showdown.

• Is eram a slapshot surculus peruro pro Alexander Semin, notus recedentia magis pro suus universitas- ordo wrister; is flatus utique three procul Roberto Luongo. Suus ratio unus cuspis in vox lascivio had quispiam efficio per ut.

• Narro of vox lascivio, is went 2- pro-5 tonight, per Cogo Hanlon intentio an totus porro iunctum of quinque (Alex O quod Alex S, Expedio, Nylander, quod Kozlov) in prothoplastus iunctum. Mos is subsisto intact in St. Louis? Ferreus ut oro per a 40 sentio prosperitas rate — quod obviam Luongo, quoque — poema poematis quis preeo is.

• Suus’ decens aliquantulus of a infractus record, tamen iterum Ovechkin ledo panton inimicus ut commotus, sepius thunderously. Im’ non certus EGO saw Vestigium Nuntius in suus prime take somes ut convenienter quod ut truculenter — quod forensis — ut AO est is season.

• EGO instituo Caps’ blueline corpus quinymo underwhelming in suus imperator effectiveness in venatus’ primoris dimidium tamen venalicium melior in alter. Kolzig mereo mereor melior suscipio quam quis is got ex lemma in prothoplastus period.

• Vancouvers’ reprehendo versus EGO sententia did a verus efficens officium obviam Ovechkin versus totus nox noctis porro. Procul vel vires is ingenero minimal sustineo pressure.

• ‘Nuck Kevin Bieska eram a convenienter vis of retardo obviam Caps’ porro down mugio totus nox noctis. Nonnullus of is eram of forensis varietas, nonnullus of is, a lascivio, eram non. Tamen is eram an efficens nuissance.

EGO had a chance ut chat per a Caps’ persona quisnam eram tendo procul utriusque Draft Certamen in Toronto quod Viscus Draft ipsum in Columbus. Tener Pat Kane, prothoplastus pick of draft per Hawks, est liberatio sui quinymo puteus ut an 18- annus- vetus in Chicagos’ caput capitis 6, torqueo sursum 13 cuspis in iustus 10 venatus eatenus. EGO volo scio si procul ullus cuspis permaneo ver Caps’ orichalcum had flirted per informatio of institutio sursum ex haud. 5 macula per an oculus in grabbing Kane. brevis refero est haud. Caps did spatium Kane, quod team eram valde infigo per him. “is told nos ut is eram positus ut is eram iens ludo in NHL, is annus, quod planto an labefactum” persona told mihi. Vox in utriusque duco.

Secundum tonights’ venatus in St. Louis, team mos no in Toronto pro Monday nox noctis’ venatus obviam Folium. team moris’ skate in Sunday quod instead mos rudimentum perceptum a beneficium Tornacense of Hockey Aula of Laus. Quasi VIP Tornacense. Gotta reputo quispiam amo ut would planto per an infigo in aliquid amo Nicklas Backstrom. Si proprius saluto takes locus, requiro Mike Vogel ut chronicle is in vivid retineo mane tunc week.

Procul a novus placitum yesterday, Lavatio Caput chairman quod major domus erus Ted Leonsis orator of quam professio athletes es sepius laudabilis pro suum virtus. Is innotesco ut virtus can take plures vultus, ex vir nostri bellicus quod primoris respondeo ut nostrum liberi pugna morbus. Ut reperio a via ut suum universus norma quod fans could ostendo suum suscipio, they partum Virtus Caps.

Virtus Caps es team- proventus quod torqueo hats quod ero miles militis, satus October 26th, pro $20 procul defero consanguinei traba procul Caput domus venatus quod online proculWashingtonCaps.com quodNHL.com. “ut nostrum fans gero illa hats”, Leonsis persevero, “they ostendo suum suscipio pro fortis populus per nostrum defero”

Quod, taedium of Virtus Caps hats ostendo suscipio, venditio suggero financial suscipio. centum% of venditio pretium mos vado beneficium CureSearch Populus Childhood Baculus Crepidoinis. CureSearch est a Bethesda- substructio nonprofit “ quod an NHL charitable socius ut focuses in erigo crumens pro Children’s Oncology Humus, world’s amplus consensio cancer research norma ut tracto 90% of liberi per cancer”

team electus an vetus amicus iuvo debut is novus progressio, pro press placitum took locus per teams’ annual saluto ut Liberi’ Populus Medical Center. universus team, Leonsis quod socius Raul Fernandez erant procul hospitium pro press placitum.

Pro annus Audivi of teams’ saluto ut Liberi’ Populus Medical Center, tamen is eram prothoplastus vicis ut EGO eram in manus manus ut vigilo ludio ludius quod liberi penitus. Ut a abbas of a quattuor- annus- vetus per alter obvius, saluto eram heartwarming quod tear-jerking. ludio ludius — totus of lemma — sat down procul traba quod infucatus per liberi ut erant puteus satis dimitto suum beds quod exsisto patesco ut unmasked salutor quod untold germen. Is infractus meus pectus pectoris video vidi visum illa liberi, nonnullus in wheelchairs, alius per multiplex IV tubes quod fascia, quod admiratio qualis abyssus they quod suum parentes es victus. Tamen tunc vos animadverto smiles in suum visio ut Sarcalogos Expedio chirographum a hat pro lemma, vel Brent Johnson asks quis colo colui cultum is should colo colui cultum hockey ludio ludius’ galea, vel ut aliquantulus puella runs super ut Olie Kolzig ut inquit “Hi illic pigtails, quam es vos?” Illic est quoque a simplex tripudium of seeing illa amplus- quam- vita hockey ludio ludius sessio per suum ventus Crayola hue quod trying moror in versus.

EGO eram narro per hospitium’ procurator of publicus consanguinei, Emily Dammeyer, quisnam told mihi ut is est hospitium’ ventus vicis of annus. “They vere prodigo vicis per liberi, non iustus planto an vultus, singulariter upstairs qua venit es off.”

Quod no mihi recordor Olie, quisnam non tantum has been coming ut Liberi’ Populus Medical Center praeter quisquam alius in norma, tamen est quoque a abbas. EGO asked him quam is usus has changed ex pro is eram a dad ut secundum.

“Ive’ usquequaque had a fondness pro kids, quod been a magnus puto ut res a kid quod res infirmus shouldnt’ vado manus manus in manus manus … tunc vos fio a abbas tunc vos animadverto quam vital is est habeo a facility amo is”

Solus res absentis ex yesterdays’ vicis eram interventus. Press solvo renuntio vicis quod photo op erant sent sicco per Caput quod Liberi’ Populus Medical Center. Forsitan EGO requiro nonnullus visio quod nomen, tamen EGO puto tantum Ego, a Comcast SportsNet TV Cameraman, quod duos photographers famulor. Quam talis tremendous officina per an norma quod suus ludio ludius can vado unnoticed vel per parum penitus est repugnant.

Meus gratiae progredior ut Caput quod sulum procul Liberi’ Populus Medical Center, singulariter Emily Dammeyer quod Vestigium Miller, pro affording mihi beneficium arbitro arbitror is annual vicis of pietas quod charisma.

Pauci magis pictures of vicis can exsisto seen secundum effrego.

(persevero)

Foedero Aer Palus es unus via ut subsequens obses … Datum Procax looming super passengers est per alius. Quod certus operornon dico him Shirley.

Sarcalogos Expedio, Datum Procax, Vepres Pothier, Mike Viridis, quod Nicklas Backstrom “ mos succurro team’s persona airline, Southwest Airlines, per decens Southwest utor pro meridianus in Tuesday, Oct. 16, procul Baltimore/ Lavatio International Thurgood Palus Airport” ex 230: PM ut 500: PM.

Per Caput’ press solvo, hockey ludio ludius ero institutio glacies pro tarmac: sarcina bags, succurro passengers tabula fuga, quod vel succurro rector plagiarius in runway (!!). Slapshot mos quoque exsisto procul BWI, dispensatio peanuts quod lascivio venatus per viator. Pro quondam, fuga profero may non exsisto ut dolens ut usitas.

Quis did Lavatio Caput proficio per suum preseason is September? A bonus frenum, EGO reputo. Primoris quod primoris, they artificiosus plurrimi maximus negotium: they parco serius malum — weve’ haud testimonium ut Alexander Semins’ ankle sprain est serius. Alter plurimus significant factum, in meus sententia, eram seeing a sanus numerus of vegetus visio tractare procul a altus campester quod puteus integrate per recidivus Caps’ core. Tomas Fleischmann, is videor, has won primoris versus vox pennae officium. Abyssus’ exsisto centered, utique coepi, per Viktor Kozlov. Sic duos- tertius of Washingtons’ caput capitis versus est novus is season. Is vultus magis lascivio dignus quam aut of suus praevius incarnations preteritus duos seasons.

Narro of vultus lascivio dignus, Caps effrego castra iactantia unus of plurrimi intriguing secundus versus in totus of hockey — vindicatum Alexander Semins’ ankle est mereo a dies- ut- dies ailment. Nicklas Backstroms’ libramen quod uber ex suus valde primoris pre se ferre venatus in validus EGO reputo vel procuratio’ rosiest forecast. Requiro him ut amplio mensis per mensis ut suus vegetus season progressio, quod pro him ut exsisto lodged in everybodys’ brevis album of Calder candidates adveho ver. Amo Caps’ caput capitis versus, alter, centered per Michael Nylander, est 66 sentio novus is autumn.

Versus three mos have a novus vultus pariter. Boyd Gordon mos center is, quod Res Pettinger mos latuseris him in left. Tamen alius Ipsa Gero, Dave Steckel, no verus loud sonitus ( singulariter in visio orbis) is palaestra castra. Is may optimus duco vir in universus norma, is lascivio a smart venatus, quod is consortio maxime puteus per Gordon. (Caps’ fans can tantum spes Gordon quod Steckel replicate in Lavatio suum duos- via opus ex Hersheys’ postseason run ut Calder glorior 2006.) Caput Sarcalogos Expedio videor futurus aliquantulus of utilitas infielder pro prothoplastus three versus — hes’ amo video vidi visum officium in totus three is season. Interdum is should skate in Gordons’ vox, procul alius — forsitan ut per is week, ut a teammate sursum caput capitis est vulnero — abyssus’ skate in caput capitis 6.

Ut Caps’ quartus versus, iustus 30 hora pro oris nox noctis rosters must exsisto summitto ut league, may etiam have quinque bodies vying pro assignment: Datum Procax, Res Bradley, Vepres Sutherby, Revolvo Laich, quod Ben Clymer. In repens seasons Caps’ roster has had vultus quod sentio of nimium muck quod grit quoque altus sursum frons. Is autumn, multus of is has been pulsus pessum, quod a logjam has emerged. Suus’ been utique quinquennis utpote Caps could probabilis vindicatum three versus idoneus of exhibitio cuspis per ullus reliability. Theyll’ polleo ut in 2007-08.

Illic’ aliquanto minor turnover quod templum in blueline: tantum Tom Venenum supervenio foris in caput capitis 6. Caps’ procuratio est vultus pro suus blueline somes ut subolesco quod blossom organically, quod is September, illic erant foveo subcribo of venalicium lenimentus e. Milan Jurcina reverto ut Lavatio brimming per bulging biceps; suus teammates lamnia lammina lamna pro him cognomen “Juice.” Is flebilis sicco dozens of frendo hits permaneo season secundum adventum ex Boston, quod 2007-08 could animadverto him talea a legitiums vindicatum ut an labefactum, caput capitis-2 physical vis.

Ut Caps sent Mike Viridis tergum ut Ipsa permaneo ver they instructed him ut vado obscoena. Is did. Ut burst of uber ex blueline persevero is preseason, ut pro ultum of is Viridis led Caps in ustulo. Is eram in nemo’ radar pro vox lascivio cuspis officium three weeks abhinc; iam is may exsisto secui of iunctum’ secundus iugum.

Permaneo season Vepres Pothier, ex necesse, eram vis in persona quod minutes is wasnt’ solitus quod consentaneus. Requiro him vigeo in a magis stabilis — quod intus an super magis ingeniosus — defensabiliter iunctum. Tamen sit quoque idoneus of tractare procul a altus campester — quisquam quisnam saw him skate pro Mike Sullivan quod Iunctus Civitas tandem ver’ Universitas Championships would congruo.

Illic erant haud questions super Caps in net caput capitis in castra. Illic es nullus recedo is.

Illic est valetudo. Illic est league- prolixus voluntas ut dum ceterus of Inferus scamnum pat, Caps upgraded. Illic est susurro. Illic est bene. Totus est bonus. Iam, suus’ vicis ut occumbo puck.

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.

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.

I greatly appreciate my bloggermate Orderedchaos’ initial survey of preseason prediction silliness. Outside of Entertainment Tonight, there can be little in this world as vacuous and vapid as “experts” engaged in summertime “prognosticating” about the performance of sports teams.

I’m a college football enthusiast, and there are at least a half dozen published preseason magazines on newsstands this month, all offering specific rankings for all 117 D-I college football teams. Each team has 85 scholarship players, with approximately 20 graduating and 20 newly arriving each season. Many returning players markedly remake their bodies over the offseason with increasingly sophisticated and effective physique-altering training regimens. They also mature. There are, additionally, widespread personnel changes among the ranks of teams’ assistant coaches every offseason.

All of these publications have their preseason forecasts put to bed long before players report for physicals for fall camp. In short, the variables of change in college football are staggeringly enormous from season to season, and yet few of them are reflected in these “forecasts.” Still, the editors of these magazines would have you believe that from their New York offices they can accurately, magically divine the fates of nearly 10,000 football players scattered across the country, most of whom they’ve never seen play.

It is with the same skeptical, dismissive eye that we ought to weigh NHL forecasts offered up in summer. These endeavors are franchises of fraud. That Sports Illustrated could label the ‘05-’06 Carolina Hurricanes a lottery loser and then watch them go on to hoist Lord Stanley seven months later should forever preclude the magazine from forecasting again. There’s getting it wrong and then there’s blindfolded dart-throwing. In the case of the ‘05-’06 NHL season, dart throwing would have aided SI.

Now to be fair, the league had been shut down the preceding season by the lockout. But even in the instances of uninterrupted competition, across sports, these forecasts are exercises in little more than slickly marketed, superficial guesswork. And they are unified in their being reliably wrong. They exist because they exploit the sports fans’ enduring and insatiable thirst to know what will lie ahead for their heroes. And they are partly fueled by the troubling intersection of modern sports and high-stakes gambling (on- and off line). The fantastic popularity of fantasy sports participation has also mushroomed the popularity of the forecasting industry.

As mindless diversion for beach chair reading, they do no real harm. But they take on a larger-than-life credibility as their rankings and rationales are echoed about message boards and blogs and picked up and regurgitated by the electronic editions of mainstream media outlets. Hockey in particular ranks among the most difficult of sports to forecast; it is why there’s so little action on it in Vegas. How do you wager on or forecast a goalie standing on his head? On some nights, you know, Kerry Fraser doesn’t bring his best evaluative acumen to the sheet.

The Capitals, a few early prognosticators have weighed in upon, will make only modest improvement in the standings this season over the previous two. They will miss the postseason again, we are told.

Such assessments can only be premised on this variable: the team’s free agents signings were nice or decent but not on the order of rink shattering. But no one can know how Nicklas Backstrom will adjust to hockey in North America on the smaller sheet and over 80-plus games in his rookie season. The difference between his notching say 47 points versus 67 points almost certainly determines the team’s playoff viability, but who is confidently able to tell us which tally will prove true?

Who among the soothsayers knows how much if at all the team is improved in the shootout? Will Kolzig hold up and perform at an elite level for at least say 65 games? And certainly the team’s young blueline must have been judged in a development vacuum, within which none of Steve Eminger, Milan Jurcina, Shaone Morrisonn, and Mike Green could appreciably improve over a year ago . . . else, joined by the improvements up front, the team would have to seriously flirt with the postseason, if not outright qualify.

Hockey, too, has its future shrouded in a marvelous mystery of the unknown impact delivered from abroad. Raise your hand if last summer you saw 40 goals in Alexander Semin’s 2006-07 arsenal. You probably had Petr Prucha down for 30 in his rookie season on Broadway, too. It is North American media offering up these rigid preseason assessments, none with any notion of what impact virtually every team will enjoy from its new imports.

Hockey prose is fine for inclusion in any Labor Day beach reading list, just know that if it’s marketed as new season forecast, it’s fiction.

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.

(Continued)

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.

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.

We never tire of JP’s razor wit, and when referencing OFB’s Kettler encampment this week, he quipped “rookie camp is like crack to these guys.” If we are the crack-heads the Capitals are our dealer. And if we were required to enter rehab of some sort, we would not be alone. Loyal OFB reader sk84fun_dc has attended more of camp than us and has taken many quality pictures. She’s allowed us to post a few here:
(update: the first pic was taken by sk84fun_dc’s friend who’s given us permission to use it)

(Continued)

Halfway through the Capitals’ 2007 Rookie Camp, I have this general observation: there are bushels full of authentically professional hockey players skating out at Kettler Capitals this week. And the overwhelming majority of them are going to return this fall to their junior, collegiate, or minor pro clubs for additonal ripening. But shift after shift in these high-paced, highly competitive scrimmages, in jerseys blue and white, the evidence is ample that the Caps’ enlarged scouting staff of recent years has delivered dramatic dividends for the long-term future welfare of this organization. As early as this September, almost certainly there will be NHL-viable bodies dispatched to Bruce Boudreau and the American Hockey League, and perhaps a few back to the CHL as well.

Joe Finley could play pro hockey right now; instead, he’ll patrol the North Dakota Fighting Sioux blueline in its top pairing in 2007-08. Andrew Joudrey has an NHL stride and an NHL poise that will almost certainly make him a fan favorite in Hershey this season. Ditto for Andrew Gordon. Nicklas Backstrom is a top-six fixture among Caps forwards this fall, but to these eyes he’s