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Opening Night Roster Set

By The OFB Team

Monday, October 6, 2008

The Washington Capitals announced that Karl Alzner and Chris Bourque have been assigned to the Hershey Bears. Quintin Laing was placed on waivers and, if cleared, will report to Hershey.




2008 Washington Capitals Opening Night Roster
FORWARDS
#	*Player*	*Ht.*	*Wt.*	*Shoots*	*Born*	*Birthplace*	*2007-08 Club(s)*	*League(s)*
19	BACKSTROM, Nicklas	6’0”	183	Left	11/23/87	Gavle, Sweden	Capitals	NHL
10	BRADLEY, Matt	6’3”	201	Right	6/13/78	Stittsville, Ontario	Capitals	NHL
87	BRASHEAR, Donald	6’2”	234	Left	1/7/72	Bedford, Indiana	Capitals	NHL
17	CLARK, Chris	6’0”	196	Right	3/8/76	South Windsor, Connecticut	Capitals	NHL
91	FEDOROV, Sergei	6’2”	207	Left	12/13/69	Pskov, Russia	Capitals/Columbus	NHL
16	FEHR, Eric	6’4”	212	Right	9/7/85	Winkler, Manitoba	Capitals/Hershey	NHL/AHL
14	FLEISCHMANN, Tomas	6’1”	190	Left	5/16/84	Koprivinice, Czech Republic	Capitals	NHL
15	GORDON, Boyd	6’1”	201	Right	10/19/83	Unity, Saskatchewan	Capitals	NHL
25	KOZLOV, Viktor	6’4”	232	Right	2/14/75	Togliatti, Russia	Capitals	NHL
21	LAICH, Brooks	6’2”	210	Left	6/23/83	Wawota, Saskatchewan	Capitals	NHL
92	NYLANDER, Michael	6’1”	195	Left	10/3/72	Stockholm, Sweden	Capitals	NHL
8	OVECHKIN, Alex	6’2”	220	Right	9/17/85	Moscow, Russia	Capitals	NHL
28	SEMIN, Alexander	6’2”	200	Right	3/3/84	Krasnoyarsk, Russia	Capitals	NHL
39	STECKEL, David	6’5”	222	Left	3/15/82	Westbend, Wisconsin	Capitals	NHL
DEFENSEMEN
4	ERSKINE, John	6’4”	216	Left	6/26/80	Kingston, Ontario	Capitals	NHL
52	GREEN, Mike	6’1”	208	Right	10/12/85	Calgary, Alberta	Capitals	NHL
23	JURCINA, Milan	6’4”	233	Right	6/7/83	Liptovsky Mikulas, Slovakia	Capitals	NHL
26	MORRISONN, Shaone	6’4”	210	Left	12/23/82	Vancouver, British Columbia	Capitals	NHL
2	POTHIER, Brian #	6’0”	200	Right	4/15/77	New Bedford, Mass.	Capitals	NHL
3	POTI, Tom	6’3”	210	Left	3/22/77	Worcester, Mass.	Capitals	NHL
55	SCHULTZ, Jeff	6’6”	221	Left	2/25/86	Calgary, Alberta	Capitals/Hershey	NHL/AHL
GOALTENDERS
1	JOHNSON, Brent	6’3”	199	Left	3/12/77	Farmington, Mich.	Capitals/Hershey	NHL/AHL
60	THEODORE, Jose	5’11”	182	Right	9/13/76	Laval, Quebec	Colorado/Lake Erie	NHL/AHL

# Non-roster injured player
Rosters as of 6 Oct, 2008.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Boyd Gordon, Brent Johnson, Brooks Laich, Chris Bourque, Chris Clark, Dave Steckel, Donald Brashear, Eric Fehr, John Erskine, Jose Theodore, Karl Alzner, Matt Bradley, Michael Nylander, Mike Green, Milan Jurcina, Nicklas Backstrom, Players, Quintin Laing, Sergei Fedorov, Shaone Morrisonn, Tom Poti, Tomas Fleischmann, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (17)

Meet the Caps, but Beware the Batwing

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)

Saturday, October 4, 2008

For the first time in team history, the annual Season Ticketholder “Meet the Caps” event was held at an amusement park: Six Flags America. To say it was a success is an understatement; as one who has attended the past ten years’ events at the Verizon Center — and seen those events gradually shift from fun little gatherings to long-lined exercises in boredom as the season ticketholder base has increased — moving to a venue with other forms of amusement was indeed a big improvement.

The event started at 6:30 p.m. for fans, though the players got run of the park before the fans. In fact, for those wondering why Sergei Fedorov was a little late for his scheduled autograph session: he lost his cell phone while riding the Batwing roller coaster. Normally a hero’s helper, today Batman’s ride turned villain and snatched Fedorov’s phone mid-flight; apparently, though, his phone was recovered, so Truth and Justice (and good fortune) prevailed.

A mohawked, Weagle-painted fan

The Caps-fan-only event this night was in the park’s Gotham section; rides included the roller coasters Batwing, Superman: Ride of Steel (yes, I know Supes patrolled Metropolis not Gotham, but it’s a cool ride so no complaints), and The Joker’s Jinx. Autograph stations were positioned throughout the area; lines for most players, barring Ovechkin’s of course, were more reasonable than last year’s despite the increase in season ticketholders. That may be partly due to the weeknight Maryland location (it took over an hour for us to get there from downtown DC). But having activities for all ages, instead of exclusively child-focused as in years past, provided more to do than simply waiting in line for an autograph and contributed to reduced lines. Not to worry, parents: the kid-friendly fun of years’ past was still abundant, including SlapShot antics, balloon animals, hockey-themed games, and face painting.

The ride queues were as fast-moving as the coasters themselves — at one point my wife and I simply sat on the Superman coaster and rode it again immediately since no one was waiting in our row. I don’t know about you, but I can’t remember the last time I was able to ride a roller coaster twice in a row without waiting in line again. Lines were practically non-existent unless you insisted on the first or last car . . . and even then the wait was perhaps two or three trips deep. Just a bit different than the typical 60-minute wait on a sweltering summer Saturday.

After the autograph sessions, the players, all still clad in their Capitals sweaters, spread throughout the park for some more fun before being hustled back to the team buses. For instance, a group of players including Mike Green went by practically at a jog — not to avoid autograph-seeking fans (though there were a few trailing behind), but to ensure they had time for the 200-foot plunge to earth on Superman: Ride of Steel. Others hit the carnival fairway to try their hand at the games, like Karl Alzner and Tom Poti tossing handfuls of rings, the circumference of which looked slightly smaller than that of the targeted bottles; and Nicklas Backstrom, Michael Nylander, and Jose Theodore attempting to win a few stuffed animals (photos below — though none top this brilliant shot provided by the team).

As my wife and I were leaving the park around 9:00 p.m., we heard an announcement over the park-wide speaker system: “Will all Capitals players please proceed to the buses immediately. Thank you.” Hopefully the team (and fans) got their fill of roller coaster thrills and enjoyed the evening — we certainly did.

Backstrom for the Win!

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Chris Clark, Jose Theodore, Karl Alzner, Michael Nylander, Mike Green, Nicklas Backstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Ted Leonsis, Tom Poti, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (11)

How a Cup Contender Candidate Is Identified

By pucksandbooks

Thursday, October 2, 2008

The flattering forecasts are coming in fast and furious. The Caps are a consensus selection to win the Southeast division for a second consecutive season, but additionally, they’re commonly identified either explicitly as a Stanley Cup contender or a “dark horse” one. To quote the good living theme from the movie ‘Things to To in Denver When You’re Dead,’ these are “boat drinks” days in hockey D.C. This is rarefied air we’re breathing. But why? I think it’s worth reflecting on the factors that lead to such conventional preseason prognosticating.

Start at the top, with Head Coach Bruce Boudreau. His Jack Adams standing is impressive and nice, but what’s more salient to 2008-09 is his having guided a core group, now in D.C., that bought into what he was selling in Hershey in 2005-06, which culminated with a Calder Cup, and then, replacing Glen Hanlon in season last season, he got even more guys (NHL ones) — not least among them Hall of Fame lock and then rental player Sergei Fedorov — to buy in again, and go from worst to first in a historic regular season campaign. Gabby brought to Washington a championship pedigree, winning hockey titles on two different professional levels, and his 60-game results in the NHL last season were nothing short of startling. His is a stock you buy.

Stanley Cup hockey teams generally aren’t dominated by the heroic efforts of a lone standout talent. Think the Detroit Red Wings. The New Jersey Devils. The Edmonton Oilers. The Colorado Avalanche. The Anaheim Ducks. But in Alexander Ovechkin the Capitals seem to possess something markedly larger than just a heavy hardware hauler and a fun talent to behold. He competitiveness is as impressive as his talent, and he has very publicly stated that his hockey mission in life is to win a Cup and make Washington a hockey town. The early trajectory of his career invites comparisons especially with say Mario Lemieux’s in Pittsburgh: an afterthought franchise lifted up quite high by a sublime talent. Additionally, Ovechkin is that rare superstar who melds marvelously with all of his lesser heralded teammates. Heck, he melds well with no-name prospects at Rookie Camp. He is the face of the Capitals due not just to his standing as the planet’s greatest talent but because his teammates believe him to be. He loves leading them into battle, and they love being led by him.

If there was a commonly recognized weakness heading into 2007-08 on the Caps, it was the seeming absence of a true no. 1 blueliner, a guy who could ably and productively QB a power play and bring some firepower from the back end at even strength. Out of nowhere emerged Mike Green. He led NHL defensemen in goals scored last season. He possesses a breathtaking and dynamic skill set — and he’s just 23. If you read Corey Masisak’s feature on Green yesterday, you learned that no less than the father of Paul Coffey sees striking similarities in Green’s game to that of his son.

“Green is an atypical offensive defenseman,” Masisak wrote. “He enjoys carrying the puck, which often leads to exhilarating rushes from one end of the ice to the other. His stick-handling and creativity rivals that of Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin, while his vision and passing ability is equivalent of a playmaking pivot like Nicklas Backstrom.”

A team like Carolina proves that you don’t necessarily have to have a no. 1 blueline stud to win a Cup, but the vast majority of champions do. The Caps have theirs.

Another key ingredient is an elite playmaker for both the no. 1 line and the top unit power play. Nicklas Backstrom is that. Swedish hockey media years ago identified Backstrom as an heir apparent to Peter Forsberg. That may have been an unfair comparison, but in his rookie season in ‘08-09 Backstrom made a magnificent, Calder finalist transition to star center status in North America. His stock, too, is one you buy.

The center position on the Caps was one thought to be improved but still a work in progress this time a year ago. This season a healthy Michael Nylander — the team’s top scorer in the preseason — will in all likelihood center the team’s third line. The Caps will skate three productive lines this season, and that helps out a bit in the playoffs.

In the cumulative, all of these factors are significant and indicative perhaps of a good-bet-for-the-playoffs kind of club. But if I had to point to a catalyst cause for all the truly heady predictions it’d be to the perception that the Capitals’ well drafted and assembled core of young talent, which certainly includes the likes of Alexander Semin, Brooks Laich, Shaone Morrisonn, Jeff Schultz, Boyd Gordon, and Tomas Fleischmann, is collectively skating impressively now but also with their best NHL days still ahead of them. It’s a 95-to-100-pt. club on paper in the early October moment, absent the achievement of any notable production improvement among all the skilled youth. Who believes they’ve all plateaued?

Ultimately, a Stanley Cup caliber team is forged by distinctive chemistry, and this, too, is a calling card of these Caps. Something obviously special took hold in that room last spring. And it’s basically all back, ripening.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Boyd Gordon, Brooks Laich, Bruce Boudreau, Corey Masisak, Internet, Media, Michael Nylander, Mike Green, Morning cup-a-joe, Nicklas Backstrom, Prospects, Sergei Fedorov, Tomas Fleischmann, Washington Capitals, Washington Times, Washington the Hockey Town| Permalink| Comments (5)

The Importance of Being a January Baby

By pucksandbooks

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

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

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

“The [development] system rewards those parents who are able to time a pregnancy to begin in the spring and come to its happy fruition in the early months of the new year. Hockey registration, you see, goes by the calendar year, and each child born in a given year is considered the same age for purposes of setting age limits. Yet a child born, say, on Wayne Gretzky’s birthday of January 26 is likely to be a better player on the first day of hockey tryouts than a player born on December 25 of the same year. The January child is almost a year older, a year stronger and more mature. At age six or seven this represents an enormous advantage, the January child being nearly one-sixth or one-seventh older . . .

“The older child has the best chance to be the first star of the game, to develop a star’s skills and attitude and expectations of success. The younger child — smaller, weaker — must first learn to cope and later, when the age difference matters less (for example, at fourteen the same January child is only one-fourteenth older), he is often unable to undo his and others’ expectations, reprogram himself, put to one side his coping skills for a star’s skills, and become a star. The same situation and problem exists, of course, in the schools.

“If streaming came at a later age, the effect of birthdates would be largely outgrown. But streaming comes early in hockey.”

And, Dryden claims, streaming in hockey is destiny.

“From age nine onward,” he writes, “better players get streamed into competitive teams, and the competitive teams get the better coaches and more ice time . . . the gap between the mediocre nine-year-old and the gifted nine-year-old begins to widen, and widen fast. In Canadian minor hockey in the late 1980s, if you don’t make it by age nine, you likely won’t make it at all.”

Not quite Darwinian, is it? Or is it? At this point, you’re probably wondering, do Canadian (and Minnesotan) (and Scandinavian) families actually so family plan? Were the question put to Dryden, I’m rather sure he’d answer, “Not if, but in what volume?”

Next I decided to check birthdays for some high profile hockey stars — specifically, those residing in the 500 NHL goals scored club. The results were startling. Limiting my search just to those who’ve scored 500 goals and were born in January and February, these names loom large: Gretz; Bobby Hull; Phil Esposito; Mike Bossy; Mark Messier; Frank Mahovlich; Peter Bondra; Brendan Shanahan; Jeremy Roenick; Lanny McDonald; Joey Mullen; Dino Ciccarelli; Jaromir Jagr.

Blackhawks’ coach Denis Savard hovers just a bit outside of 500 goals scored in his career, but he was born in February. Were I to have broadened my search to include births in the first quarter of the calendar year, the list would have expanded appreciably — Gordie Howe, for instance, was born in the first week of March in 1928.

Now, you don’t want to get carried away with the intriguing pattern of hockey family planning, because in truth studs and stars are born in all 12 months of the calendar. Alexander Ovechkin, for instance, is a September baby. Mario Lemieux was born in October. One of the greatest skaters the game has even seen, Gilbert Perreault, was born in November. Sergei Fedorov arrived as an early delivery from Santa’s sleigh (December).

But Dryden’s observations are so illuminating precisely because hockey streams as it does and because relative to other youth sports, vital skill sets in hockey (including cognitive and emotional accumen) seem to take root in player development so early . . . partly, Dryden would argue (I think), because of the streaming. Baseball and soccer, for instance, hold their respective tryouts in the spring, rendering the calendar inconsequential to the physical and emotional maturity of youth registrants in those sports.

Football, interestingly enough, registers players in the final season of the calendar, like hockey, but perhaps partly because tackle football really is a high school endeavor for most pigskinners, little that is determinative in a player’s development occurs on the gridiron at the age of seven, eight or nine. Or twelve, for that matter: football talent evaluators typically hone in on kids when they’re high school juniors and seniors and have just begun to immerse themselves in the weight room. And really, it’s only after a couple of years of college football that players earn the status of pro prospect.

It’s none of our business, of course, but it is fun to wonder: did Ray and Mrs. Bourque consider father’s own development arc in Canadian minor hockey early on as they started their family, or did they merely get swept up in a particularly schmaltzy movie on Lifetime one chilly March night twenty-some-odd years ago?

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

Scenes From Camp

By The OFB Team

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Unofficial OFB photographer Chanuck was out at Kettler on Saturday and Tuesday to catch some of the Caps’ camp activities. Check it out:

: Hey, Ovi! Your epidermis is showing.

: What's so funny?

: Goalie gossip

: Taking it easy

: Snow in September

: Feds and Young Grasshopper

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Brent Johnson, Eric Fehr, Jose Theodore, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Milan Jurcina, Sergei Fedorov, Training Camp, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (3)

Sunday’s Opening Camp Scrimmage: Fierce and Fast

By pucksandbooks

Sunday, September 21, 2008

Photo by OFB reader Jill Colby

Head Coach Bruce Boudreau sought an elevated sense of competition for this training camp’s scrimmages, in pursuit of which he inaugurated the Gaetan Duchesne Cup. The team that performs best in Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday’s scrimmages will win it. Today at noon was scrimmage 1, between groups B and C.

It was evident from the outset today that we were in for a different breed of scrimmage relative to previous training camps: B (blue sweaters) and C (white sweaters) skated all out, at a high tempo, were careful with line changes, and hit! Four or five times today Empty Maybe and Mike Vogel and I had our Sunday revival beverages threatened by glass-bashing from thunderous checks. And the mid-game flood was deliberate, heavy on the snow collection and water laying from 30 hard minutes of distinctly competitive and ice-mauling skating.

B-squad was coached by Gabby and Bob Woods, C by Jay Leach and Mark French. The scrimmage had the feel of a real game, except that the officiating was competent.

The scrimmage format: 30 minutes of running time, flood; 20 minutes of running time; 10 minutes of stopped time, final horn.

Some line combos for you: B (Blue) featured what may well be the best line of the three groups — Brooks Laich-Sergei Fedorov-Alexander Semin. B also had Boyd Gordon with Alexander Giroux (a mop-up goal) and Eric Fehr (strong game for him) and Travis Morin centering Donald Brashear and Darren Reid. The top C squad line had Michael Nylander centering Flash on his left flank and Chris Clark on his right. Justin Taylor, Dave Steckel, and Mathieu Perreault also centered lines for C-squad, Taylor often with Dubuc and Kygryshev and Perreault with Francois Bouchard and Stefan Della Rovere. Kyle Wilson also rotated through for the C-squad.

In terms of defense pairings, Mike Green and Shaone Morrisonn went for Leach and French’s C-squad, and were joined by Eric Mestery (impressive) Greg Amadio, and Karl Alzner (strong again) and John Erskine. B d pairings included Patrick McNeill and John Carlson; Sean Collins and Jacub Cutta; and Dean Arsene and Milan Jurcina. Jose Theodore started in net for B-squad, Brent Johnson for C. Holtby and ‘Cheese relieved them, for B and C respectively, after the flood.

On paper, B seemed stronger both in skill and experience, and that played out in the scrimmage, which while requiring an Eric Fehr empty net goal late to settle the matter for good (Blue won 3-1), was well controlled by Gabby’s guys. The Fedorov-Semin-Laich unit was easily the afternoon’s most active and impressive.In fact, Fedorov opened the scoring with about 4;15 left in the first, from a Semin helper. The stanza ended 1-0 in favor of B.

A Brooks Laich blast from the left point early in the second frame was gathered in front of the net by Alexander Giroux and tucked home for a 2-0 lead. But Tomas Fleischmann tallied in tight late in the final frame, with a little over 3 minutes remaining, and the C squad applied a bit of concluding pressure to make it interesting with the goalie pulled. Eric Fehr snuffed out the rally with an empty-netter.

I sought input on the scrimmage’s three stars from Vogs and Corey and Empty, and I appreciated their respective perspectives. But the three-star judgement I offer here is my own, and in truth the good today far outweighed any regular bad.

Sergei Fedorov
Tomas Fleischmann
Eric Fehr

Filed in Alexander Semin, Brooks Laich, Bruce Boudreau, Eric Fehr, Kettler Capitals Iceplex, Prospects, Sergei Fedorov, Tomas Fleischmann, Training Camp| Permalink| Comments (1)

Ten Top Storylines for the Start of Training Camp 2008

By pucksandbooks

Saturday, September 20, 2008

AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Frank Gunn

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Captain Clark: “100 percent” a Go

By pucksandbooks

Friday, August 29, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Room to Themselves

By pucksandbooks

Monday, August 18, 2008

Deep into weekends I’m wearied by gym-ratting, jogging, recreating in the sun, home cleaning chores, errands, etc., and I’m all yawns come 11:00 Sunday night, when I’m waiting for the last pickup hockey player to depart my rink so I can turn out the lights and lock the door behind him. It’s a great bunch of guys in Sunday’s final skate — guys in their thirties and even fifties, the same set every Sunday, all good cheer, most of them youth hockey instructors who once a week just want a good sweat and our game’s camaraderie. They get together for a 75-minute skate each Sunday night at my rink, and until this month I’d always been cranky about shoo-ing them out so I could get home and crash.

But last Sunday night, while waiting for the their allotted 75 minutes to lapse, I read a reminiscence of the hockey locker room, of a young boy being aided into his gear by his father there, and later of that boy becoming a man and sharing that same room with rec league buddies and beers. My Sunday fatigue, I realized, is no excuse for my crankiness toward any set of hockey players seeking out a weekly retreat in the rink. The ice there and the fun had on it is but one lure; the other is the camaraderie and sanctity of the room.

There they are away from bosses, spouses, irritable neighbors, and the grown-up responsibilities of life. There men become boys again.

No other sport has it. The dugout in baseball is like a bus depot — very transitory and not much of a home. The sideline in field sports is transparent and anti-intimacy. Basketball has locker rooms, but have you ever read of them attaining anything approaching the sacred sanctuary of hockey’s? Basketballers change and shower and X and O in their room, but hockey’s room contains a culture. The amazing thing about it is that it’s every bit as sacred for the beer league squad as Les Habitants.

Guys in a hockey room are literally and figuratively naked. Divorces, affairs, firings, and mortgage crises get announced in there. I had a beer league teammate known for uttering only ribbings and off-color jokes arrive in the room all quiet one Sunday night and inform us of his wife’s cancer a few seasons back. I’m fairly certain it was the first instance he’d spoken of it outside of commiserating with family.

That’s because the hockey room is a second family room. In ‘Mystery, Alaska’ Tree rightly rebukes his teammate for betraying the code of the room: “What’s said in the room stays in the room.” On the hockey beat any reporter in any city will encounter the wall of player silence when he or she questions what the coach said after the team put up a stinker of a period or made a marvelous third-period comeback. They still ask the question — you have to, it’s the best storyline to pursue — but the answer is always the same: “Ah, you know, coach said some things.”

A special swagger, security, and exclusivity is accorded membership in the room. Individual accountability is executed there. A team lets down its guard in there. Initiations and rituals are meted out most often in the room. I can’t count the number of rec league players who’ve detailed for me the solidarity they honor and nurture with teammates they see but for 90 minutes each week. Those bonds most often aren’t forged from individual game shifts but rather from the vulnerability and support intrinsic to the hockey room.

I’ve learned on the hockey beat that there are places you just don’t step, access points you just don’t broach, in the room. When media is in the room they are accorded respect, but it is also abundantly clear that we are stranger-guests, outsiders, and that our visit is best kept brief. I like this about our sport.

Great hockey teams, it seems to me, cannot be forged without great rooms. When Capitals’ management initiated the organization’s pre-lockout rebuild it stated that its principal design was to construct a competitive club built and replenished largely from within — call it going organic. Now that the team is competitive it’s interesting to note how many of the team’s players reference the strength and caliber of the team’s room. The past two summers I’ve made a point of asking players in the Capitals’ organization what if anything they miss about hockey in summertime, and without fail every player includes in his list “being in the room with the guys.”

Surely Sergei Fedorov noticed the novelty of the Washington locker room. You have to think his experience in the Caps’ room was a condition of being mutually beneficial for his teammates and him. He sure seemed to meld with his new teammates conspicuously well. You have to think this played a part in his decision to resign in Washington this summer.

And how special that room must have been on and between the nights of those final seven regular season games in 2007-08, when the Capitals couldn’t afford to lose a single one, and when they encountered all manner of struggle and frustration in those games and yet perservered and triumphed.

Only about 25 people on planet Earth know what that room was like then. That’s as it should be.

Filed in Hockey Rituals, Morning cup-a-joe, Sergei Fedorov, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (6)

From Thrifty to Opulent in Three Seasons

By The OFB Team

Monday, July 28, 2008

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

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

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

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

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

Forwards
Alexander Ovechkin	9,538,462
Michael Nylander	4,875,000
Alexander Semin	4,600,000
Sergei Fedorov	4,000,000
Chris Clark	2,633,333
Viktor Kozlov	2,500,000
Nicklas Backstrom	2,400,000
Brooks Laich	2,066,667
Donald Brashear	1,200,000
Matt Bradley	1,000,000
Eric Fehr	735,000
Boyd Gordon	725,000
Tomas Fleischmann	725,000
David Steckel	512,500
Ben Clymer	250,000
Total	37,760,962
Defensemen
Mike Green	5,250,000
Tom Poti	3,500,000
Brian Pothier	2,500,000
Shaone Morrisonn	1,975,000
Karl Alzner	1,675,000
Milan Jurcina	881,250
Jeff Shultz	750,000
Sami Lepisto	700,000
John Erskine	537,500
Total	17,768,750
Goaltenders
Jose Theodore	4,500,000
Brent Johnson	812,500
Total	5,312,500
Team Total	60,842,212

How would you rate McPhee’s roster and salary management this summer? He had a large number of new contracts to negotiate, and he had unexpected breakout seasons from the likes of Mike Green and Brooks Laich driving up his payroll. He also may not have anticipated Sergei Fedorov making the impact he did in just a couple of months’ time, making a new deal for him a wise idea. Lastly, he endured player agent mischief from Cristobal Huet’s representative. When all was said and done, he managed to ink every player he wanted from last season, save Huet, and do so before August 1. How many GMs can make that claim?

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

How Anna Kournikova Ruled a Nation’s Lusting Hearts (and Modems)

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Anna Kournikova (photo: Walter Iooss, 2008)

Anna Kournikova (photo: Walter Iooss Jr, 2008)

For our younger readers — and those who’ve been hit in the head with a puck once too often to remember — let’s take a fond, retrospective, lingering look at Anna Kournikova as she visits our fair city with the St. Louis Aces to face the Washington Kastles. I suspect very few male readers will mind this brief diversion from the melting asphalt of our nation’s capital today . . . and of course this is purely a public service, not just an excuse to search for Anna K photos without my wife giving me the evil eye. Really.

Anna Kournikova burst onto the tennis scene at 16 as a striking and talented newcomer; yet her tennis career faded as her celebrity increased. Something that many forget in the glare of paparazzi flashbulbs: she peaked as the 8th-ranked female player in the world in 2000 — no mean feat. So while the media attention she received was disproportionate to her tennis success, she undoubtedly had talent on the court. But it was her beauty and the accompanying rumor mill that made her such a popular icon.

In 2001, there were even rumors that Kournikova might hit the big screen as the next Bond Girl. As it turns out, no. But the idea was rife with Bond-ian double entendre name opportunities (or just single entendres) . . . Dr. Goodstroke? Anita Tourvin? Ivana Scorealot? The possibilities are endless.

Now the heiress to the Russian tennis hotness throne, Maria Sharapova, has herself expressed interest in being a Bond Girl (as well as interest in the new 007 Daniel Craig). It seems the spy game still has some luster in the former Soviet Union.

Kournikova proactively pursued her outsized popularity: she’s obliged, seemingly, every photo shoot request from Maxim to FHM to Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue. She was ranked as one of People Magazine’s ‘50 Most Beautiful People’ in 1998, 2000, 2002, and 2003. She did not avoid the spotlight, and it did not avoid her.

By 2003, she achieved the unprecedented status of most downloaded female athlete on the Internet, in the relatively short history of that new medium. We’ve yet to learn of her being bettered in that feat. According to Forbes.com, there were more than 18,000 web pages “devoted to her backhand and back end” in ‘03.

It’s rather easy to understand her starburst: her arrival coincided with the Internet’s maturation in graphics and multimedia — after all, Web surfers searching for Anna were not “reading the articles.”

Daniel Craig, 007: Equal-time beefcake photo to balance the scales

But the biggest Kournikova story — and the most hockey-related as well — was her predilection for Russian hockey greats. Kournikova and Washington Capital Sergei Fedorov (then with Detroit of course) started as friends, married while she was a teen, then divorced soon after the kerfuffle over her connection with Pavel Bure. There was a time when both Fedorov and Bure claimed to be engaged to Kournikova . . . at the same time. Yet it was Fedorov, not Bure, who married the tennis star, albeit briefly. Chalk up another big win for Fedorov!

Much was made at the time of the significant age difference between Fedorov and Kournikova (the tabloids branded her a “Tennis Lolita”); even Fedorov attributed some of their split to the age gap: “We were just so much apart, and those [emotions] when you are falling in love, at such a young age … it was just impossible because I was a little bit older, I think.”

Apparently Sergei and Anna are no longer close, so it is unlikely that he will make an appearance at tonight’s event. But if you catch a glimpse of other Russian hockey hopefuls lurking in the background, don’t be surprised. Hmm . . . I’ve played hockey . . . perhaps I can pass as Mikhail Ruckov for a day? Da Zvidanya!

Filed in Anna Kournikova, Sergei Fedorov, Tennis, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (0)

Fedorov II Returns to the NHL

By OrderedChaos (Mike Rucki)

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

The New Jersey Devils have signed Fedor Fedorov, Sergei’s younger brother. Fedor spent last year with Dynamo Moscow, tallying 26 points in 49 games.

The Devils visit the Phone Booth twice this season (Oct. 18, Nov. 14).

Filed in New Jersey Devils, Sergei Fedorov, Verizon Center, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (6)

We Are Readying Ourselves for Her Arrival in D.C.

By The OFB Team

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Knowing our of association with Russia’s largest sports daily, SovetskySport, the Most Valuable Network approached us this week and asked if we’d accept an assignment few who know outdoor sporting events in July in D.C. would even consider: sitting beneath a searing sun, skin clammy with Mid-Atlantic humidity, and blogging . . . on tennis, as played by Russia’s Anna Kournikova. Wednesday night, Kournikova and her St. Louis Aces tennis team strut into CityCenterDC to face our Washington Kastles.

Initially, of course, we begged off the assignment, pointing to our fidelity, our monogamy, with but one sport. Also: we know less about tennis — team or any other version — than we do about quantum physics. But Washington today is a special destination for elite Russian athletes, and from some cursory investigative work this week we learned that that nation produces notably gifted female tennis players as well as sick-skilled hockey players. And these Russian hockey players have a way of attaching themselves to beautiful female athletes in other sports, including tennis, or to American fashion supermodels, and so we began to regard the MVN assignment as an opportunity to learn more about this distinctive culture — and share the edifying experience with our readers. Really, we’re doing this for you, dear blog reader.

It is also true that we are willing to do anything to help draw media attention away from the Washington Redskins at this time of year.

The assignment calls for us to attend a press conference with her hotness late Wednesday afternoon, take perch among the tennis press for the St. Louis-Washington team match that evening, and bring readers here and at MVN OFB’s unique flavor of new media coverage.

Our aim is simple: to shed light on a strikingly fit world-class athlete thus far little known to users of the Internet.

Because OFB is animated by the collective spirit comprised in its patronage, we welcome with your comments here your suggestions for coverage of this Starry Night in SportsWashington.

Remembering that OFB is a family-read blog, what would you ask Anna if you could put but a single question to her?

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Anna Kournikova, Blogs, Internet, Media, Sergei Fedorov, Sovetsky Sport, Washington Capitals, Washington the Hockey Town| Permalink| Comments (9)

The Hockey Blockbuster, Coming Soon to a Rink Near You

By pucksandbooks

Saturday, July 19, 2008

This is an extraordinary American summer weekend, insomuch as it delivers something rarer than an NHL goalie scoring a goal: the arrival in theaters of a great and compelling and culture-consuming domestic movie. I’m speaking of course of the new Batman movie, ‘The Dark Knight.’ It isn’t merely exceptionally well reviewed by critics, who are discussing it in terms of Oscars and “classic.” For its Uptown Theater debut Thursday night at midnight city youths arrived to stand in line some time near 2:00 that afternoon — in Washington July heat. It will be even hotter this weekend, and thousands more, already with tickets, will stand in line hours just to get the seats they want for the screening.

If you can imagine, the nationwide midnight screenings of the film Thursday grossed nearly $20 million. To put that number in terms we hockey fans can understand, that’s a Koules-Aid kind of July budget for free agency to assemble a lottery contender for next June.

Area theaters will have Batman screenings this weekend beginning at 9:00 a.m.! The notion of arriving at any area theater this weekend a few minutes before screening and securing just a single ticket is preposterous. By early yesterday afternoon Craigslist had pages of the movie’s tickets for sale priced solidly above regular box office rate.

Yesterday I found myself marveling at so novel a cultural moment, grateful for its very belated arrival but also melancholy when I considered that Hollywood needs more or less a full decade to render it. It’s true: approximately 99.7 percent of domestic cinematic fare is altogether ordinary or outright rotten. The true gotta-see-it — because of its greatness — cinema spectacle is in frequency of theater runs not dissimilar to the prevalence of Alexander Ovechkins in NHL entry drafts. Anyway, as Americans, we have a special place in our hearts for the buzz-generators on the big-screen that actually deliver the goods. So it’s a moment indeed to savor — history suggests that we won’t see it again for quite some time.

This special moment also led me to think of something special in hockey being crafted, right here in Washington. Like the great summer blockbuster, it’s exceptionally rare for hockey here. It could very well be the case that Verizon Center, beginning this October, will be akin to the great old moviehouse showing just a single feature, for months on end, with weekend tickets very much in demand.

I wouldn’t quite call the 2008-09 Capitals’ season a sequel, however. I think in its forecasted critical acclaim, in its culminating sense of a roster’s arriving very near the peak of elite contention, it will very much be a first run of its kind.

The differences from a summer ago are rather extraordinary. In July 2007 Washington hockey fans thought they had a gifted young star left wing in Alexander Ovechkin. But in his coming off a 46-goal campaign in his sophomore season, most here hoped he’d merely return to the 50-goal club in season three. Who then thought that he’d fairly obliterate competition for the Hart Trophy last season? Today he is regarded as a game-changing force, and the greatest player on the planet.

Additionally, last summer no one even in team management knew that a no. 1 stud of a defender was already in the organization, and poised to break out. But Mike Green will enter the 2008-09 season on a short list of Norris trophy candidates.

Count Brooks Laich as a key component to a glory run in 2008-09, and yet a summer ago he was in a fierce competition among a seeming glut of third and fourth-line center candidates just to make the club. Indeed, if any of the organization’s young centers was thought to have some unexpected offensive upside heading into last season, it was Boyd Gordon, who in ‘06-07 fell one point shy of 30 and flashed a penchant for fits and bursts of well-timed production. Now Laich’s regarded as one of the league’s bright young two-way pivots. And paid like it.

Last summer, who would have imagined that a hockey legend (Sergei Fedorov) would arrive here two-thirds of the way through the season and settle a green and nervous young roster and guide it to an against-all-odds Southeast division title? And then announce, mere weeks after his arrival here, that the atmosphere in Verizon Center ranked as the best he’d ever competed in, and that despite the formation of a very well funded super league in his home country of Russia, that he’d very much like a return engagement in Washington?

There are, indisputably, one or two important areas for Director Boudreau to address in final editing this summer, one of which (the acting in net) is largely out of his control. But given that all of the East’s well built teams for next season possess question marks of their own, it’s certain that the Caps will enter 2008-09 as consensus contenders in the East. They possess star quality principal actors, on-screen chemistry in abundance, and a director newly acknowledged by his peers to be among the best in the business.

Actually, insomuch as there looks to be high-achieving hockey rostered both in Washington and in Hershey this coming season, we appear slated for long run of a great double feature.

Filed in Alexander Ovechkin, American Hockey League, Boyd Gordon, Brooks Laich, Bruce Boudreau, Hershey Bears, Mike Green, Morning cup-a-joe, Nicklas Backstrom, Sergei Fedorov, Verizon Center, Washington Capitals| Permalink| Comments (4)

It’s Official - Sergei Signed

By The OFB Team

Monday, July 14, 2008

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

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

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

Filed in George McPhee,