That game may also inaugurate a season-long intrigue affair between Washington hockey fans and the team’s prospects in Hershey. It’s no secret that the affiliation between the Caps and Bears has been a fruitful one — really a perfect one in terms of the parent club drafting well and feeding quality to the farm, as well as offering fans a friendly proximity by which to travel to one another’s games. But what’s in store this coming season on the farm may be the most appealing that the affiliation has offered to date.
For this coming season in Hershey there will be bluechip prospects for the Caps dressed in Bears’ sweaters at virtually every position, from the goal cage on out: a Rookie of the Year in Finland’s top professional league; an MVP of the QMJHL; the two most recent scoring champions from the Q; at least one member of Team Canada’s gold-medal-winning World Junior champions last year; the backstopper of five shutouts in Russia’s top professional league this most recent postseason; potentially two OHL All -Stars. In other words: fairly an embarrassment of prospect riches.
We live-blogged from Kettler this past Saturday, and joining us in the fun was Bears’ PR guy Chris Poisal. If you followed our musings you absorbed Chris’ significant enthusiasm for the coming campaign. Last year’s Bears may have been somewhat short in the leadership department, and ravaged by injury beyond belief, but this summer’s signings of Dean Arsene, Keith Aucoin, and Hershey 2006 Calder Cup hero Graham Mink have vanquished any leadership concerns. They’ll be expected to mentor a crop of recent Caps’ draft picks abundant in skill but relatively short on pro league experience.
Alluding to Hershey’s offseason signings, and the promise of more help arriving from the parent club, Bears’ head coach Bob Woods on Saturday said, “Leadership was the big thing we were looking to move on, and while we don’t know what’s going to happen here [in Washington] in the fall, you get a [Keith] Aucoin, you get a [Graham] Mink, a healthy [Dean] Arsene back, now you’ve filled a lot of those voids.
“We’ve got a great group of young guys returning,” he added.
Woods admitted that in net, “we’re gonna be young, but from what I’ve seen this week, there’s a lot of promise there.
“Look at a team like Wilkes Barre last year,” he added, “They had two rookie goaltenders and they went right to the finals.”
The ride ought to be fun, and entertaining. A potent potential lineup could include a lot of these names:
| Alexandre Giroux | Keith Aucoin | Eric Fehr/Graham Mink |
| Chris Bourque | Kyle Wilson | Andrew Gordon |
| Oskar Osala | Mathieu Perreault / Jay Beagle | Francois Bouchard |
| Maxime Lacroix | Andrew Joudrey | Scott Barney |
| Dean Arsene | Sami Lepisto | |
| Josh Godfrey | Tyler Sloan | |
| Patrick McNeill/Sasha Pokulok | ||
| Machesney / Varlamov |
The Caps today inked right wing Eric Fehr to a one-year deal. The modest details can be found here.
The signing leaves only Shaone Morrisonn and Boyd Gordon without contracts for 2008-09. Morrisonn has filed for arbitration.
These are salad days for salaries in the NHL. Yesterday came word that the salary cap for 2008-09 would rise to $56.7 million, with a salary floor ($40.7 million) higher than the league’s cap just back three seasons ago, in the first post-lockout regular season.  Stunning. As the salary cap is directly linked to the league’s revenues, which are directly linked to its gate receipts, it’s seems clear that a few folks other than Tiger Woods and Tony Kornheiser are interested in hockey. Â
Meanwhile, there remain outstanding — unsigned — some necessarily expensive parts to 2008-09 for the Washington Capitals. The tally: Christobal Huet, Brooks Laich, Shaone Morrisonn, and Mike Green. Boyd Gordon and Eric Fehr need new deals, too, but I don’t imagine those will be that expensive. Right now both Matt Cooke and Sergei Fedorov look like salary cap casualties, luxuries likely unaffordable in ‘08. Since I last wrote about matters financial Capitals’ GM George McPhee has managed to sheer off about $2 million in payroll for next season by dealing Steve Eminger to Philadelphia and buying out Ben Clymer. (Ray Shero’s fruitless negotiations with Marian Hossa this month apparently have sheared off $7-8 million from the Penguins’ payroll for next season.)
However, it’s beginning to look like McPhee will need that $2 million to pay Mike Green just in the autumn portion of the calandar next season.
Ah yes, Mike Green. For the congenitally white-knuckled of Caps’ fans, his breakout season in 2007-08, combined with apparently every name New York Ranger leaving Broadway, portends his departure and the swift end of hockey’s renaissance in Washington. But count me among those who think it far from a certainty that Green’s gonna attract a bevy of offer sheets next Tuesday.
For one thing, as great as his game looks, Green’s had only one big-number season, and the price in first-round draft picks for signing him would be exorbitant (as many as five). Additionally, both the owner and the general manager are on record stating that the club will match whatever offer comes Green’s way. For another, offer sheets for restricted free agents (see Tomas Vanek) are in a very real sense one GM’s performing labor for a colleague. Lastly, Green, though a young and inexperienced great talent just as Dustin Penner was last summer, is a primary building block for a contending Caps’ club. Penner wasn’t last summer, nor is he today, one of the 50 best forwards in the NHL. Penner’s was a stupid contract conceived by a stupid GM. Brian Burke allowed stupidity to reign supreme for a moment, but his Ducks won’t soon be looking up at the Oil in the standings.
In Green the Caps know what they’ve got – an already impressive no. 1 rearguard whom they were awfully lucky to nab with a 29th pick in the ‘04 draft, one who has a great deal of progression and maturity ahead of him. Likely, too, Mike Green also knows what he’s got in D.C., and specifically in Bruce Boudreau’s system: the green light to pile up points for a really big deal around the time he’s in his prime.Â
Mike Green will get signed alright. But it won’t come cheap. In fact, Team Green may be pointing to Alexander Semin’s 2009-10 salary ($5 million) and understandably if myopically bargaining that Green’s of greater value to the team than Semin. In an ideal world, Team Green would acknowledge the client’s youth and inexperience and appreciable development still ahead and ask to be made the team’s highest paid defenseman . . . but not like say Anaheim’s best defenseman.
Few however imagine ideal worlds with attorneys and player agents in them. Â
Speaking of interesting contracts, remember that “home team discount” deal Sidney Crosby signed? It will pay him $7.5 million in 2013. The thinking here is that Sidney will be a pretty good hockey player in 2013, when he’s still not yet 30 years old. Do you know how many NHLers will be earning more than $7.5 million then? (Mike Green might well be one.) One of them will be Vinny Lecavalier, according to ESPN. Indeed, as early as 2009-10, Crosby may not even be the highest paid Penguin. The intrigue with the Penguins never ends. Â
Given the number and prominence of Capitals’ restricted free agents, this wasn’t supposed to be an easy summer of negotiating for GMGM. It was made tougher by the breakout seasons by Laich and Green, as well as Morrisonn’s emergence as a top-pairing performer. And while last weekend was filled with the promise of securing hockey’s future, this one is about placating the present. It’s messy but necessary business.
It’s a time to be anxious but not a time to be pessimistic.Â
We’re in this interim between the draft and the Capitals’ July Development Camp (mercifully, a period lasting little more than two weeks), and with the arrival in town soon of so many recently drafted prospects, it seems an appropriate time to map out what I regard as a fair and accurate timetable for hockey fans to await the arrival of promising youth to the parent club.
I do this because, as is the case with every draft season, a fair swath of fans get a case of the vapors when they take stock of a draft asset three or four years removed from his selection, and still in development; and swept up in message board madness, are therefore inclined to judge him “a bust.”
Let’s start out by stating the obvious: it ain’t easy projecting the NHL bona fides of 18-year-olds. More on that, as it relates to one Vincent Lecavalier, in a minute.
But let’s first address what I call the One-Tenth of One Percent Club. Your Ovechkins. Your Lemieuxs. Your Stamkoses. They don’t arrive every year, but when they do they seriously outclass their draft class. As 18-year-olds, they’re going straight to the NHL, to shine on a first line. They are very rare — the drafting exception. Here’s how rare a specimen Ovie was: a majority of NHL scouts, taking stock of his 18-point performance at the World Under-20s in 2001, thought him easily capable of taking regular — and impact — shifts in the NHL as a 16-year-old then. Again, though, this is the uber-exception, the cream of the elite crop. Most often at the very top of NHL drafts are really nice hockey players who need more CHL or European pro league seasoning.
So what happens with your more typical top-of-the-class blue-chippers, rest-of-the-first-round fellas, year in and year out? A few will require only a single additional year or two of competition in the Canadian Major Juniors. Think Karl Alzner (who likely would have earned a Caps’ sweater for a round two of the NHL playoffs this spring had the Caps prevailed in game 7 against Philly). If he’s a Euro lottery gem like Nicklas Backstrom, an additional year in his country’s top professional league before coming over. But again, we’re still discussing the cream of every draft crop and the odd exception to the general rule: even really terrific hockey prospects take time to develop. Ninety-plus percent of NHL first-rounders will require marinating in juniors and minor pro leagues, or on campus and then the minors, for years.
I mentioned Vinny Lecavalier earlier. He was drafted first overall in 1998. Tampa, then a league doormat, needed some star-buzz-Mojo in its lineup, and fairly forced the young QuĂ©bĂ©cois into the NHL at 18. He scored a grand total of 13 goals during 1998-99. It’s almost beyond dispute that Vinny would have been better served with an additional year (or two) of development before hitting the bigs.
The next three seasons, Lecavalier notched between 23-25 goals; talk of “draft bust” necessarily followed, widely and loudly.
Then in 2002-03 Vinny hit 33 goals. He followed that with 32 in the ‘03-’04 campaign, which culminated with Tampa winning the Cup. Vinny played an important role in the Cup win, but he certainly wasn’t regarded as a stud. Some no. 1 overall, huh?
But a funny thing happened when Lecavalier returned from the lockout, some seven years after his drafting: he was still developing as a big-leaguer! In 2006-07 Lecavalier recorded his break-through, superstar season: 52 goals — nearly 10 years after he was drafted. These days, Lightning ownership is discussing inking Vinny to a lifetime contract.
How’s that for patience? Anybody talking about Vinny being a bust of a no. 1 now?
So with non-lottery picks, almost always, years and years of development are commonly required. Let’s cite Eric Fehr, since he’s a bit of a flashpoint for the with-vapors crowd. When Fehr was drafted in 2003, both Director of Amateur Scouting Ross Mahoney and GM George McPhee swiftly, publicly, established his requiring years more development just in Canadian Major Juniors. And Fehr rewarded the Caps’ plan of patience. He notched consecutive 50-plus-goal campaigns with Brandon of the WHL.
It’s instructive at this point to note that even a veteran bluechipper of a WHLer doesn’t waltz into the American Hockey League and command a first-line perch. The ‘A’ is a pro league of men, and at 20 or 21, CHL graduates — even distinguished ones — are raw meat for the grizzled grist of the last-chance-or-bust bus league. I know this doesn’t conform with message boards’ demand of immediate gratification, but it’s a reality of real-world hockey life.
So Fehr acquitted himself modestly well in 2005-06, his rookie season in pro hockey, potting 25 goals. In ‘06-’07 Fehr was hampered by injuries, but still he managed 22 goals in just 40 games with the Bears. He was, in just his second year of pro hockey, a point-per-game player. At the age of 22.
How about Brooks Laich, an ‘01 draftee? After he was drafted by Ottawa in ‘01 he spent an additional two full years in the CHL. Then he apprenticed in the ‘A’ for more than 120 games. He put up a grand total of 15 goals in more than 140 games with the Capitals between 2005-07. Some return for Peter Bondra, right? Well let’s see if the Caps regard him as a bust, seven summers removed from his draft year, during new contract negotiations this summer.
Brooks Laich is the norm in NHL development. Mike Green is not.
In 2004 the Caps drafted Minnesota prospect Travis Morin in the ninth round. He enjoyed an All American-caliber career at Minnesota State before signing with the Caps. His name was even discussed in association with the Hobey Baker award his final two seasons with the Mavericks. It’s irrelevant to me if Morin sees a single day of NHL duty in his pro hockey career. Finding that quality that late in any draft is a sure sign of scouting deftness. If the Caps’ scouts are going to uncover Hobey Baker candidate prospects once in a blue moon in a seventh or ninth round of the draft, I say (1) keep the scouts and (2) give them raises. It isn’t the job of your NHL scouts to develop Matt Pettinger into a consistent 20-goal scorer; that’s Matt Pettinger’s job.
So what is a general development formula for draft picks? I’d offer two years of additional CHL development after draft selection, a stint of at least two years, on average, in the ‘A,’ and then, potentially, graduation to 4th line minutes with the big club — and that’s if you’re a bluechipper. Not a stud, but a bluechipper. And no development-impairing injuries like we saw with Fehr or Nolan Yonkman, or else the timetable gets adjusted outward.
If you’re a U.S. collegian, 3-4 years on campus and at least 1-3 years in minor pros. That’s the norm. Joe Finley’s getting at least a full season in Hershey after having spent four years at one of the premier college hockey programs in America, and likely one season plus with the Bears. And he was a first-rounder. Guys like Phil Kessel (a serious bluechipper) who shortcut it just don’t seem to have made wise choices.
For Euros, well, there’s wide variance in the caliber of competition from league to league, but with a good prospect like Anton Gustafsson we ought to expect another year sub-Swedish Elite League season and at least one year in the Elite before we see him. He’d also have to stay healthy for those two years. A year in Hershey afterward probably wouldn’t hurt, either.
If you watched Game 4’s broadcast last night likely you saw Comcast illustrate the dramatic discrepancy in playoff experience between the Caps and Flyers: last night 14 Capitals were making their NHL playoff series debuts, just 6 for Philadelphia. The way the game was contested you’d never have known.
Small solace this morning.
But I think I am going to enjoy watching Eric Fehr compete in playoffs hence. Through nearly 90 minutes of game clock I kept seeing Fehr impose his physical will down low and along the boards and carry off the simple and smart decision under pressure and in traffic. Next season I suspect we’ll begin seeing him score more regularly and then take that scorer’s touch and add it to his already impressive physical drive.
And I think Alexander Ovechkin has, four games into his NHL postseason career, found a prescription for making his mark at this time of year: first hit everything that moves, helping to dictate a game’s tempo and feel, instead of waiting for the play to come to you — and the scoring will follow. The Capitals last night followed Ovechkin’s physical lead: four games in, and likely three games too late, they finally got physical, winning the hits ledger 38 to 29.
And I’ll take six or eight more springs like this from Dave Stecklel, too, and, if I can, at least a dozen more of this caliber from Alexander Semin.
Semin, for me, is the storyline of success in what is fast beginning to look like an abbreviated first trip to the postseason by the rebuilt Caps. I’ve enjoyed watching him in all four games, but last night was perhaps the most impressive hockey game he’s played in his young NHL career. The playoffs have a way of maturing, of rounding out and of broadening the skill set of previously one-dimensional hockey players. I’m not suggesting that Semin was altogether one dimensional prior to April 11, 2008, but watching him make quality Flyer defenders look foolish along the boards, watching him dish out as good and at times better than he got, watching him be the first Cap in at a scrum to aid a victimized teammate, watching him get bloodied and battered and thereby only more resolved to win, well, how can you not be excited about what future seasons — and especially springs — likely hold for him?
Viewers last night also saw a rebound performance from Milan Jurcina. He got real physical after playing comparatively passive in previous games. He also didn’t much attempt passes up the middle of the ice from behind his own net. He, like many of his young teammates, is learning.
There’s no other way to get to where the Caps ultimately want to get except through trial and costly error in the cauldron of the NHL postseason. That cauldron includes grotesque gaffes — at times wild in their imbalance — by game officials.
I read Mike Vogel’s commendably restrained litany of lousy officiating, but I’m glad that as grievously bad as it’s been at times — and referee Mike Hasenfratz should be chemically castrated for what he did with 3 minutes left last night (was that as commendably restrained?) — that it’s occurring in this series, so early in the postseason careers of so many Caps. It needs to be filed away among the very hard lessons learned.
One of the toughest lessons a young hockey team has to learn about the postseason is that victory isn’t always awarded to the deserving. There’s about a baker’s dozen of those in Capitals’ playoff history. Add Thursday night to the tally. When Bruce Boudreau was asked about changes his club would need to make for Saturday’s game 5, he replied, “None. I thought we outplayed them. I thought we deserved to win.” Me, too. But that and a $5 bill will get you a cup of coffee at Starbucks.
Hockey clubs that come up short get tinkered with and tweaked in offseasons, and as exciting and rewarding and even inspiring as the 2007-08 Capitals have been, there are missing parts among them, and I’m going to enjoying monitoring how General Manager McPhee works his home improvements this summer. Debates about names and signings are fit for another day. But help is on the near horizon.
More youth will be served. And it will need to be led just as this spring’s has been by the likes of Sergei Fedorov, Matt Cooke, and Cristobal Huet. Here’s hoping the 2008 Young Guns are taking good notes.
You knew this was coming: it’s the inevitable Hockey ‘N Heels recap! I asked Mrs. OrderedChaos about last week’s sold-out event, since her hockey-loving husband bought her a ticket. (I wanted to go, but I knew I’d be staring longingly at the specialty drinks at Clyde’s afterwards and didn’t want to torture myself.) Not only did Mrs. OC answer my questions, but she took some photos. Here we go:
We all arrived between 5:30 and 6:15. Slap Shot greeted us as we came in the door; he was passing out snacks and water. As I checked in we were broken into 4 groups. They provided color-coded group bracelets, and told me my first stop would be Wives Q&A. I went to wait in the bleachers and watch the “Caps Cribs” and other video goodies. They had one about who is the biggest ladies’ man. Brooks Laich!
Each group spent 25 minutes at each stop. My stops were 1. Wives, 2. Hockey stick session on the ice, 3. Locker/Equipment room 4. Chalk Talk with Coach Boudreau.
At the end of our last session we were escorted to Clyde’s. Chili Amar [Mix 107.3] was announcing the players in attendance as I came up the stairs. But there were a lot of people, so I couldn’t see anything.
I’m surprised to say this, but it’s hard to decide which event I liked best. I truly enjoyed all the sessions because I learned something in each. But I think I enjoyed the on-ice demo and using the hockey stick — Sami Lepisto would pass each of us the puck, then we’d pass it back, then he’d pass it again, and then we’d shoot at the net. I also really enjoyed the time with Coach Boudreau. I was impressed by his demeanor and how articulate he is. He was also pretty funny.
There were lots of hockey moms and lots of fans. I’d say about three-quarters of attendees were serious fans. In my group, approximately half of the participants had season tickets, and everyone had been to a game. It seemed like most were conversant with the rules and asked “Why don’t they (the players) just go up the center and shoot?” They showed some frustration with the team in the questions they asked Coach Boudreau, but the coach handled it all well and with good humor.
I think it was geared toward novices, but was good for experts too because they could ask specific questions. The “experts” seemed to be there more to see the facilities, see the locker room and equipment room, and ogle the players. During the bar event I was surprised that almost every time when I asked the person in front of me, “Who is that player?”, they always knew their name and position they played.
I learned a lot about the equipment, they travel with 6 sticks! And there is only 1 set of goalie gear. I still cannot understand icing, so I asked the coach “I don’t understand icing, how do I look for it?” He explained that a lot of the times he doesn’t know whether it’s going to be called or not. So I STILL don’t get it…
Clyde’s was crowded, but it was fun. The food was delicious—I had a lamb chop, shrimp, crab dip. They had an open bar, including specialty drinks like the “Ovechkin” (a blue concoction I didn’t try) and “Slapshot” (which was sweet but tasty).Ă‚Â I met and took photos with Matt Pettinger, Milan Jurcina, Brooks Laich, Jeff Schultz, and Nicklas Backstrom. Eric Fehr was also there. I was really shocked to see the players in regular clothes. I know it sounds stupid, but they are so much thinner than they look on the ice (since the padding makes them look bigger). They were all very nice and approachable. I felt like I should have had something more to say other than, “Thanks for coming” and “How do you like Washington?” If I were to go again I’d want to be able to ask them real questions. I was impressed that the players are so accessible and give their time.
Mike Vogel asks Capitals players about their favorite hockey terms, including gems like Grocery Stick, Gitch, and Schmelt. Get a few chuckles and learn some new words while you’re at it.
Two days after sending Forward Eric Fehr and Defenseman Sami Lepisto to Hershey, the Washington Capitals have recalled them.Ă‚Â From the press release:
Lepisto, 23, made his NHL debut on Feb. 16 and played 14:16 before being assigned to Hershey on Feb. 20. He has played in 39 games for Hershey this year, posting 32 points (3 goals, 29 assists). Lepisto leads all Hershey defensemen in scoring and is tied for 10th among AHL defensemen in points. His +25 rating leads the Bears and ranks second in the league. He has two goals and 14 assists in his last 10 games with Hershey.
Fehr, 22, returns to the Caps for the second time this year. He was also recalled on Feb. 4 before being assigned to the AHL on Feb. 20. Fehr has seen action in six games for Washington this year and recorded one assist. He has played in 11 games for Hershey this year after missing most of the season with an injury. He returned to the lineup on Jan. 9 and had an assist on his first shift. Fehr has three goals and four assists with the Bears this year. He tallied a goal in Hershey’s 3-2 loss at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton on Feb. 20.
Help has arrived to perhaps address the shortage of goals from players not named Alex.
Per the Washington Capitals Press Release:
The Washington Capitals have recalled right wing Eric Fehr from the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League (AHL), vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today.
Fehr, 22, has played in 10 games for Hershey this year after missing most of the season with an injury. He returned to the lineup on Jan. 9 and had an assist on his first shift. Fehr has two goals and four assists with the Bears this year.
The 6’4�, 212-pound Winkler, Manitoba, native, played in 14 games last year with Washington, recording two goals and one assist. He also saw action in 11 games during the 2005-06 season.
Very quietly — though less so after this past weekend — Andrew Gordon is ascending in the hierarchy of Caps’ prospects in his first season of pro hockey. But it hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the smooth-skating rookie this season. Back in the fall, he was demoted to South Carolina.
But he didn’t sulk. He scored. Lots. He tallied 8 goals and 6 assists for the Stingrays in 11 games before being recalled to Hershey early in December. Then he scored lots more Saturday night — a hat trick in the Bears’ 6-4 win over Lake Erie. He ended up being named the AHL’s First Star of Saturday night. He also scored the Bears’ lone goal Sunday in a 3-1 loss to Hartford.
Gordon’s hat trick this past weekend was his first as a pro. His previous one was as a St. Cloud St. sophomore, in a blowout win over Michigan Tech. “I really pick my spots, I guess,” he said with a chuckle.
Gordon, a Caps’ 7th rounder in 2004, has been a prospect favorite of mine from the last few years of my watching him dominate college hockey’s best conference, the WCHA. Gordon’s Huskies were a broadcast favorite of the Fox College Sports package I had at home, and I saw fantastic progress in each of his three seasons at St. Cloud. Gordon scored more than 100 points in his career with the Huskies, and as a junior he was named First Team All-WCHA. Just days after the Caps inked him last April, I asked General Manager George McPhee about his newest asset.
“We think there’s a real chance he can help us as early as next season,” McPhee said.
In 21 games with the Bears, Gordon has 5 goals and 14 assists, meaning that combined with his production in the ECHL, Gordon’s averaging over a point per game in his first year of pro hockey. After Saturday’s breakout performance, he was asked by a reporter what accounted for his turnaround from a disappointing start in Hershey this season.
“Not being afraid to try things,” he said. “I’ll turn a few pucks over, but I try to make plays. It’s a confidence thing. I’m not afraid to go out there on the power play with a lot of minutes and try to make a play . . . and I know Woodie’s [head Coach Bob Woods] gonna have a lot of faith to put me back out there the next power play, the next shift.”
Gordon’s a favorite with the Pennsylvania hockey press corps that covers the Bears. A handful of them took turns assuring me how nice a kid he is and how much they enjoy working with him. One of them described Gordon as “the kind of kid you’d like to see your daughter marry.” He answers all post-game questions patiently and with deliberation and candor and even self-effacing humor. One reporter Saturday wanted to know if this turnaround in his season had caught Gordon blinking his eyes in disbelief.
“I tried to blink my eyes and think twice when I went down [to South Carolina], so there’s a lot of blinking going on,” he joked.
“It’s just another hockey game,” he added. I’ve been doing this since I was four years old.”
His Bears’ teammates passing the newcomer’s Hockey Night in Hershey media hubbub took turns poking fun at it all.
“Somebody’s going up to Washington,” Louis Robitaille needled as he passed. Chris Bourque offered a crack about the rookie getting a big head.
The post-game press pack that surrounded Gordon Saturday night might have been new to him, but I got the feeling his future was going to include more of them.
A sidebar to Saturday night’s breakout party for Gordon was Eric Fehr’s return to the team after being out nine months with a frustratingly slow-healing compressed nerve affecting his lower back and hip. He sat out the middle game of a three-game weekend, but he told me that his first two games had him feeling pretty good and strong.
“I didn’t want to rush back too quickly and play all three games this weekend. I gotta get back up to speed — when you’re tired, that’s when injuries happen,” he said.
Fehr’s injury was rare and laden with setbacks. I asked him if his physicians had said anything to him about a likelihood of recurrence, or if his treatment and rehab and the nature of the injury made it more likely that it was beaten back once and for all.
“From what I know I think it’s the kind of injury that’s very rare, you don’t see a lot, and from what the doctors say they think it won’t be coming back. It’s such a freak thing it’d be tough to come by it twice, I think.”
I also wanted to know what kind of goals Fehr might have after missing so much hockey, missing training camp and attempting to join a surging team smack in the middle of a season.
“For the next couple of games I think it’s just get up to speed, get back in shape and try to produce offense for this team, and after I start feeling better I’ll maybe re-evaluate and maybe set a goal for the rest of the season.”
I asked him if hockey in Washington this season was in his thoughts at all these days.
“In the back of your mind you wanna get into Washington — that’s the goal of every player that plays in the AHL is to get called up, and I’m no different. Right now though I just gotta focus on competing and playing at a high level in Hershey.”
I’m a blogger banished to the American League on a behavioral conditioning assignment. As banishments go, Hershey’s hardly a hardship. If you’ve read this blog for three months, you know of my affinity for this community, its state-of-the-art rink, the quality people surrounding the team, and its unrivaled hockey heritage.
There’s a lot more to recommend this visit. This Hershey Bears’ club, which a month into the season appeared to be in rebuilding mode, is today 21-14-0-2. They’re nine points back of first-place Philly but just three points back of Wilkes Barre for second. The Bears lost last night in Wilkes Barre 3-1, where BJ apparently stood on his head to keep the game close. No wonder he got called back to D.C. so fast. Anyway, big-time turnaround going on here. Sound familiar?
It’s also the first-ever visit to Giant Center by the first-year Lake Erie Monsters. That’s historical, not in an alert the National Archives sense, but quirky novel enough as inducement for me to drive up on a January Saturday night with the Caps idle. When the Monsters unveiled their logo prior to the season, we had a little fun with it. Tonight, too, there’ll be some prospects I haven’t seen play in Bears’ sweaters, like Daren Machesney and Patrick McNeill. And Chris Bourque is recently returned to the lineup recuperated from a concussion.
Machesney is fast becoming a real story here. He’s 11-2-1-1 with a 2.02 goals-against and am epe-popping .933 save percentage. As Caps’ goalie prospects go, I’m not sure he was on the tips of too many Caps’ fans tongues three months ago, but I wasn’t long in the Hershey press box tonight before a handful of writers and Bears’ folks brought him up to me.
Eric Fehr played last night in Wilkes Barre but is getting tonight off. Understandable that the Bears wouldn’t want him going all three games this weekend. He’s likely to play tomorrow.
Josef Boumedienne is making his first appearance for Hershey tonight since December 1.
Stephen Werner scored his first goal of the season on a nifty shorthanded breakaway just 2:08 in. Then: the Monsters, on a Jeff Jillson tally, knot up it just seconds later.
The PA announcer may earn his stipend tonight: still not 5 minutes in, and three goals are already up on the board. 2-1 Bears on a Jason Morgan marker.
And not five minutes in, we have the evening’s first Louis Robitaille dance card, with Monster Mitch Love. A lot of prelude and prancing, but a decent tilt that I’d award the slight decision to Robitaille, though Love definitely got some un-love blows in.
It’s really enjoyable seeing two promising forward prospects — Andrew Joudrey and Andrew Gordon — skate on a line together, and at the 7:13 mark, Joudrey made a superb centering feed from the half boards that Gordon blasted home. If Hershey scores a fourth here in the first, will Monster netminder Tyler Weiman get the hook?
Speaking of getting hooked, I mean hitched, Oh My God, another marriage proposal at another hockey game! She said yes, but it took her a while. On this weekend when I’m trying to remind Mr. Leonsis of my virtues, being a bit of a Cupid karma in rinks is one, no?
16:12 into the first: Lepisto with a well-aimed, low bomb from the right point that Andrew Gordon deflected past Weiman. Weiman’s still in, but there was nothing he could do on that one. It was a superb redirect by Gordon. He’s doubled his goals on the season (4) after just one period tonight.
One uber-impressive period in the books: 4-1 Bears after one.
During the first intermission, I was invited to join Bears’ radio voice John Walton for a chat during intermission two. I wonder what he wants to talk about? Continue reading ›
From our contact in Hershey:
“Fehrsie started the game for the BEARS and SCORED on that 1st shift(on a line with Bourque and Motzko).The goal was at the :40 mark of the 1st. Fehr deflected in a shot taken by Bourque.”
Update:
“They just changed the goal. They gave it to Bourque, however Fehr did get the assist.”
Update from the Hershey press box:
“I’m impressed with Fehr’s physical fearlessness tonight. Sticking his body around the net. He is laboring some with the skating.”
Post-game feedback from a Bears’ official:
“Eric was definately laboring withĂ‚Â his skating, but I’m sure that was expected. His “game” shape will come with time. His nose for the net and offensive side ofĂ‚Â his game was still there, and will only get better with time. He took/gave some hits and you couldn’t see anyĂ‚Â obvious signs of discomfort. I think the true test will be tomorrow and how he feels the day after the game. Another test will come this weekend, withĂ‚Â three games in three days(Fri. in WB/S, Sat. and Sun. at home); it will be interesting to see if he plays in back to back games orĂ‚Â if he is able to play in all three.”
Tim Leone of the Patriot News has the scoop — Eric Fehr may be back playing pro hockey as early as tomorrow night!
“Right winger Eric Fehr, sidelined since last season due to a back-hip ailment, may return to the lineup for the Hershey Bears when the Norfolk Admirals visit Giant Center on Wednesday. The expectation today is that Fehr will indeed play, but a final decision won’t come until Wednesday.
“I’ll see how it feels tonight and tomorrow and we’ll see how things go,” Fehr said today. “It’s going pretty well this week, so it’s been pretty positive.
“I’m really excited that I’m getting pretty close. Hopefully, it is tomorrow. I think I’m going to be ready for it. I’ve been skating pretty hard and I feel pretty comfortable.”
Monday night was anything but another ordinary weeknight regular season game at Verizon Center. A healthy sampling of the communications crew from the Hershey Bears made the trip down, their schedule at last allowing for a visit to D.C. to catch up with the newly promoted coach they so admire. The voice the Bears, John Walton, brought along Chris Poisal, who’s keeping Bears’ stats for Coach Bob Woods, and Lamont Buford, who keeps the Bears’ web site fresh and informative. Chris, incidentally, started blogging this fall ["Dupree in the Sin Bin"] and is tracking American Hockey League life with commendable breadth and detail. He’s become my pipeline to real-time progress reports on Eric Fehr’s rehab.
Coach Boudreau didn’t know about the visit from his friends ahead of time, and so the scene inside the Caps’ room after last night’s victory was warm like you might imagine — made the moreso by Quintin Laing’s game-winning heroics.
I hadn’t seen these guys since Hershey’s home opener back in late October, and given the intervening developments of note since then, last night’s reunion made for a lively dinner chat. It was fascinating listening to the perspectives on the big changes from these guys who know Coach Boudreau best. You might recall that the Bears were in Philadelphia on Friday, November 23, playing that night against the Phantoms after Bruce Boudreau made his debut as Caps’ coach that afternoon against the Flyers. These circumstances helped fuel an emotion in the Hershey organization that day that was, Walton told me, at times overwhelming.
“After the [2006 Calder] Cup, that day was the most rewarding in my entire hockey career,” he told me. “I was so spent that by the time we boarded the bus to get back [to Hershey], I was asleep before it pulled out.”
There seems to be a lot of Hershey Bears influence about the Caps these days, all of it positive. I find myself wishing it’d arrived here about 10 years ago.
Now then. There were of course notable items from last night’s game, led first and foremost by the fact that someone in Caps’ communications managed to see me seated next to a recent Miss New Jersey, who was, yes, blogging from the game. I didn’t believe at first, either (although she was distinctly attractive), but Vogel assured me it was true. Plus, early Tuesday morning, over breakfast in a Mayflower suite, she showed me her crown. Kidding about the Mayflower — what blogger could afford that lodging?
11:45 a.m.: In the middle of this week I wondered about the appeal of spending this particular weekend in Hershey, coincidental to the Bears’ home opener. It’s never a bad idea to take in a Saturday night hockey game at Giant Center, and the moreso on Hershey’s home Opening Night. But I thought the gentle hills of south central Pennsylvania likely in peak autumn colors, and two full nights within them the perfect escape from hustle and bustle of D.C. Late this morning, driving East through the Lebanon Valley en route to Adamstown and Stoudt’s brew pub, some 30 minutes East of Hershey, I realized I’d made a brilliant travel decision this weekend.
The central region just north of Maryland hasn’t endured anything like the summer and early fall drought of the lower Midatlantic, and as I drove under brilliant sunshine this morning green fields stood out as novel to my eyes, lush between burnt orange, brown, and maroon leaves above and, intermittently, vibrant orange pumpkins stacked and splashed about porches, yards, and small-town merchants’ store entrances.
Stoudt’s, while not near Hershey, is for me a must-visit on every visit. The beer is brewed and bottled cold, meaning that for a traveler like me I can store it in my Jeep and allow it to warm before chilling it again without the slightest harm. Stoudt’s Pils, Pales, and seasonals arrive on the beer lover’s tongue like nectar from an unearthly realm. There’s a quirky law that requires the Stoudt’s patron purchasing beer for take-out to transport only 12-packs at a time to his car. I had a shopping list generous not only for myself but also for my expert on all beers of the planet friend Michael, who lives back home on Capitol Hill. This exertion represents the day’s exercise. Today in the air’s crispness and the hills’ panoramic colors I savored the entirety of the 40-mile drive. The brewery opened at noon. I was there at 12:11.
12:45 p.m.: I hurry back to Hershey from shopping in order to meet a gracious invitation from the Patriot News’ Tim Leone, beat reporter for the Bears, who invited me to his home to watch a half afternoon’s worth of college football before heading over the Giant Center together. USC was playing Notre Dame Saturday. Tim is a USC grad, and, I like to kid Tim, I’m a “patriot,” so it was a showdown slate for us. Tim has a basset hound named Dash who waddles in the family yard patterns that are better disciplined and faster than any of the Fighting Irish’s wide receivers. I think Dash might run block better than any ND linemen as well.
5:15 p.m.: Tim and I head over the to the rink. It’s Chamber of Commerce gorgeous out. If I didn’t have a game to cover, I’d have no problem sipping a few Stoudt’s on my hotel room’s veranda and just staring at the sun setting over the horizon’s hills. Hershey is playing the second most storied franchise in the American League tonight, the Rochester Americans. It’s a novel matchup, Leone informs me, as the visit represents Rochester’s first to the Giant Center in almost two years. Rochester has a dual affiliation with Buffalo and Florida.
I don’t know the identities of the man and woman staffing the credentials table in the entrance hall of the press door at Giant Center, but when I inform that that I’m with OnFrozenBlog, the lady tells me “Oh you’re with the frozen blog. You guys are doing a terrific job.” There is always some manner of warm welcome I experience on every visit up here, in some restuarant or at some service station or at the rink, and this ranks among the best of them all for me.
The Bears are 0-3 on the new season, in the basement of the AHL’s East Division. This is very unfamiliar territory, particularly for Bruce Boudreau and his staff.
6:55 p.m.: In pre-game darkness and opening night lasers, a business-suited Eric Fehr is introduced to the home crowd. I’m so tired of seeing Eric in a business suit. Sami Lepisto is also a scratch, also because he is hurt. A Bears’ staffer informs Leone and me that Boudreau will dress just five defensemen tonight. I find that interesting in light of the fact that the Bears’ bus got home from Connecticut in the middle of the night.
Weird looking: Ben Clymer is dressed for the Bears. I am anxious to see Sasha Pokulok, who’s enjoyed something of a renaissance in his hockey career in the last three months. He led the Bears in scoring during the preseason.
The house is about fourth-fifths full.
7:15 p.m.: Both on paper and in the early going tonight I notice less flash to the Bears’ lineup relative to the past two seasons. One good reason for that is the graduation of Tomas Fleischmann. But Dave Steckel, too, put up big numbers and played an enormous role for Bruce Boudreau the past seasons in Hershey. In the middle of the summer I asked Leone if he thought this would be a “rebuilding” season in Hershey. He actually thought they’d contend for the East division title again, and he said this again to me today in his home. Continue reading ›
A not-so-funny thing happened on the way to the Caps dressing a productive and seriously puck-possessing top 6 set of forwards this season. Some of the machine parts have fallen off. A cranky ankle has shelved sublime sniper Alexander Semin for all but one game thus far. Worse, one third of the top line has imploded. Has ever a young top-line winger’s fortunes soured as swiftly and as thoroughly as have Tomas Fleischmann’s early this autumn? A light switch seemingly shut down Flash’s fission. The boys up front are a bit unsettled right now.
That right side of the Capitals’ forward ranks has to unnerve management and Coach Hanlon. In addition to the flickering out of Flash there is Eric Fehr’s perpetually uncertain status. He’s not even skating these days. Joe Motzko, acquired in the offseason with the Hershey Bears in mind, has suddenly taken a turn on the top right flank. Where is the front-line right wing in this organization this October? The answer is, he may not exist — the moreso if Viktor Kozlov becomes entrenched as AO’s pivot.
Semin will eventually heal, but can the Caps plausibly vie for the postseason without the services of a scoring wing opposite Alex? I wonder.
In my darker moments, I fret about a new position leak springing — in this case, right wing — just as the blueline swiftly became old and immobile at the start of this decade.
Anyway, the Caps are tasked with gutting it out for the foreseeable future.
The beauty of hockey is that a beleaguered lineup can get its collective nose dirty and steal points even from much prettier clubs when their hearts swell for the work.
Monday brought about a two-hour practice. That’s long by NHL standards. When a rut is driven by low shot and goal totals, the most common prescription is hard work. This is a hockey club that for a few years now has been characterized by its hard work.
Not all is gloom and doom this mid-October. It appears that in net, the most important position on the ice, the Caps will regularly get quality, even game-stealing efforts from its tandem. The larger perspective up to the present is this: three weeks ago, knowing that the Caps faced four of the first five on the road, and all of the road games without Semin, had you been offered a record of 3-2 through them, you’d have grabbed it.
More good news: Pittsburgh is losing plenty.
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.
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