In Glacialis Blog

Bonus novus ex Caps’ PR baculus hodie:

Three Caput Draft Picks Invited ut Canadian Populus Junior Team Lectio Castra

WASHINGTON– Tutaminis Karl Alzner quod Josh Godfrey quod center Mathieu Perreault have been invited ut famulor 2008 Canadian Populus Junior Team Lectio Castra, Hockey Canalis renuntio hodie. Alzner, Godfrey quod Perreault es three of 37 ludio ludius quisnam mos famulor castra ut runs ex Dec. 10-14, 2007, procul Abbas David Bauer Olympic Pulvis in Calgary.

Lavatio est unus of quattuor NHL teams per three prospicio invited ut castra, iunctus per Boston, Detroit quod Los Angelus. castra mos succurro decerno team ut reddo Canalis procul 2008 Universitas Junior Championship ut exsisto held in Czech Res publica Dec. 26, 2007, ut Jan. 5, 2007.

Alzner quod Perreault utriusque famulor castra permaneo annus, dum Alzner est unus of three ludio ludius in castra quisnam eram a member of 2007 Canadian Populus Junior Team. Alzner quod Godfrey es duos of 22 castra participants quisnam erant members of Canadian team procul is fall’s Canalis/Russia Eximius Serius.

Alzner, 19, eram Capitals’ primoris choice, diapente super, in 2007 Viscus Draft. Exuro, British Columbia, paternus est caput of Calgary Hitmen of Occasus Hockey League. Alzner plumbum Hitmen tutaminis per 19 cuspis ( quattuor calx, 15 succurro) quod a +10 rating in 31 venatus.

Godfrey, 19, eram Washington’s secundus- rotundus choice, 34th super, in 2007 Viscus Draft. A paternus of Collingwood, Ontario, sit caput capitis defensabiliter ustulo pro Sault Ste. Caltha Greyhounds of Ontario Hockey League (OHL) per 22 cuspis ( novem calx, 13 succurro) in 29 venatus. Godfrey ordo tertius inter OHL tutaminis in calx secundum plumbum league blueliners in calx permaneo season (24).

Perreault, 19, eram Capitals’ sedecim- rotundus choice, 177th super, in 2006 Viscus Draft. Drummondville, Quebec, paternus est in suus tertius season per Acadie-Bathurst Titan of Quebec Major domus Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) quod ordo tied pro quartus inter QMJHL ustulo per 44 cuspis (19 calx, 25 succurro) in 26 venatus. league’s obscoena ludio ludius of week in prothoplastus week of November, sit tied pro tertius in QMJHL per a +18 rating. Perreault eram QMJHL ludio ludius of annus quod a primoris-team totus- astrum in 2006-07.

Haud magnus admiratio: Plymouth Orcus have paciscor goaltender Michal Neuvirth ut Ventus. Effrego talentum per super OHL eligibility amo Neuvirths’ es sepius paciscor per rebuilding teams. Quod permaneo season certainly eram a effrego unus pro Caps’ secundus- rotundus pick in 2006 draft. Plymouth, however, is a firmus six venatus supremus .500 obvius Occasus divortium of OHLs’ Occasus placitum. Forsit est, Kitchener est 17-3.

admiratio hic est ut paciscor didnt’ come in offseason. Procul a Ipsa Gero’ lascivio venatus permaneo ver, Caps’ goaltending cogo Dave Prior forecasted ut mihi Neuvirths’ res dealt during estas, subtilis quoniam Plymouth wasnt’ specto ut reverto ut Monumentum Vas.

Of Neuvirth Ventus GM Proeliator Rychel said, “Michal is a universitas- ordo ludio ludius, a expertus lascivio tractare quod unus of caput capitis goaltenders in OHL.   ”

Wisconsin Civitas Iter itineris is week has a retineo ratio of mayhem North Dakota Bellator Sioux directus procul vegetus phenom Kyle Turris of Wisconsin Insigne is preteritus weekend. Turris, tertius super pick of 2007 draft per Phoenix, est an understandable target of vetus- vicis intentio unus mensis in contraho hockey season: hes’ been forsitan plurrimi infigo quod dominor primoris- annus tractare, piling sursum 14 cuspis in 8 venatus eatenus. Hes’ tertius in populus in ustulo, secundum iugum of St. Cloud Civitas teammates: Ryan Lasch quod Vienna, Va.s’ Cenaculum Roe, quoque a vegetus. They have 17 cuspis in 10 venatus.

Bellator Sioux have suum partis of dominion porro, comprehendo permaneo annus’ Hobey Baker victor Ryan Duncan. Nonetheless, they no amo suum namesakes permaneo weekend, ut Iter itineris notitia:

“in prothoplastus period of serius patefacio Friday, won 4-0 per UW, Turris eram walloped procul obscoena puteulanus versus per Bellator Sioux junior tutaminis Joe Finley, a socius NHL primoris- teres ( lavatio) quisnam est audio procul 6- pes-7 quod 245 talentum . . .

“res escalated in alter venatus. . . Finley philologus tackled Turris per vox tabula . . .”

Non impleo facio vita miser pro solers Insigne in glacies, Magnus Joe promptus got scabrosus off cepit,:

“. . . a UW persona affirmo ut Finley refer adsuesco assuesco suus adhaero battuo Bucky Insigne in crur ut duos obduco unus alius in runway ut vestio cella Imbuo nox noctis”

Is cant’ adepto ut D.C. velox satis mihi.

Yesterdays’ Boston Globe comprehendo an article in Sarcalogos Bourques’ NHLs’ debut permaneo Tuesday. NHL dico- sursum venit mane satis pro suus parentes proficiscor quod vigilo venatus ex sto. Sarcalogos’ praeclarus abbas, Ray, had nonnullus aula-of- laus precipio pro suus filius secundum venatus.

“is sententia EGO ludio ludius vere puteus, quod iustus told mihi ut exsequor bonus opus” said Christopher, cuius sermo exemplum quod accent es virtually identical ut suus dads’. “is iustus volo mihi facio is a ferreus sententia pro lemma transmitto mihi down, quod, hey, obviously is est qua Volo moror. Ive’ been somnium super is meus universus vita”

Chis quoque orator of suus amplitudo.

“ego sentio vere bonus procul is pondus, EGO sentio velox sicco illic” said Bourque. “Ive’ nunquam vultus procul meus amplitudo ut quispiam ut held mihi tergum, vere. EGO inviso is ut an contraho. Ive’ got a mugio center of sepulchrum, quod ut planto is ferreus mihi impetro conicio off puck. Sic, suus’ an commodum mihi non a infitialis”

Lego ceterus procul Boston Globe website.

• Is eram a venatus pro captus primo of tertius period. One team took is; ceterus took nocens poena. iterum  
• Septumdecim venatus in 2007-08 season is est a Caps’ team vacuus an identity.
• A res of beauty The: Caps’ primoris calx, when Mike Viridis’ lubricus stickhandling and even magis infigo patella ut Ovechkin rightfully brought Quin Center fans ex suum discounted sessio. Tamen dynamic Mike Viridis has an novus quod subolesco-challenged muto ego, quod nos saw about 5 minutes laxus ut is senselessly went virga swinging in Kolzigs’ crease.  

Donatus Sarcalogos Bourques’ emineo modicus minutes, unus admiratio quis’ voluntas of suus repeto.

Illic does videor futurus nonnullus obscoena mico captus habitum in Tomas Fleischmanns’ venatus. Is eram palmarium in Ottawa, quod is iterum videor magis indubitanter in puck tonight.

• Weve’ vigilo Bellicus St. Louis eviscerate Caps pro prope a decade iam, quod nos servo admiratio quare nemo can iacio a gravis ledo in him. umquam Suus’ unus of minimus ineo super quod plurimus underrated vultus of suus obscoena venatus; nox noctis he manages ut servo sui ex harms way’ quod yet himself down mugio inter periculosus in mactabilis formo.    
• Videlicet illic’ quispiam distinctively atrocious super Quin Center glacies. Weve’ auditus quod lego questus super is vere utpote oris nox noctis, quod Imbuo nox noctis incidence of cado universitas- ordo skaters terminus on the burlesque. Nos television visum erant edoctus ut a matinee basketball venatus eram nimirum partim reprehendo. Tamen ut doesnt’ persolvo miserabilis superficies in preeo weeknights, vel multi- utor of alius pulvis vacuus comparable stumblings in suum hockey venatus.   

Audrius Zubrus left suus positus ut Senex Tellus Venditio Procurator pro Caput, tamen non pro opus unus permaneo venatus poema poematis Levitas quod a stipes venatus abiego procul RNR Talea & Lounge. Unus coniecto ut qua abyssus’ exsisto opus tunc.

Acadie Bathurst Titan center Mathieu Perreault, Caps’ sedecim- rotundus lectio in 2006 draft, has surged ut valde caput capitis of QMJHL ustulo plumbum odio lascivio fewer venatus quam fere totus of suus incomparabilis. Is eram nomen Qs’ Ludio ludius of Week pro week of November 5, quod in suus permaneo three venatus hes’ posteri 6 calx quod 5 succurro. Permaneo season, Perreault procerus 41 calx quod 78 succurro in 67 venatus pro Titan. Hes’ in passus ut caput capitis 140 cuspis in Q is season.

2007 secundus rotundus draft pick Ted Ruth, a vegetus blueliner procul Notre Dame, est a +10 in 10 venatus pro Bellator Irenses. Is skated a +2 Friday nox noctis in Notre Dames’ 2-1 turbo in via of haud. 1 ordo Miami, quod sit mereo minutes ut a caput capitis iugum tutor per senex Brock Tondeo. USC eram situs is weekend.

Per John Waltons’ Blog, Walton, Wired quod Unwired, Sarcalogos Bourque has been repeto quod should exsisto in tonights’ versus obviam Atlanta.

1145: a.m.: In medius is week EGO admiratio super videor of prodigo is proprius weekend in Ipsa, coincidental ut Gero’ domus patefacio. Suus’ nunquam a nocens informatio sumo in a Imbuo nox noctis hockey venatus procul Giant Center, quod magis in Hersheys’ domus Oris Nox noctis. Tamen EGO sententia mitis tumulosus of meridianus central Pennsylvania amo in promontorium autumn colo colui cultum, quod duos plenus nox noctis intus lemma perficio subterlabor ex hustle quod tumultus of D.C. Tardus is oriens, coegi Oriens per Lebanon Valley en iter itineris ut Adamstown quodVigoratus’ brew pub, nonnullus 30 minutes Oriens of Ipsa, EGO animadverto Id’ no a splendens eo sententia is weekend.

central tellus iustus north of Maryland Hasnonium’ tolero quisquam amo estas quod mane cado sitis of summitto Midatlantic, quod ut EGO drove sub splendens sunshine is oriens viridis ager scamnum sicco ut novus ut meus eyes, lush inter exuro orange, frons, quod maroon coma supremus quod, intermittently, vibrant orange pumpkins stacked quod respergo super porches, yards, quod vegrandis- urbs merchants’ repono porta.

Vigoratus’, dum non near Ipsa, est mihi a must- saluto in sulum saluto. beer est brewed quod solum gelu, voluntas ut parumper viator amo mihi EGO can repono is in meus Jeep quod sino is foveo pro gelu is iterum vacuus minimus vulnero. Vigoratus’ Pils, Stilus, quod seasonals supervenio in beer diligo’ lingua amo nectar ex an unearthly regnum. Illic’ a quirky lex ut postulo Vigoratus’ patronus emo beer pro take- sicco ut transport tantum 12- sarcina procul a vicis ut suus car. EGO had a shopping album probus non tantum pro myself tamen quoque pro meus professor in totus beers of plagiarius amicus Michael, quisnam ago tergum domus in Caput Tumulosus. Is nisus reddo dies’ exerceo. Hodie in airs’ crispness quod tumulosus’ panoramic colo colui cultum EGO thymbra universus of 40-mile coegi. brewery patefacio procul noon. EGO eram illic procul 1211:.

1245: p.m.: EGO volito tergum ut Ipsa ex shopping gratia opportunus a propitius invitation ex Pium Novus’Tim Leone, pello pepulli pulsum opinio pro Gero, quisnam invited mihi ut suus domus ut vigilo a dimidium meridianus’ dignitas of contraho football pro caput capitis super Giant Center una. USC eram lascivio Notre Dame Imbuo. Tim est a USC grad, quod, EGO amo ut kid Tim, Im’ a “ pium” sic is eram a showdown slate nobis. Tim has a basset hound nomen Audacia quisnam waddles in prosapia yard exemplum ut es melior castrensis quod ocius quam ullus of Bellator Irenses’ prolixus suscipio. EGO reputo Audacia vires run clausus melior quam ullus ND versus pariter.

515: p.m.: Tim quod EGO caput capitis super ut rink. Suus’ Chamber of Ineo ingurgito sicco. Si EGO didnt’ have a venatus tectum, Id’ have haud forsit sipping pauci Vigoratus’ in meus hotel cella’ veranda quod iustus astrum procul sol solis occasus super horizons’ tumulosus. Ipsa est lascivio alter plurimus repono suffragium in American League tonight, Rochester Americans. Suus’ a novus compositus, Leone informs mihi, ut saluto reddo Rochesters’ primoris ut Giant Center in fere duos annus. Rochester has a dual affiliation per Plaga quod Florida.

EGO dont’ teneo identities of vir quod mulier baculus credentials traba in porta aula of press ianua procul Giant Center, tamen ut EGO inform ut ut Im’ per OnFrozenBlog, era dico mihi “Oh vestri’ per glacialis blog. Vos guys es effectus a magnificabiliter job.” Illic est usquequaque nonnullus ratio of tepidus exspectata EGO usus in sulum saluto sursum hic, in nonnullus restuarant vel procul nonnullus muneris constituo vel procul rink, quod is ordo inter optimus of lemma totus mihi.

Gero es 0-3 in novus season, in basement of AHLs’ Oriens Divortium. Is est valde unfamiliar tractus, proprie pro Bruce Boudreau quod suus baculus.

655: p.m.: In pre- venatus obscurum quod oris nox noctis lasers, a res- consentaneus Eric Fehr est induco ut domus turba. Im’ sic defessus of seeing Eric in a res interpellatio. Sami Lepisto est quoque a scratch, quoque quoniam sit vulnero. A Gero’ baculus informs Leone quod mihi ut Boudreau mos vestio iustus quinque tutaminis tonight. EGO reperio ut interesting in lux lucis of quod Gero’ bus got domus ex Iunctio in medius nox noctis.

Fatum vultus: Ben Clymer est indutus pro Gero. EGO sum sollicitus video vidi visum Sasha Pokulok, cuius’ utor quispiam of a renaissance in suus hockey tutela in permaneo three mensis. Is led Gero in ustulo per preseason.

domus est super quartus- diapente plenus.

715: p.m.: Utriusque in paper quod in mane iens tonight EGO animadverto minor mico ut Gero’ versus cognatus ut preteritus duos seasons. Unus bonus causa illo est graduation of Tomas Fleischmann. Tamen Dave Steckel, quoque, loco sursum magnus numerus quod ludio ludius an enormous persona pro Bruce Boudreau preteritus seasons in Ipsa. In medius estas EGO asked Leone si is sententia is would exsisto a “rebuilding” season in Ipsa. Is vere sententia theyd’ impleo pro Oriens divortium titulus iterum, quod is said is iterum ut mihi hodie in suus domus. (persevero)

EGO had a velox email verto per Caps’ 2007 2nd rotundus draft pick Josh Godfrey hodie. EGO asked him quam season eram iens; is said hes’ off ut a bonus satus per 7 calx quod 7 succurro in primoris 10 venatus. Priores… “a bonus satus” est aliquantulus of an understatement.

Secundum auditurus esse illud numerus, EGO traho sursum OHL website video vidi visum quam is ordo inter ustulo gubernatio. Is should adveho ut haud admiratio ut John Tavares est plumbum league per 14 calx quod 11 succurro pro 25 cuspis in 9 venatus. Godfrey, vero, est tied per sociusSault Ste. Caltha Greyhound porro James Livingston pro 8th- plurimus cuspis, quod est 3rd inter tutaminis in league.

Off ut a bonus satus, vero.

A non- sic-funny res venio obvius ut Caps vestio a uber quod serio puck- usus caput capitis 6 paro of porro is season. Nonnullus of apparatus secui have cado off. A cranky ankle has crusta sublimis sniper Alexander Semin pro totus tamen unus venatus eatenus. Peior, unus tertius of caput capitis versus has imploded. Has umquam a tener caput capitis- versus volatilis’ sors acidus ut celeriter quod ut penitus ut have Tomas Flesichmanns’ mane is autumn? A lux lucis switch seemingly shut down Mico’ fission. boys sursum frons es aliquantulus turbo vox iam.

Ut vox pars of Caput’ porro ordo has ut unnerve procuratio quod Cogo Hanlon. In addition ut flickering ex Mico illic est Eric Fehrs’ jugiter incertus statua. Hes’ non vel skating illa dies. Joe Motzko, us in offseason per Ipsa Gero in mens, has repente captus a verto in caput capitis vox latuseris. Qua est frons- versus vox pennae huic norma is October? refero est, is may nusquam esse — magis si Viktor Kozlov fio vallum ut AOs’ cardo.

Semin mos eventually vigoratus, tamen can Caps speciosus vie pro postseason vacuus muneris of a ustulo pennae adversus Alex? EGO admiratio.

In meus caligo moments, EGO fret super a novus positus effluo ver — huic theca, vox pennae — iustus ut blueline celeriter quoniam vetus quod immobile primo illae decade.

Usquam, Caps es negotium per gutting is sicco pro foreseeable posterus.

decor of hockey est ut a beleaguered versus can adepto suus contraho nose immunda quod rapio cuspis vel ex ultum belle stipes ut suum pectus pectoris tumesco pro opus.

Monday brought super a duos- hora meditor. Ut’ porro per NHL vexillum. Ut a rut est coegi per mugio offa quod calx numerus, plurrimi vulgaris prescription est ferreus opus. Is est a hockey stipes ut parumper pauci annus iam has been characterized per suus ferreus opus.

Non totus est senium quod fatum is medium-October. Is videor ut 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.

Apprised of Comcast’s commitment to the Caps this week, I turned on Comcast SportsNet the moment I arrived home from work Monday night, and left it there. What I watched over the next four hours stunned me.

I saw new Comcast Caps’ beat reporter Lisa Hillary studio host a season preview alongside Joe Reekie. I saw just about all of Alexander Ovechkin’s first-ever NHL game (I’d forgotten that he was a flubbed breakaway from a hat trick that night). Then I saw JoeB and Craig host another studio half hour, “Caps Speak,” for another team preview. Promos for Comcast’s “SportsNight” that followed promised even more Caps’ coverage.

It was “Monday Night Hockey in Washington,” of course.

Head Coach Glen Hanlon was interviewed in depth by Hillary. GMGM was thoughtfully interviewed, at length, and he provided his customary thoughtful replies. Key personnel — Chris Clark, Olie Kolzig, Tom Poti, Nicklas Backstrom, Michael Nylander — all took turns before Comcast’s cameras. Tarik El Bashir’s segment with Joe and Craig I thought was a highlight of the entire night. (Tarik, true to form, offered a sober and fair assessment amid the rampant optimism engulfing the organization early this autumn. The Caps, he said, could finish anywhere “from sixth to tenth” in the Eastern conference.)

Broadcast Buzz about pro hockey in D.C. these days? Umm, yes — only if you regard all-consuming, single-topic devotion by the local sports television outlet to the city’s red-headed stepchild of pro teams “buzz”-indicating. Apparently it’s going to be like this the remainder of the week each evening on Comcast.

At one point during the prime time proceedings I saw Joe and Craig flash on the screen multiple-screen listings of Caps’ prospects. I saw the names Michal Neuvirth, Simeon Varlamov, Karl Alzner, Joe Finley, Mathieu Perreault, Francois Bouchard, Dave Steckel, and Chris Bourque, all broadcast on an outlet that never in its life held an office fantasy hockey pool. Briefly, it was like a breakout from hockeysfuture, and two DraftGeeks renting out the Comcast studio and making like Wayne and Garth on local cable access.

Wayne, er, JoeB: “Look at all this talent in the pipeline, Dude!”

Garth, er, Craig (head cocked): “Excellent!”

This is what importing one Canuck can do to an outlet!

More seriously, Hillary was hired to bring her NHL coverage experience to Comcast. The in-house hockey talent was significant, if under-appreciated and grossly under-utilized, but had the outlet ever boasted a dedicated reporter on the beat? Next I’m going to allege that coverage decisions like Comcast’s for this week haven’t occurred in a vacuum, and that they’re a harbinger of better coverage to come, print and broadcast, traditional and alternative. To an extent, it’s fashionable, of course: the Caps may not make it to the postseason this year, but they will not be dull.

But of course I’m a subscriber to the theory that a media revolution for this team and its sport is well underway these days, in these parts.

I’m also, at week’s end, when this trial run on Comcast terminates, planning on becoming a subscriber to CapsTV.

Chris Bourque scored 18 seconds into last night’s Hershey Bears’ exhibition game against Norfolk, and the Bears would get goals from five others in the 6-2 triumph. Hershey is now 3-0 in preseason, and like the Caps, closes out the preseason slate Sunday evening at 5:00, with a Giant Center date with Wilkes Barre-Scranton.

An emerging storyline for the Bears late this month appears to be Sasha Pokulok. He added a goal and an assist Saturday night, and earlier in the week had three assists in a game. This follows his strong training camp with the Caps.

Mathieu Perreault enjoyed what you might term a productive Friday night: 1 goal and 5 assists in Acadie Bathurst’s 9-2 mauling of Drummondville. Perreault has skated in three of Acadie Bathurst’s four games in the early going of the new Q season, and he’s recorded 3 goals and 6 assists. In two of his three games he’s been named the game’s first star.

Perreault, the reigning QMJHL MVP, scored 50 goals and 92 assists last season for the Titan. Some Q leaguers with whom Perreault is currently lodged in the top 10 in scoring have played as many as seven games.

Acadie Bathurst is 3-0-1.

It’s a day of rest not only for Washington Capitals’ players and coaches — well, the players at least — but for the team’s frenzied communications staff as well. Being out at Kettler as much as I have been the past 10 days, I gained a deep appreciation for the commitment of Nate Ewell, Julie Petri, Paul Rovnak, and Mike Vogel, among others. Their days during camp begin early and end late, and at this time of year they’re not only facilitating one of the heavier media flows following camp in years but also putting together the in-season communications products, such as the Media Guide. It’s forecast to be a stunning late September Sunday today, and I hope they’re all out having fun in the fun and recharging their batteries.

The pause in on-ice action is a good time to take stock of what the Caps have achieved thus far in what I believe is the most important training camp in the organization’s history. I made a point during my visits to survey the hockey-savvy heads also taking in the daily doings at Kettler, from print and broadcast reporters to fellow bloggers to fans in the stands, and herewith I’m blending their leading storylines of camp to date with my own.

• Proud Papa. I’ve regularly seen Owner Leonsis as training camp spectator during the past 10 days, and while it’s true he’s no longer involved with the day-to-day operations of AOL, he remains a busy communications man. I think what’s happened with his training camp interest level mirrors that of the rest of us: the quality and depth of the organization on display is so impressive you are fairly compelled to make the trip out there and simply revel in the turned corner of the team’s competitiveness.

• Nylander to line 2. Two years ago Michael Nylander left Washington as a very good hockey player. This fall he’s returned but done so appearing to be more a star. He’s a dynamic playmaker, in supreme condition. And while almost everyone in hockey this summer forecasted an Ovechkin-Nylander top-line pairing, way back in July Head Coach Glen Hanlon very publicly stated his intention of experimenting with top-6 forward combinations, and thus far in camp, the conspicuous chemistry appears to have melded among Alexander Semin, Michael Nylander, and Nicklas Backstrom as Hanlon’s second unit.

• Slick Swede Part II. Speaking of Backstrom, he is irrefutably gaining comfort on the North American-sized sheet of ice — making progress “on a daily basis,” to quote my friend Mike Vogel. At the World Championships in Moscow in May, former Cap and Swedish National Team Head Coach Bengt Gustafsson told us that Backstrom would make that transition successfully and reasonably swiftly, and he was right. Tim Leone up in Hershey thinks it in Backstrom’s, and the Caps’, best interest for him to have a cup of coffee with the Bears this season. Ain’t happening.

• It’s my puck, and I’m keeping it. The Caps don’t (yet) have a dominant shut-down defenseman, so Glen Hanlon’s strategy for improved defensive play this season rests with his club maintaining possession of the puck more often than in the past two seasons, when often they chased it around the rink in futile fashion. If you have the puck more often than your opposition, your goalie isn’t get apt to face 40 or 50 shots each night, and surrender five or six goals most nights. So far, this strategy appears to be taking hold. In training camp’s scrimmages and through the Caps’ first three preseason games, you can see more puck possession and fewer netminders collapsing from fatigue.

• Captain, My Captain/Son of Kono-Dahlen-Halpern. I’ve changed my views on cloning, because of Chris Clark. Meaning no disrespect to Dale and his retired sweater, but should Clark captain the Caps to a Stanley Cup title in one of the next three seasons, he will have to be regarded as the best and most important captain in team history, having guided the team from the barrens of an unprecedented bottoming out to the promised land. And sitting here in September 2007, I wouldn’t stand in line to wager against it. (See Carolina ‘05-06, Tampa ‘03-04.)

It is Chris Clark’s team-first, two-way versatility that has Glen Hanlon fantasizing about a two-way, impact third line along the lines of the great Steve Konowalchuk, Jeff Halpern, Ulf Dahlen trio of a few years ago. That line, you’ll recall, was so dominant that Ron Wilson opened just about every game with it. It was also one that was a lynchpin to the Caps’ postseason participation. The coach has told the media that he’s looking for 60 goals from his third line this season, and given the defensive acumen of Clark and Boyd Gordon, and Matt Pettinger’s offensive pop, it’s natural to invoke the KDH comparison.

I’m also not wagering on Clark’s offensive production diminishing, dramatically, by virtue of his dropping down to line 3. As he noted himself on Media Day, he’s spent the past two seasons taking shifts against the likes of Zdeno Chara and top defensive pairings. Less so, it would appear, beginning this season.

• Deep Depth. The Caps this weekend have 35 players battling for spots on the opening night roster. It’s reasonably easy to forecast another five cuts, but the leap from about 30 to 23 is another matter. To put it charitably, the Caps’ are in uncharted territory, post-lockout, in terms of the skater quality they’ll be showcasing out at Kettler in week two of camp. This is the most basic and encouraging sign of the overall success of the rebuild.

• Three games, three leads. Through three exhibition games, the Caps have only once fielded a fairly veteran lineup — last Thursday night in Ottawa. They opened in Carolina, against a comparatively veteran Hurricanes’ lineup, dressing only John Erskine and Mike Green on the blueline as guys with significant NHL experience from last season (and with BJ in net). In all three games the Caps have played significant stretches with a lead (twice with two-goal leads). There remain mistakes (penalties) and concerns (penalties) aplenty, but we shouldn’t lose sight of the fact that Coach Hanlon’s strategy of playing a more puck possession game is abundantly evident. In order to win more often, a team must first establish competitiveness, then achieve leads in games. The Caps have accomplished both early in this preseason.

The next step is to close the deal once you have the lead.

• When did Toronto’s print media come to work in Washington? For the first time in my hockey life, I wake each day knowing that with my morning coffee I need to visit the web sites for both of Washington’s big newspapers in order to follow coverage there of Caps’ training camp. There are files there basically every day. And good ones. Additionally, blog files there. This is as it should be, but to our print guys — and most especially the Times’ Corey Masisak, who’s only taking on the beat of a departed legend — good on you.

• Sharp-dressed men. It’s not anywhere near as important as the talent upgrade, but in this the autumn of uniform mischief, the Caps have showcased the best-looking new threads in the entire league. And it’s not even close. I’ll be particularly grateful when those snazzy white uniform system tops are rightfully returned to wearing on home ice.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Yeah.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The swollen and bruised Russians are dressed and practicing this morning. None were making the trip to Carolina today anyway. Their commarade Ovechkin is anything but beat up; he was in his usual Acela Express super stride, and he made a point of turning this morning’s 9:30 practice partly into his own personal competition with Olie Kolzig, dancing hip jigs at scores and uttering rink-wide-audible, English-blended-with-Russian oaths at his failures, during every drill. (For his part Kolzig didn’t man his crease quietly during the challenge.)

Another entertaining portion of the day’s first practice arrived at its end, when Hershey Bears’ bench men Bruce Boudreau and Bob Woods, who ran practice, placed 10 pucks on the two bluelines and divided the session’s skaters into two teams for a quasi-shootout showdown. I was wondering how early into camp I’d see the Caps try and address last season’s shootout woes. My recollection is that Hershey didn’t fare much better, so it may have have been a mutually beneficial endeavor. But this drill was as much relatively relaxed fun as anything else, and you could hear and see the enthusiam in every skater.

Players were seated on the two benches, and rotated taking shots. When a player failed in his shot he had to retrieve the puck and skate it back to the blueline and “tag up” with the next skater. The competition only ended when one team had bettered its goaltender with all 10 pucks. Jacub Klepis was by far the most impressive shooter, potting three behind losing netminder Kolzig in very elite hands fashion.

You try and remind yourself that barely a long weekend’s worth of camp has been completed, but with it so compressed now, actually, by day’s end, camp will be about one-fifth completed. The Caps have already made cuts.

Over camp’s first three days Brian Sutherby has been a standout performer. His stride, too, has been strong — he’s absolutely flying out there, skating as well as I’ve ever seen. After today’s first session I asked if him if he’d done anything new or distinctive with his training this summer. This biggest change, he told me, was getting back on the ice a lot earlier than usual.

“I started skating twice a week in early June, which a lot of guys don’t do,” he said. “I also worked on my strength, just trying to get stronger.”

“I want to get lower [in my stride]. You see how low guys like Nylander and Crosby get in their strides . . . taller guys have to work at it.”

His long battle with a troubling groin appears to be in the past. “It’ll never be 100 percent,” he told me. “I battled it a long time, and it feels great now. I think I’ve put [that concern] to bed for the most part.”

I also asked him to try and place this year’s camp into context with the other half dozen or so he’s completed with the Caps. I wanted to know how far he’d thought the organization had come since his arrival in it.

“Compared to the first couple of camps, we’re getting right there, with where we want to be,” he told me. “Back when I first got here, we were supposed to be good — we had guys like Jagr. Now it’s a lot different. We have a lot of depth. We have a lot of young guys but they’ve got 150, 200 games in the league.”

Reminder: today’s matinee exhibition opener in Carolina will be audiocast on the Caps’ web site, with Mike Vogel teaming with Steve Kolbe on the call.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(4) Team dean Olaf Kolzig, not known for wide-eyed, irrational exuberance, told the Washington Post in late August that “with the team we have in the room right now, we are a playoff team.” Kolzig in fact has been commendably frank in acknowledging the practical realities of the rebuild in