In Glacialis Blog

Puteus, EGO volo suus’ peior ut exsisto in Cleveland, qua suum astrum hoopster promptus estcondita diligo-eyes procul Magnus Pomum. Nos teneo pro certus qua Alex Ovechkin ero in 2012. Quod 2018. Tunc iterum, unus magis calx ludo pro amo Jose Theodore, quod Gr8 may rethink dignitas illius novus pro hockey league in Russia. Could vos accuso him? Ut vestri’ a hockey urbs in palaestra quod vestri’ vultus down in Cleveland, res aint’ sic tumesco.

Suus’ fere scelestus inhumanus habeo seen debello quis nos did yesterday in mereo hora’ vicis. videlicet Caput’ Sto Vas aspirations pro tunc duos annus. Vel forsitan — quod hic Peius’ channel meus penitus Puck Daddy — vos reputo a iter itineris netminder est quomodo regimen Caps glorior inter iam quod 2010? Commodo, obduco mihi aliquantulus of crystal ratio vestri’ perussi. Vel forsitan vos puto Caput’ GM George McPhee, whod’ have vos puto illic’ precious parum distinctus inter Cristobal Huet quod Jose Theodore, odio quod Caps dedi suum novus haud. 1 netminder — in 31- annus- vetus prime of suus tutela — largior term of duos annus Quod nisi sub.-no.1 viaticus, mediocris haud. 1 dough. Ut term est code pro: Simeon, adepto vestri venatus in,velox, in Ipsa.

cuspis isnt’ ut Theodore quod Huet es super idem eadem idem aevum quod have won idem eadem idem numerus of Sto Cups (zero). Vel ut suum veneratio numerus pulvis’ totusut diversus Suus’ ut Theodore has been in league multus diutius, has been tabernus ex civis pro suus lascivio, has infractus multus of pectus pectoris, quod postulo an plumbeus laqueus experior quod velieris suus inconstantia. Quod Caps moris’ exsisto lascivio.

Suus’ ut unus has been an Totus Astrum tardus. Suus’ ut unus would have no a verus run procul the Vezina had he arrived in D.C. earlier this past season. Huet got UFA-to-be dealt out of town by the Eastern conference’s no.1 team, donned a strange sweater and played behind stranger defenders in a crisis-every-night environment, for a rookie coach recently promoted from the ‘A,’ and . . . dominated the league.

Forgive me for wanting to sign up for a few more years of that. And while the Caps made a spirited attempt to do it, the cold hard reality is that there was no safety net for failure. More on that in a moment.

In Gabby’s get-up-and-go system, netminders get tested all right. It’s wise to have a talented and consistent netminder facing the necessary barrage when it arrives. Of Theodore, it can be said that he possesses talent.

Theodore’s claim to fame was winning the Vezina and the Hart in the same season, a while ago, in 2001-02. The next season his goals-against average ballooned up by almost a goal a game. Almost a goal a game. He was allowed to wear pads that season. Then in 2003-04 his goals-against plunged back down into elite status. Then, post lockout, it skyrocketed back up — well over a goal-a-game up, this time — to the point where a second Montreal Riot was fomenting before he was shipped out. The sigh-inducing numbers litany can be found here.

Let’s put it this way: news of the signing was about 45 minutes old yesterday when an MSM reporter who shall not be named emailed me and said, “We’ll take in an Ovechkin 5-goal game next season — in a 6-5 loss.”

I have a rule for playing the Because-he’s-now-wearing-our-sweater-unprecedented-consistency-and-elite-performance-will-miraculously-emerge game: with your wager go instead with the 10 years’ performance pattern you know, hedging on its hard lessons.

It is positively true that Cristobal Huet treated the Capitals’ organization shabbily during the prelude to and opening of summer free agency. It is also likely that the Capitals were in no position to match or beat the term and largesse Huet agreed to in Chicago. Be all that as it may, it’s nonetheless hard to deny the profound sense of something great and magical irrevocably being lost in yesterday’s stunning reversal of city-enveloping puck fortune — really the first such in the Bruce Boudreau Era.

It’s also hard to avoid recognizing this increasingly disturbing trendline: the planet’s greatest hockey talent really has yet to be accorded a netminding talent, in durable fashion, commensurate with his status. Gretzky had Fuhr. The Flower had Dryden. Lemieux had Barrasso. Bourque at the end had Roy. Ovie gets a geezing Olie, a smattering of backup BJ, a cup of coffee with Huet, and now JT the Propecia spokesman in pads. The hope inside the organization is that perhaps in two years’ time — after Ovie’s labored some five NHL seasons — one of Michael Neuvirth or Simeon Varlamov is ready.

Yesterday was the culmination of years of failure by the Capitals’ organization to adequately address an heir for an aging Kolzig. You cannot blame management for not trying — they obtained, for aging Adam Oates, what they reasonably thought would be a worthy successor (first-round prospect Maxime Ouellet). By 2006 and Ouellet’s clear failure, they went into desperation mode, selecting two goalies among the first 34 players drafted in 2006. It appears as if those were strong selections. It also appears as if they occurred about four or five years too late. The rebuild, in front of the net, is over.

Late yesterday afternoon George McPhee attempted to equate the replacement of Huet with Theodore akin to that of Dainius Zubrus with Viktor Kozlov. But second- and third-line wingers are absolutely replaceable, every summer, every week of the calendar year. No. 1 netminders, not so much. Get it wrong in goal and every other move you make is academic.

Something truly magical happened to the Capitals late this past February when Cristobal Huet arrived here. In their negotiations with him, the Capitals clearly believed that. But in those they weren’t ready for business failure.

At least, not Rock the Red ready.

Get ready for firewagon — and abbreviated postseason — hockey.