On Frozen Blog

Lucky 7 Includes Perreault’s 1st of Career: Caps 7 / Cats 4

2009-11-08T02:44:05Z

Nylander Put on Waivers

2009-11-08T00:10:58Z

Michael Nylander has been put on waivers, Capitals Insider reports. This means the veteran Swede has agreed to waive his no-movement clause. Any team can claim him until noon Monday, but if no GM picks him off the wire it’s still no guarantee he’ll be put in the minors, writes Tarik. The Capitals are trying to free up some cap room in similar fashion to what Pittsburgh did last year with struggling forward Miroslav Satan.

Nyls’ $4.875 million cap hit will come off the books if another team picks him up. If he is sent to Hershey, the Capitals are still liable for his whole salary but it will not count against the salary cap provided he doesn’t play for the Capitals in the NHL this season. That is pretty much a guarantee.

TSN’s Bob McKenzie broke the story and the Capitals have confirmed it.

A Day in the Life of the Hershey Bears on the Road

2009-11-07T14:37:08Z

The Hershey Bears boarded their team bus at Giant Center on Tuesday morning and departed for Lowell, Mass. In terms of time away from the Hershey community, this week’s slate of games in New England represents the team’s longest road trip of the season. They checked into their Lowell hotel early Tuesday evening. On Wednesday night the Bears, led by a Keith Aucoin hat trick, beat their hosts 5-2. Next up on the Bears’ road trip was a stop in Portland, Maine, for Friday night hockey against the Pirates.

Arriving in Portland not long after the Bears on Thursday, I wanted a detailed sense as to what their routine was like in between games and on game day during a road trip through New England. It might sound a little peculiar, but on Friday I tried somewhat to mirror my movements in Portland with the Bears, and thereby gain a sense of a day in the life of a minor pro hockey team on the road. I’m indebted to John Walton of the Bears for spending a generous amount of time with me, first on the phone, then in the team’s hotel, this week to piece together this timeline for you.

All Hershey Bears’ players are out of gear, showered, dressed and on their exiting bus within 30 minutes of finishing a road game. The bus then is revving and ready to roll on to the next town. Bears’ players can be so efficient in the postgame because on the road there is rarely any media obligation for visiting hockey teams. In fact, John Walton often is the sole media the team will encounter while on the road. But almost always the post-game bus is waiting for Walton the franchise communicator, who has to carry off about 20 minutes of post-game show on the radio, hurriedly pack up a significant amount of audio equipment, and scurry on as the last guy on the bus. The victorious Bears pulled out of Lowell on Wednesday night near 10:00.

They arrived at the Holiday Inn in Portland near 11:30 Wednesday night. That’s not so sleepy-head an hour for a game-weary hockey club, and many of the trips through New England come in under two hours by virtue of the prevalence of clubs throughout the region.

The Cumberland County Civic Center in Portland is quite literally a weak 5-iron away from the Holiday Inn, making it incredibly convenient for visiting hockey players to navigate morning skates and practices and meals and rest back at the hotel. Once a visiting team arrives Portland they won’t again board their bus until it’s time to depart for the next port of call. The Pirates skated first at Cumberland on Thursday morning, at 10:00. The Bears followed with a noon skate. They went for about 90 minutes. The team then was free of obligations, and many players sought the invigorating fresh air of mid-autumn New England and roamed about gorgeous downtown Portland seeking a hot meal on a frosty afternoon. The team had an 11:00 p.m. curfew Thursday night.

Friday morning delivered a gameday routine. Some players gathered in the Holiday Inn’s lone restaurant, the Port of Call, for some coffee between 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. Around 9:00 a good many players walked over to the rink to tinker with their gear before their 11:15 scheduled skate. It was necessarily a light skate, and the entire team was back at the Port of Call for a team meal at 12:30. In an eating-and-drinking-Heaven city like Portland, the Holiday Inn Port of Call likely wouldn’t fall into anyone’s top 50 list of culinary destinations, but this is a game day, and the Bears’ routine is oriented entirely around readiness for 7:00. Also, dining at the Holiday Inn is a budget-friendly endeavor on a modest American League stipend.

After the meal, around 1:30, a small number of Bears go for walks about town, mostly on modest errands, but most head back up to their rooms for computer time and naps.

At around 4:00 Bears’ players begin to loosen up the legs with some walking near the arena. Head Coach Mark French wants his team to walk to the rink so long as the journey is under 10 blocks, which in Portland it most definitely is.

The Portland Pirates don’t often fill their home rink, but on this particular Friday night, with the reigning Calder Cup champions visiting, they do — more than 6,500 Mainers crammed in the old ice house. The Bears skate fast and furious and in virtual total control of the puck in the game’s opening 10 minutes, but they fail to score, and that I thought proved pivotal. Special teams then really undid them: numerous penalties taken, leading to two Pirates’ power tallies, and the visitors never made much of a game of it after the mid-way point of the second period. Final: Pirates 5, Bears zilch. Ouch.

Less than 5 minutes after the game’s conclusion, near 9:30, the few helping hands the Bears have on the road with them are hauling already packed gear bags into the cargo hold of the team bus. Basically, it’s the bus driver and an equipment guy. The first Bears’ players begin trickling out of the arena a few minutes later and are greeted by a smattering of Hershey supporters who’ve made the trip North. Despite the battering, all the Bears make time for the fans. Standing next to the bus I can see inside its windows and notice more than a half dozen miniature flat screen TVs alighted with the Comcast Sportsnet broadcast of the Caps-Panthers’ game from Sunrise. It was a rough, rough night for the affiliate, but as they lower their bruised and beaten bodies into the executive bus’ plush interior they’ll be able to follow the parent for the final half of a third period with the good guys on the better end of a 2-0 score. Not a perfect salve for a rotten Friday night, but I liked that high-tech connectedness between parent and an affiliate routing itself through minor hockey’s wilderness roads.

John Walton again is the last one out the door, his arms heavy with the encased gear of his art. ”I bet you’re glad you came all the way up to Maine for that” he tells me with good natured empathy. We chat hurriedly but as friends; he has a bus to catch. I wish him safe travel. It’s on to Manchester.

Game Won, Defensemen Lost: Caps 4 / Cats 1

2009-11-07T03:09:00Z

Chocolate-Colored Lenses

2009-11-07T02:45:52Z

Terrific post written by our friend Katie over at Rock the Red.net. Check it out here, and read on for an excerpt where she defines the “Hershey Mentality,” which is particularly relevant tonight as Tyler Sloan scored the first goal down in Florida:

That “Never Give Up” attitude is what Caps’ prospects are learning. That’s why Tyler Sloan had a goal Wednesday night. That’s why Mathieu Perreault had two assists in his NHL debut. That’s why Fleishmann has 4 points in 4 games. That’s why Quintin Laing has no sense of self-preservation. That’s why Keith Aucoin forgets the pain in his neck from looking up at everyone else and instead puts his head down and skates hard. That’s why Giroux ignores being called every degrading name thrown at him and goes back to Hershey after each call-up with more fire and scores even more goals.

Farewell to a Fan Among Fans

2009-11-06T02:25:59Z

Thomas L. Jenkins

Today The Washington Post published an obituary for Washington, D.C., resident Thomas L. Jenkins. Mr. Jenkins, as seen in this photo from my season ticket-holder booklet, was featured in the 2009-2010 Washington Capitals ticket book, and was clearly a dedicated fan.

This excerpt from Mr. Jenkins’ obituary was particularly illustrative of his devotion to the sport we all love:

“He had a boisterous personality,” said his son, Neil Jenkins, 19, a student at Montgomery College in Rockville. “He wasn’t afraid to cheer loudly. He made friends with everyone — the woman who checks your tickets at the top of the stairs, the Caps’ photographer, all the hard-core fans. He talked to everyone and made friends with everyone and kept those friends.”

Mr. Jenkins wasn’t a hockey player, although he once secretly took lessons to surprise his son, who could skate. He picked up his love of the sport from watching games on television while growing up in Williamsburg.

That Mr. Jenkins secretly took skating lessons just to surprise his son is truly heartwarming. Here was a man whose passion for both the sport and his family led him to strap on skates for the first time, probably with wobbling legs like a newborn fawn (I know that’s what it was like for me). It’s one thing to start skating as a child, when one’s bones are rubbery and one’s sense of invulnerability are intact. It’s quite another thing to hit the ice for the first time when hitting the ice is likely going to hurt like hell.

We at OFB wish Mr. Jenkins’ family well, and mourn the passing of someone who shared our passion for rocking the red.

Maine Objective: Pursuing Pucks and Mighty Fine Microbrews

2009-11-05T14:42:41Z

(Portland, Maine) — Embarked I am on roadtrip no. 1 of the new hockey season, catching up with my friends Mike and Marleen, who are newly relocated here from D.C. and adjusting to life without live Caps’ hockey. Like so many others, they are Versus-less at home this fall, and for the Caps’ first few appearances on that network this season they took to lodging themselves at a Portland Vietnamese restaurant bar that has the TV feed. Mike and Marleen are most enthusiastic puckheads, and they’ve told me that they firmly believe they’re converting the Vietnamese restaurant proprietors to hockey with their patronage. I have no doubt.

The Hershey Bears are in town, having won in Lowell 5-2 last night. Keith Aucoin had a hat trick, and Andrew Gordon was a +4 on the night. The Bears are playing the Pirates tomorrow night at the venerable, very ’70s-looking Cumberland County Civic Center, and we of course have tickets (the arena’s web site offers a detailed Flash presentation of its mid-1970s construction). It’s somewhat ironic that my first live Bears’ game of the new season occurs about 500 miles from Hershey. The Bears I suspect developed an affinity for this town like I have over the years, which might explain their travel itinerary this week, which affords them three nights here. Tonight I’m going to catch up with John Walton at one of Portland’s distinguished watering holes.

Tuesday brought word that I wouldn’t see live this weekend my favorite Hershey Bear, Mathieu Perreault. That’s the type of disappointment I enjoy in this sport. Perreault was one of the few bright spots in Wednesday night’s 3-2 loss in New Jersey, notching two assists, including a gorgeous primary assist on Tyler Sloan’s goal. From the look of things, Hershey may not see him back for a while. And that probably wouldn’t surprise Bruce Boudreau, who earlier Wednesday told the Washington Post that when the Caps contacted the Bears this week seeking standout performers Perreault’s was name no. 1 uttered.

I first began writing about Perreault on this blog a few months after he was drafted in 2006, for all he did that season was earn league MVP honors in the Q, and when I first saw him perform in person out at Kettler Capitals the following summer, at a Development Camp, I was awestruck at his skill level. A few of my readers judged my enthusiasm for him unmerited — he was too small to play serious pro hockey, they alleged. So I took particular satisfactioin in his showing last night in New Jersey. Did you catch a certain Alexander Ovechkin in the Comcast broadcast booth next to JoeB wax effusively about Mathieu? “This guy has a great future,” I believe the Gr8 said.

I have an excellent amateur scout lodged in Bears’ country named Katie, and Katie sees the game much the way I do. Mere minutes after Perreault’s recall on Tuesday Katie emailed me her thoughts on the matter:

“[Last weekend] He danced through defenders twice his size on countless occasions, all the while keeping possession of the puck! If size is a question for people – take note of this: When Bouchard was hit from behind by a 6 foot 5 Albany defender Saturday, Perreault rose to the occasion and went after him. Granted, the Albany guy probably didn’t take him seriously, but for someone that small to stand up for his teammate against someone that large was just beyond impressive.

I’m selling tickets to jump on the Perreault band-wagon.”

A New England pub thought: I wonder in about two years’ time how many Capitals’ fans will end up wishing that the hockey heart beating within undersized Perreault could have been somehow transplanted into Alexander Semin?

My extended weekend agenda includes a stop in at the Maine Beer Festival on Saturday. Sixteen brewers are participating; I will endeavor to sample all 16. The region’s beer enthusiasts are being accorded most conducive beer festival sipping conditions by Mother Nature this weekend: there are morning rush hour advisories for rain-snow slushing here Friday and night-time temps down in the upper 20s each night ahead through Sunday.

We’ll be DVR-ing the Caps’ home-and-home slate with Florida on Friday and Saturday, making for a very full weekend of live and televised puck and puck soda sampling.

On Sunday Mike and Marleen and I will make out way out to Lewiston, Maine, about an hour’s car ride from Portland, and take in a late afternoon Quebec League matinee between the Maineiacs and the Rimouski Oceanic. I saw Rimouski play Lewiston here back in 2003, when a certain Sidney Crosby skated for the vistors. The hosts laid a remarkable beatdown on Crosby and co. that night — something on the order of 10-2 or 10-3, and the Kid may have been kept off the scoresheet entirely that night. I also remember that a sizable band of female Maineiacs’ partisans seated hard against the glass that night directed a fair share of sailor blue oaths Sidney’s way. I hope they’re still Maineiacs season ticket holders.

My plan is to share some of the fun on OFB Twitter.

Former Flyers Fan Now Rocks the Red

2009-11-04T16:03:00Z

I recently interviewed Michelle Scalise, the in-arena hostess during the Caps’ home games and digital media producer for CSN Washington, for Club Scarlet. She loves rocking the red, but what Caps fans may not know is that she grew up rooting for the Flyers. Read more about Michelle here.

The Stand-in Savior?

2009-11-04T11:33:54Z

This is every Capitals’ fan worst nightmare: Ovi out with an injury. The good news: his time on the sideline doesn’t appear likely to be protracted — a forecast of two weeks arrived from head coach Bruce Boudreau on Tuesday. Still, beginning tonight in New Jersey, the Caps face something they’ve only had to on four other occasions the past five seasons, and only twice because of injury: playing a full game without the Gr8 in the lineup.

On Sunday night, in the middle of the Caps’ 5-4 overtime loss to Columbus, Ovi went down, and the Caps skated with striking determination in first tying the Blue Jackets and then twice taking leads in the final 20 minutes without their best player. That performance raised an intriguing question: is there an inner reserve in Ovi’s teammates that perhaps lies dormant when he’s in the lineup and performing brilliantly? Call it a silver lining perhaps to a scary scenario: a strategic reserve of grit the Caps can tap in to. One thing seemed certain from that limited third period laboratory Sunday night: the Caps cannot play quite the same game without Ovi in the lineup; instead, with a healthy chunk of talent out of the lineup they must pursue a more “blue collar” ethic — particularly on the power play.

But one skill player who could and should seize an enlarged role in the days and weeks ahead is Alexander Semin. Fairly or not, Semin may be judged anew over the next couple of weeks because of how his countryman Evgeni Malkin ascended to extraordinarily productive leadership when his all-world teammate Sindey Crosby went out of the Penguins’ lineup in 2008. Crosby in late January 2008 suffered a high ankle sprain, and all Malkin did was score 17 goals and 23 assists in the 23 games Crosby missed. It was that particular run by Malkin that led the Russian center out from under Crosby’s shadow and has ever since secured him consensus standing alongside Crosby and Ovechkin as the game’s lead stars.

Can Semin rise to the role of go-to guy with Ovi out? In this his contract year it would serve him well to. And there ought not be any doubt that Semin possesses skill enough for the task — he’s an authentic All Star talent, a mortal lock to skate for Russia in February’s Winter Olympics, clearly a stealth sniper on the power play, a player whose lethal wrists and howitzer shot need only meager time and space to unleash. He’s a dynamic and game-breaking talent. But in a relatively young NHL career Semin hasn’t demonstrated consistent health or a consistent commitment to playing reliably in all three zones. He’s yet to be asked to take on a leadership role with the team’s offense. That changes tonight.

The Gr8 is the team’s leading scorer, he has been the most productive player on the ice for nearly five years now, and he has long come through in the clutch when he’s been asked too. With him out of the lineup, Washington will need to do two things to get back on the winning track. The Caps will have to play strong team defense, and collectively they will have to replace Ovi’s goals — about a goal a game, head coach Bruce Boudreau figured this week. Alexander Semin alone has the game to replace the missing offense.

Time for a secondary star to ascend

The “other Alex” has been somewhat like a lightning bug here in D.C. — a fairly fleeting and flickering light of allure. In five seasons with the Capitals, Semin has amassed 229 points in 265 games played, but is only +1 overall. The light about his game was certainly on at the start of last season, as No. 28 was the NHL’s leading scorer in the season’s first month and looked every bit like the player the Caps were expecting when they drafted him. He again suffered an injury, and he never quite recaptured that early season dominance. That bright light flickered and flashed as the season wore on, and culminated with a comparatively dreadful postseason showing.

It is safe to say that Semin has been solid through the first part of the current season, scoring seven goals to go along with six assists. Now he is offered an unprecedented opportunity to step up and be the go-to guy who potentially halts the Caps’ two-game skid and keeps the team near the top of the Eastern conference.

Semin most likely will find himself back on the top line, presumably with Nick Backstrom and Mike Knuble. Semin probably needs an elite playmaking talent pivot, and Backstrom certainly qualifies. Knuble has done nothing short of cause total chaos in front of the opposing net. Semin will then be the shooter on the line, and for good reason with that wicked wrist shot. Theoretically he should see plenty of quality chances on that line.

Of course what is key in all of this is not so much if Semin scores, but when. The young Russian needs to score power play and game-winning goals in his upgraded role. These are the goals that can bolster a team’s confidence and create within it a new swagger, and such success could additionally reorient a lot of fans’ and media perception about Semin as a secondary and unreliable star.

Now obviously there are a number of other guys who could also score these goals, but Semin should be the guy Washington looks to. And Semin himself should seek to score them — presumably his agent and he are seeking a new contract commensurate with that status. He is the second best player on the team and he has an opportunity to re-establish himself in the hockey world. It’s not a question of if he can do it, but rather if he will do it.

A little man looking to make a big impact

2009-11-03T21:54:59Z

The Washington Capitals have recalled center Mathieu Perreault from the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League (AHL) and assigned center Keith Aucoin to Hershey, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today.

Perrault had a couple of stellar performances in the preseason. To read more about OFB’s impressions on his performance see our article on the preseason game against the Chicago Blackhawks.