Tuesday Caps Clips
Let's hit the links:
- WaPo on secondary scoring (or the lack thereof); WaTimes on how Gabby is dealing with the losing streak.
- The Caps are the 10th best franchise in hockey and 41st best in professional sports (one spot ahead of the town's football team, 41 spots ahead of its hoops team, and... Washington has a baseball team?). [Ted's Take]
- Canadian Jason Arnott gets it: “I think it’s exciting. He’s on 47 goals this season and it’s still like he’s scoring his first goal in the NHL. I think it’s great for the league because the fans love it and the kids love it. That’s just the way he is.’’ Canadian J.P. Dumont, too: "It’s just his love for the game coming through." [Tennessean]
- Alex Ovechkin failed to race back at full speed on one play on Sunday, therefore he's terrible. Quality stuff. [FanHouse]
- Power rankings are out with the Caps dropping one spot to fifth at SportingNews.com, down one to eighth and The Hockey News, down one to third at ESPN (where Scott Burnside is freaking people out), and holding at fourth at CBSSports.com.
- Brian Pothier "looked very good" and "really comfortable" on Saturday for Hershey (Simeon Varlamov, too). [HBH]
- Speaking of Varly, he came off injured reserve to stop 20 of 21 shots on Saturday and then has back in the pipes to allow six goals on 27 shots on Sunday? Really?
- Sticking with Hershey, when you're nearly six years out from being drafted, you're being compared to Quintin Laing, and your coach's primary criticism is that you aren't scoring enough... let's just say, don't expect to see Andrew Joudrey in D.C. any time soon. [York Daily Record]
- If you've ever wondered what life's like in Alexander Semin's hometown of Krasnoyarsk, it was featured prominently on the last episode of "The Amazing Race" (here's a short clip), and man... it ain't D.C. [CBS (h/t Alice)]
- A must-read on Stefan Della Rovere. [Barrie Examiner]
- EMac talks Caps on The Rink Podcast (which has nothing to do with this Rink, though they've had me on before).
- Welcome Hangar 39 to the blogosphere.
- Bruuuuuce. No, not that one. The other one. [AHL.com (h/t Buddy)]
- UniWatch shares an Athletic Knitwear catalog from 1974 (making it older than me... sweet) which contains some thoroughly awesome hockey-related products here, here and here (nice pads, dude). [UniWatch]
- The Stars resigned Brian Sutherby to a 2-year/$1.6M extension. No regrets here. [CBSSports.com]
- Happy birthdays go out to former Caps Stephen Peat (29) and Martin Brochu.
- Finally, two pieces from The Rink archives - doom and gloom from a year ago today following the Nicklas Backstrom own-goal and the dissection of an unintentionally funny article out of Toronto three years ago today.
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Comments
He was at Carolina’s AHL affiliate last I heard, but it looks like he may have hung ’em up.
Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world
Yeah, that’s the last I’d heard of him. Anyone know if his recurring hand/wrist injury forced him in to retirement?
by David M. Getz on Mar 10, 2009 10:42 AM EDT up reply actions
Caps be sending Varly a message regarding his conditioning and preparation: When you’re ready to go laddie, you’re ready to go. You’re a professional. Expect it.
Don’t you think playing back to backers right off a six week knee injury is a little questionable?
Russian Machine Never Breaks
If the team doctor, coach and organization don’t think so, why should we?
Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world
Not in terms of injury, I’m sure he was ready to roll, but how much is going to be read into this? I didn’t see the game so I can’t say how many if any were bad goals. I’ll mention again that he went 4-0 over a 7 day stretch in early January…let’s not start another witch hunt about his conditioning.
Russian Machine Never Breaks
It’s not a witch hunt – it’s a legitimate concern and one which the organization has expressed.
Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world
Also
The Ovechkin link re/backchecking….would expect nothing less from AOL Fanhouse, didn’t read it before and don’t plan on starting. (Sorry JP).
Russian Machine Never Breaks
Don’t be sorry – it largely sucks.
There was a time when they had McErlain, Wyshynski, Mirtle, myself and others writing the hockey stuff, but those days are long gone. It’s gotten corporate and incentivizes the wrong things. I don’t see how they’re going to last with the current model, but what do I know?
Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world
It’s gotten corporate and incentivizes the wrong things.
Is it fair to read that as, “They don’t give a damn about intelligent writing, they just want stuff that’s going to stir up controversy so people will argue with one another the site will rack up the hits”?
by David M. Getz on Mar 10, 2009 1:30 PM EDT up reply actions
It would be fair to say that if they had a platform that actually made it easy to have a discussion about the topic at hand.
Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world
and yet the more you appeal to the masses, the more impossible it becomes to have a decent discussion, eh?
Russian Machine Never Breaks
Not necessarily – you just have to be more vigilant in moderating the discussion.
Japers' Rink: Hockey blogging from the most powerful city in the world
I think those guys are boxed in by their own popularity. You start moderating that heavily and suddenly you’re going to get people who claim they’re elitist and unfair and it could hurt the organization’s rep.
by David M. Getz on Mar 10, 2009 4:13 PM EDT up reply actions




































