A Tribute to Jeff Halpern

A couple of days ago, while Willie Mitchell was taking up all the Caps news because of his workout for the team, something slipped through the cracks.  There was another non-cap skating at Kettler that day too.  His name was Jeff Halpern.

Caps fans know him well, and he will always have a special place in the hearts of locals.  Halpern is from Potomac, M.D., a suburb of D.C. (and the current residence of yours truly).  He went to Churchill High School, where there was no hockey team at the time.  Thus, he left home and transferred to St Paul’s School in Concord, N.H.

After graduating from Princeton, Halpern began his NHL career with the Capitals in 2000.  He was never drafted, and signed as a free agent with the Caps after graduation.  He was only the second NHLer from Maryland in the history of the league, and the fact that he was a local kid who grew up admiring the Capitals instantly endeared him to fans.

A New Project

As some of you may already know, I accepted a position today to cover the Washington Capitals for The Hockey Writers.  Because of this, I am changing the makeup of this blog slightly.  All my Caps analysis posts and things of that nature will now be found posted on thehockeywriters.com.  I am still going to keep this blog for any Nats, Skins, or Wizards posts and for more fun, satirical posts on the Caps.  Please follow me over to the Hockey Writers during this transition!

Thank you all for your support and taking the time to read my posts.  Hopefully, there will be better things to come!

Willie Mitchell to Caps?

Something that the Capitals have been lacking in the last couple of year is a sound, veteran, physical, stay-at-home defenseman.  There were several names that came up not only at the trade deadline, but also at the start of free agency that could potentially fill this void.  One of these names, Willie Mitchell, has become a very interesting option.

The defensive defensemen has spent the last four seasons with the Vancouver Canucks, amassing 10 goals and 58 points in that time with 233 PIM.  What he is most known for, however, are his crushing hits.  He laid a hit on Jonathan Toews last season that knocked the Blackhawks Captain out of commission for six games.  The best part? It was completely clean.  Toews even admitted after the game that while it was a hard hit, he should have had his head up and it was his own fault.

Glimpse of the Future: Patrick Wey

To get us through these last couple of months until training camp, I will look at some of the lesser-known prospects in the organization who have unexpectedly impressed.  This will be called "Glimpse of the Future" and this will hopefully be the first of many I am able to do. Enjoy!

Patrick Wey let out a sigh of relief this morning when he was not among those who received the news they would be leaving Lake Placid, N.Y. and the United States National Junior Team Evaluation camp.  The Capitals’ fourth round (115^th overall) pick in the 2009 Draft is safe for now.

At last month’s development camp, Wey impressed.  His skills appear to be coming along, and the more time he gets playing with older, larger players at Boston College the more he will develop.  The 6’2 200lb physical yet well-rounded defenseman began his elite hockey career with the Waterloo Black Hawks of the United States Hockey League.  The Pittsburgh native moved to Iowa to play for the Black Hawks at the tender age of 12.

A Hockey Fan's Guide to Redskins Training Camp

Let’s be honest, hockey fans are pretty much one-track minds.  We like winter.  We like cold.  We like ice.  We don’t really know what to do with ourselves between June and September.  Therefore, I direct you all to the Kings of Summer, Offseason Champs, our very own Washington Redskins.

Since we as hockey fans don’t really know all of the details of the complex alternate universe that is the Redskins organization, I have put together a quick guide to get to know the characters of Wonderland.  Welcome down the Rabbit Hole.  We have cookies.

Capitals Acquire Fighter D.J. King

King has 4 goals, 9 points, and 185 penalty mins
in 101 NHL games

At this time last year, General Manager George McPhee had to answer question after question about the overall toughness of the Caps.  With Donald Brashear leaving for the New York Rangers, the Capitals didn’t have an enforcer to “protect” their superstars.  McPhee stated that the team didn’t intend to sign a replacement for Brashear, that “team toughness” would take over.  His logic was that if other teams wanted to run around and try to intimidate them, the Caps would just kill them on the power play, which it pretty much exactly what happened.

It appears the Caps are taking a different approach this season, as they traded prospect Stefan Della Rovere to the St. Louis Blues for notorious heavyweight D.J. King.  This was shocking to most of the Caps community and the NHL community in general.  McPhee had committed to a Detroit Red Wings approach, and it is pretty well understood that at 6’2 and 235 lbs, Alex Ovechkin doesn’t need protecting.

Ovechkin and Zimmerman: Faces of DC Sports

When teams struggle, in any sport, they need a change.  Sometimes it’s a coaching change, sometimes it’s a managerial change, and sometimes it is a player change.  The coaching change seems to be the most popular, especially in the middle of a season, but during the offseason teams begin to change their makeup with the entry draft.

Generally in the draft, it is rigged so that the teams with the worst record have a better chance on getting a higher pick so they can rebuild with the best players.  Washington D.C. has had the unfortunate luck of being in that position several times in the last 5 years or so, and in many different sports.  Two of these picks were made a year apart and have had a tremendous impact on sports in this city.

The first of these picks was made on June 26, 2004, when the Washington Capitals selected Alex Ovechkin with the first overall pick in the NHL Draft.  The team had dumped salary and gone into full rebuilding mode.  The team’s most powerful, offensive players were gone, and the team needed a new face to join Olaf Kolzig’s in leading the franchise.  They also needed someone to take over for Kolzig when he eventually left, and that is what they got.