Playing Catch-up

Sorry about the 2+ months of non-posting. Class got pretty intense before it ended, and then I had two weeks back in Canes country before I came back to start the first semester of my senior year of college. Things are pretty hectic around here. Caps did fairly well in the preseason, 5-1-1. Season opening game in Atlanta was a crapper. Bad, bad, bad everything. We got a lesson in something, overconfidence, lack of communication? Heck if I know. Came back to DC and played the 'Hawks for the home opener. Better game. Didn't look to promising right off, but we played well. The game against Vancouver was a study in how to do things right. We held them to 10 SOG, a new franchise record. The game was spent mostly in the Vancouver zone. And we won 5-1. Which means all the more when you realize that Ovie was held to no goals. Two from Sascha Semin, a penalty shot from Nyls (Luongo=schooled), a goal from Juice(really?), and one from Green (yet again). We even got ole Bobby Lu pulled after the 2nd. Theo has looked sorta shaky in the first two games, but finally got around to looking okay at the end of the Chicago game. Johnny's win over Vancouver was his 100th, so congrats go to him.
The Spirit Squad AKA Ice Girls AKA Red Rockers started out in long sleeve Ts and khakis, but have devolved to spandex or Lycra or something else equally tight and non-breathable *shudders*. Finally broke down and got Directv so I could watch games. Which involved getting DVR, so now I don't have to ruin my roommates TV lives.
Got a couple of game trips in the prelim stages of planning. One to Hershey (prospects and bus league hockey=yay!) for a game against the Bridgeport Sound Tigers. (And if someone can explain to me what the heck a Sound Tiger is, they win a cookie or something) Second trip is to DC for the game against the Blues. Unfortunately, a new (somewhat sports related) job and being a senior means I can't just drop everything for tickets and now requires school breaks and coordination of resources, people, and timeslots mainly seen by the likes of the NSA.
Probably will be a bit before I post again. I'll try to do it regularly, but school likes getting in the way of things like this.

Signings, Camps, Etc

Huet is gone, Cooke is gone. Everybody else? Back! Fedorov, Laich, Gordon, Fehr, Green, etc. Only one left to sign in Morrisonn, who is going to arbitration. Jose Theodore is now our #1 goalie. I'm going to give him a chance and pray that the Jose Theodore I watched as a kid is the one that shows up in DC in September.
Went out to FanFest to watch the final Development Camp scrimmage. Alzner once again lived up to his billing as a smooth skating, responsible d-man. Jake Hauswirth, a guy who got passed up by everybody at the draft, showed that he belonged in the future of an NHL team. Hopefully ours. Got to listen to Brooks Laich and Ted Leonsis in their Q&A session. I'm glad Brooks is back and I'm especially happy we have such a great owner in Ted.
There was some controversy surrounding the Caps new Spirit Squad. Original descriptions painted them more like Ice Girls, but it seems their now just a formalized pep squad. Lots of discussion on it on the CI board. Everything is okay now though it seems.
Pre-season schedule was announced-home-and-homes against Carolina, Philly, Boston, and an away game against the Devils. I may have to get cable now, since my game source graduated. Hoping to make it out to one of the pre-seasons. I guess we'll see what happens.

Kinda Off-topic

So I just watched Game 5. What a game. Three OTs later, I've got a marketing exam in the morning and I haven't finished studying yet. I'm on enough Mountain Dew to cause major issues in a normal human and I'm verging on drunk, if you can get that way off MD.
But the game was great, except for that whole Penguins winning thing. Its been a long time since I watched a non-Caps game that intense. If you squinted, you could almost believe the cardiac Caps were on the ice, red jerseyed Wings and all. Reffing was pretty awful, except for the last, game-ending call, which the refs couldn't not call. But now I'm studying and I'm bordering on a diagnosis of ADHD and I realized I hate Febreze and love Nickelback. Not something I knew. Huh, well, enjoy your night!

Give me time?

Apologies for the delay in writing. I'm in the middle of the biggest class I will ever take in the shortest possible time to take it. I'm beyond stressed out, but it will be over the middle of July.
My team finished somewhere in the middle of the pack in the fantasy league. Russia defeated Canada for the gold, with the "Capital Punishment" line of Ovie, Semin, and Feds dominating the tourney. Pens-Wings in the finals. Wings up 2-1, game 4 tomorrow in Pittsburgh. Rooting for the Wings, who gave Osgood two shutouts in the first two games. Pens' flightless wonderboy finally scored in game 3--first goal of the series for them (130+ minutes without a goal).
Brads is back in a Capitals jersey. Three years-$3 million. Karl Alzner signed his entry-level deal. It will be interesting to see where he ends up next season, Hershey or DC. Waiting for more signing news. Word on the street is that Feds wants to come back (per Ovie). How awesome would that be?!

Three Weeks Later

And so the long, boring off-season begins. Wait, did I say boring? Didn't mean that at all. Got a few updates that I'm behind on posting. The Caps are doing well at Worlds. Our Russians have been lighting it up, with the three forwards all scoring a goal today in Russia's 3-2 win over Nick's Sweden team. Nick is bringing some Washington style to the Swedish team, although they aren't doing as well as I would hope as a fantasy owner. Flash is chipping in every once in a while for the Czech team. Varlamov injured his ankle, so he's not playing for Russia. Lepisto was cut from the Finland team, but added after preliminaries. Green is definitely helping out Canada, scoring the first goal and getting an assist on the game-winner in their game the other day. One of the announcers called him "one of the premiere offensive defensemen in the world". I was so proud. He's a little bit older than me, but I get proud of him like I would a little brother. Huet did very well, backstopping France. However, France didn't do so well for him and they're finished for the tournament after beating Italy in relegation.
My fantasy team is suffering. My Russian players are dropping like flies. First Medvedev gets cut, then D. Markov gets hurt, now Morozov goes down when I get Markov back. I added Andrei Markov in the supplemental draft along with Swedish forward Warg. My Latvian goalie did very well for me the other day, stopping 62 shots to put me up in the middle of the pack. But Canada's 10-1 win over Germany and the subsequent points gained by my fellow GMs dropped me back down to my home at second-to-last.

Sadder news. Olie is officially gone. Not sure where he'll go or what he'll do, but I wish him the best and respect the hell out of him. I won't say much else, because everything's been said.

Off-season is here, but have no fear. The Caps will be very busy...

IIHF World Championships

Things are getting better every day. Eight Capitals and 1 prospect are playing for their home nations in the IIHF World Championships. Alex Ovechkin, Alex Semin, Sergei Fedorov, and Simeon Varlamov are all playing for Russia. Tomas Fleischmann is playing for the Czech Republic. Mike Green is playing for Team Canada. And Sami Lepisto is playing for Finland.
Some of the regulars over at WaPo C.I. are running a fantasy league surrounding the tournament. I entered, not quite realizing what I had gotten myself in to. I've gotten 12 hours of sleep in the past few days because I've been up all night researching. I had 7th overall pick out of 8 drafters with a serpentine draft style. I figured the other GMs would draft the good NHLers, which is all I know. So I went out and researched the other guys. Superleague, Latvia, Sweden, I looked at them all. We picked 2 national teams, 4 defensemen, 6 forwards, and 2 goalies. I've got 2 Russian forwards, 2 Russian defensemen, and a Russian goalie. I've obviously got a thing for Russians. I've got a Swedish defenseman, a Swiss forward, a Latvian goalie and a forward. Rounding out my team, a certain Czech forward with red hair, Slovakian defender, and a Canadian forward/captain. My two national teams are Sweden and Germany. Russia was taken...


More Caps news: Boudreau was nominated for the Jack Adams alongside Babcock and Carbonneau. Ovie was nominated for the Hart & Pearson. Iginla and Malkin are also up for both. Backs is up for Rookie of the Year. Laing was put up for the Masterton, although he hasn't been nominated yet.

I'll keep you posted on the fantasy league/IIHF results. Tune in June 12th to see the NHL Awards and watch our boys take home a ton of hardware.

Countdown until next season

Countdown...

Thanks mauree...