That’s a slick shirt, Ovie.

This makes me very happy.

The era of the Young Guns is over. Has been for a while, actually, while they all suffered their individual injuries and “feuds with coaches”. Backstrom and Ovechkin weren’t the dynamic duo they once were, Semin didn’t peep the first line, and Carlson-Alzner looked like our number one defensive pairing.

Less importantly, the Ovi-Nicky-Mike combo wasn’t seen doing kitschy bar events with fans or partying together during quasi-staged nights out on the town. The Russians, Swedes, and North Americans all shifted inevitably into their cliques and if Backstrom was spotted at a discotheque, it was more likely with Johansson or Sjogren. The Young Guns was a marketing stunt that has run its course, and now Semin is gone, Green is probably glad for more rehab time, and Ovechkin raced back to Russia as soon as the lockout was inevitable.

It’s nice to see that, just because the Young Guns were dissolved (and probably didn’t really exist in the first place), Backstrom is willing to follow Ovechkin to Dynamo. It’s even better to see them playing together again, especially after Backstrom missed 40 games last season. They couldn’t pick up the rhythm they had in 2010. I hope that the time in Moscow, in a lower pressure league, can jump start their offense, so when they come back, even to a likely shortened season, there might still be a glimmer of the Young Guns there.

The Dynamo signing is a PR stunt on the behalf of the KHL. Sure, Ovechkin and Backstrom are two of the very best hockey players in the entire world (Backstrom is or at least was criminally underappreciated, as demonstrated in my favorite post by Ryan Lambert), but more than that, they’re the face and heart and soul of the Capitals.

Picture from the gallery on the Dynamo website, which I HIGHLY suggest you look through.

Per Sovetsky Sport (and via Dmitry Chesnokov), Semin will play with Sokol Krasnoyarsk of the VHL (the KHL minor league) for the league minimum, which is about $1600 a month.

Semin told SovSport the reason he signed to play for free is to give back to the club and the city where his career started.

How weird, that a notably selfish and chronically apathetic European(-ish) enigma would do something noble and good-hearted!

Chesnokov translated the article over at Puck Daddy. He goes on to explain that Semin can move up to a KHL club and hints at him playing with (sigh) former teammate Alex Ovechkin on Dynamo.

I’m not surprised Semin would rather remain in Krasnoyarsk — he’s never been shy about how much he loves his hometown. But for someone who, unfairly or not, has a reputation of enjoying the high life, it is a little surprising he would play for so little. I guess I’m just as dismissive as the TSN talking heads. (No character? Come on.)

Of course, this will be my last word on the subject, as Semin is, I should remind you, no longer a Capital. In retrospect, his decision makes a little more sense: who wouldn’t rather be in Siberia than Raleigh?

This is not as gross as homophobia (screencap from HBO 24/7)

According to Mike Vogel, Hendricks (as well as (sigh) former Capital Mike Knuble) filmed a spot for YCP in May before heading home for the (sigh) offseason. The official twitter account, @YouCanPlayTeam, says that Hendricks’ video will drop tomorrow.

It should surprise no one that Matt Hendricks is the first one to step up and throw his weight behind YCP — he’s probably the most outspoken Capital about his charity work. (I’ve mentioned Mike Green’s charity work before, but I would argue it’s not what he’s best known for.)

You Can Play is a charity/awareness project that fights for equality in the locker rooms and an end to homophobic attitudes in sports. It was started by Patrick Burke (son of Toronto Maple Leafs GM Brian Burke) to honor his brother Brendan Burke, who died in a car crash in 2010 (Caps fans might remember it as the week of the Snowpocalypse in DC). Brendan was openly gay, and though he worked with the Miami Redhawks hockey team, he had quit playing due to the pervasive homophobia.

It’s a wonderful cause, and I’m so proud that the Capitals are officially supporting it.

You’re next, Grubauer. (c/o flickr.com/bridgetds)

Born of envy and lack of acknowledgement, he toiled in the shadows behind other, less talented goalies:

It’s true that until now, I have never been an official number one.

Always been the bridesmaid in the Washington crease, never the bride.

He was unappreciated and ignored by his coach:

I am happy about Oates [...] because it means Dale Hunter isn’t staying.

He simply didn’t talk to us goalies at all, I think he criticized us sometimes for no reason.

Now, slowly, his competition falls away, one by one…

At first – the Russian who was always in front of me because he was drafted higher and played in the NHL sooner. It was hard to get in front of him. But in the end I played much more than he did.

Hahaha…

I was the one who advised [Vokoun] to leave for Pittsburgh.

Ahahaha…

I am really sure that I have the weakest competition (Braden Holtby) I’ve ever had. I will try to be number one goalie this season. Finally!

MUAHAHAHAHA!

Did he think the vicious Washington hockey media wouldn’t get wind of this? This is why Dale Hunter fled to a place where they simply don’t care as much about hockey.

Neuvirth went on to say the same old things that fans have been saying constantly for the last year/s but somehow become scandalous when actual players say, like “[Semin] didn’t have the best work ethic” or “If Semin wanted to, he could have been the best player in the world, but he doesn’t want to every day” or “[Ovechkin] isn’t what he used to be” and “if a team like ours wants to have a chance at the Stanley Cup, we need Ovi to be the best.” Yawn.

Frankly, this interview made me like Neuvy a lot more. I’ve always resented him for not being Semyon Varlamov, but I admire the guy who says, sure, Matt Bradley had to apologize, and I might get some lumber to the head when we play Carolina, but you know we’re right. Or is willing to admit he didn’t like the coach who didn’t care about the goalies.

And while I was obviously pro-Holtby this postseason, I also thought we should try to trade him right after, when his value would be at its peak, rather than go into the next season with a 1A and 1B. Having a 1A and 1B might inspire both goalies to play better, but a definite 1 and 2 means that the team has someone they can practice against full-bore without fear of injuring or tiring out, and there is less pressure on the 1. Playing for your job every night isn’t a sustainable situation.

Russian Machine posted an addendum where they bemoaned the imperfect art of translation, but I’d like to stick to the idea that Neuvirth, in an aberration among athletes, spoke his mind. Holts may very well be his weakest competition yet, and I have no problems believe Hunter was an awful goalie coach. There’s nothing unforgivable there.

Convincing someone to move to Pittsburgh, though? That’s cold.

THE WASHINGTON MEDIA STRIKES AGAIN

So I recently read an article from Pro Hockey Talk that, thankfully, did not mention the lockout, but did give me the opportunity to roll my eyes for ten minutes. The headline was “Dale Hunter won’t miss dealing with Washington media.”

Of course! The notoriously cruel Washington hockey media! Anyone would be sick of dealing with the two newspapers and one TV channel that actually cover hockey! Not to mention the multiple unpaid bloggers who, if they somehow manage to get credentialed, are performing a labor of love that causes them to be somewhat less critical than an unbiased reporter, particularly to someone they are predisposed to adore, like a former player who is so beloved his number has been retired.

I don’t begrudge Hunter his decision to move back up to his farm and his horses and his comfortable job in the family business. I just think it’s silly that the media seemed to be a surprise. He says things like, “You have to answer every question.” Quelle horreur! Those nosy reporters, always wanting to know why you put a highly paid superstar and consistent 50-point scorer on the fourth line, or why you’re giving less ice time to the highest-profile player in the whole league.

He also described Kettler as being “downtown,” which was baffling to me as Kettler isn’t so much downtown as “20 minutes away from the city limits, in a totally different state.” Unless he meant downtown Ballston, which is also baffling because Ballston isn’t really big enough to have a downtown.

Oops, there goes the media again. We’re simply animals!

We’ll miss these goofball faces, Sasha (c/o flickr.com/bridgetds)

It’s only 1-year, 7 mil, though, so it won’t be as devastating as a Floyd or Isabel.

Fun factoid c/o @dchesnokov:

The Canes is the team Semin scored the most points (and goals) against in his career – 45 (27+18) in 41 games for the Caps.

Which is not terribly surprising, considering the Capitals play the Hurricanes what seems like seventeen times a season. Frankly, those totals look pretty low. I couldn’t score 45 points in 41 games against the Hurricanes, but only because I’m a goalie.

On the other hand, this is making the Hurricanes look slightly fearsome. They’ve got Staal, Semin, the other Staal, Skinner, the other Staal (no, the other one), and screwing up my list, Cam Ward. I can definitely see them coming in second in the SE (which still may not be enough for a playoff berth, but we’re not SouthLeast for nothing).

Finally, as I’m sure you’re wondering, Alex isn’t set to be an Atlantic tropical cyclone name until 2016. But, as the first name on the list, we’ll definitely get one!

See what the competish has to say about this over at Eye on the Storm.

A notable omission in GMGM’s signing frenzy (c/o: flickr.com/bridgetds)

First, he locked down Filip Forsberg, whom you might remember from the draft last month. He got the standard 3-year, entry-level contract, in which he receives a severe pay raise when being called up from the AHL. As it stands he is expected to play in Leksand next season anyway.

Then he signed some guy named Matt Clackson, whom I only heard of when trawling the news archives of capitals.nhl.com. Apparently he was 8th in the AHL in PIM last season, so I confidentally expect I will never mention him again.

The big-ticket item, of course, was Mike Green, with 3 years, $18.25 million. Most blogs are making this out to be a huge gamble — which it may be — but I think he deserves this. When he’s healthy, he’s this good, and I think it’s fair to reward him for past behavior. We’re not rewarding him as extravagantly as we have Ovechkin, Backstrom, and Laich, after all.

Most recently, GMGM signed our other first-round draft pick of 2012 Tom Wilson to the same contract as Forsberg. Also like Forsberg, he is expected to stay with Plymouth in the OHL next season. He’s a good kid to keep an eye on, especially since I’m assuming we’ve all sworn to root against the London Knights in the future.

I appreciate the need to have good organizational depth secured, but I can’t help noticing someone GMGM has not signed yet: John Carlson. What’s the hold-up here? John Carlson is the guy who should be getting Mike Green money. He’s not flashy or exciting like Green (at least not in the number of goals he puts up), but he and Alzner form the most important part of our defense. Namely, the kind that puts priority on defense. He scores when he can (often when we desperately need him to, and in grand fashion), and he rarely does things that are face-palmingly stupid. Get it done, McPhee.

Meanwhile, Beloved Former Cap Calle Johansson has been named assistant coach! Apparently Adam Oates really hates meeting new people.

So what important qualities will Calle Jo bring to the coaching staff? Well, he has a grand total of one year SEL coaching experience, but more importantly, he was a color commentator in Sweden! That’s right, it’ll be just like having Craig Laughlin as a bench boss, complete with the heaping helping of nostalgia.

Now I love sentimentality as much as the next guy, but was there really nobody else more qualified? I’ve made my feelings pretty clear as to whether player skill translates to coaching skill (hint: no), but this whole commentator aspect is throwing me for a loop. It does mean he’s been watching NHL games carefully and religiously for some time, which is more applicable than actually playing in the NHL. You know what? Strike the beginning of this paragraph. I like it.

His career stats are 95-163-258 in 424 games, for a .608 PPG, though last year he went 4-8-12 in 31 while spending 6 games in the AHL. He scored the majority of his points in his 5 years with Colorado, before having 2 lackluster seasons where he bounced from Phoenix to the Rangers to Florida. His season highs are his first full season with the Avs (50) and his season split between the Avs and Coyotes (65). He went on to score 35 points… then 12.

That brings him to us. We got him heavily discounted (his last contract was 2 yr/$7.6 mil) and with low expectations. It looks like he’s had a monkey on his back for the last two years — resulting in his being scratched and therefore looking worse and worse. What could be the source of this scoring drought? Could he be, dare I say, enigmatic?

Wolski has been thrown around as a sort of replacement for Semin. Superficially it seems he’s not — for one thing, Semin has 408 points in a comparable number of games, as well as a $6 mil price tag — but at his very best, he could be compared with an average Sasha year (like the last two seasons). I don’t know what he needs to be great: his time with the Avalanche didn’t overlap with their awful dark years, but I’m not sure they had any spectacular talent, either.

The other best description of Wolski is as a gamble, but this isn’t perfect either. If he’s a gamble, he’s an extremely safe one. His upside is 65 points and his downside is 12, but at $600,000 if he doesn’t perform, we haven’t lost very much, and we can stash him in Hershey if things get too awful. Or maybe he’ll go absolutely bizonkers with Mojo and vindicate McPhee’s signing. According to Neil Greenberg:

For ‪#Caps‬ to get fair value for Wolski’s contract, he needs to put up 4G/5A/minus-2 in 36GP.

Which isn’t asking a whole lot. We play the Blue Jackets and the Oilers, right?

Wolski seems like he wants to turn over a new leaf, and the Caps are a pretty good team to do it with. For once he’s joined his new team at the beginning of a season, with a new coach, hoping to install a new style. He’ll be playing (or at least practicing) with an extremely high-caliber and, perhaps more importantly, offensively-oriented talent. Maybe that will be enough to kickstart his scoring touch.

Wolski in the Caps-Rags playoffs, 2011, poor dear (c/o bridgetds)

(As always, numbers from CapGeek, NHL.com, or Hockey-Reference.)

1. They can sign marginal players for outrageous amounts and lengths in a desperate attempt to fix a problem that they know exists but can’t quite pin down (or as a bull-headed adherence to the particular ethos they have arbitrarily chosen to build the team around)

or

2. They can do nothing, which allows them to avoid making insane impulse buys just to prove that they’re doing something (as in option 1) but which will cause the fanbase to moan that they aren’t doing enough to improve the franchise (though that same fanbase will be moaning six months later when the reality of option 1 is apparent).

So what has GMGM done?

He has cunningly taken a third option: make minute, almost irrelevant signings so that no one can complain he is doing nothing, nor can they accuse him of impulsively making horrible deals. Maybe they could complain that he isn’t doing enough, but there’s plenty of time before training camp and the preseason, and the major free agents haven’t even landed yet.

So far McPhee has signed Joey Crabb (RW most recently of the Maple Leafs, 11-15-26 in 67) for 1 year, $950,000 and Jack Hillen (D most recently of the Predators, 2-4-6 in 55) for 1 year, $650,000 (numbers from CapGeek). Both are Americans and they were teammates at Colorado College.

These signings have essentially rounded out our bottom 6 and our secondary D, which is a nice enough feeling, but a glance at our roster shows we’ve still got some gaps. For example, our number 1 goal-scorer is Ovechkin. Number 2 is Jason Chimera. Much as I like the Mythical Beast, I’m expecting him to regress to the mean. We’ll be missing two of our top 4 scorers with Semin and Wideman gone, and as frustrating as either of them could be, we still need someone to produce.

The current plethora of d-men implies that maybe GMGM has a trade up his sleeve, not to mention the fairly generous amount of cap space we currently have (Mike Green and John Carlson’s raises notwithstanding). You know, we just acquired a coach from the Devils… maybe we could do with a player as well?

(P.S. The Training Camp roster and schedule has been released! There are a couple of familiar faces, such as Stanislav Galiev, as well as some new ones, like recent draft picks Filip Forsberg and Tom Wilson!)

Enjoy Calgary! (pic c/o flickr.com/bridgetds)

Faithful readers will know that there is no love lost between myself and Wideman. I coined the term “Widemanesque” after game 5 of the WSH-NYR series, meaning “awful” or “disappointing” or “the worst ever.” I nicknamed him Dennis “NHL All-Star?” Wideman and Dennis “Useless Paperweight” Wideman. I was not convinced that he was an All-Star and totally let down by him during the playoffs.

And yet he was. Dennis Wideman was the only Capital to make it to the All-Star Game. He was 4th on the team in scoring (11-35-46). He led the team in ice time, averaging 23:54 in the regular season. On paper, he was perfectly satisfactory.

I think it’s most accurate to see him as disappointing. We paid him $4 million and expected him to take some of the pressure off Mike Green (as a dynamic defenseman capable of scoring) and be the final piece of a Stanley Cup-caliber team. He failed to do this, and worse, he didn’t seem to be disciplined for his mistakes.

Maybe it’s shallow to assume it was merely some form of hockey nepotism — Dennis Wideman and John Carlson (21:51) had the most and second most TOI/G on the team. They finished -8 and -15. Mike Green and Karl Alzner both had less ice time and a +/- of +5 and +12, respectively. But when Alex Ovechkin’s dwindling ice time is held up as an indication of the hardline stance Hunter was taking, it seems suspicious that two underperformers are not penalized… and are both former London Knights.

Because he was supposed to be better than this, it was all the worse when he was out of position, or made sloppy turnovers, or indirectly caused a goal against. I could’ve handled that sort of behavior from Jeff Schultz (not been pleased about it, mind you, but my expectations for Jeff Schultz are relatively low). I expected competent defense with a soupcon of scoring — the above-average scoring did not excuse the sometimes trainwreck defense. He was pretty good when he was good. He was a genuine liability when he wasn’t.

By trading Wideman rather than letting him walk as a UFA, we received a 5th-round pick in the 2013 draft and defenseman Jordan Henry from the Flames. They promptly signed him to a 5-year, $26.25 million deal with a full no movement clause. The best word I have to describe that deal? Widemanesque.