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2010-08-29T14:42:00.001-04:00

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Capitals trade for heavyweight fighter D.J. King

2010-07-28T18:19:00.030-04:00

Photo by Jeff Roberson/AP

The Washington Capitals have traded for Blues Left Winger D.J. King. St. Louis will receive prospect Stefan Della Rovere in return. The news was first reported by Andy Strickland on Twitter and has since been confirmed by the Capitals.

King, a 26 year-old Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan native, has played in 101 NHL games since making his debut on October 5, 2006. Known as a heavyweight enforcer, King has registered just 9 points in his NHL career. He played only 13 NHL games the last 2 seasons after suffering a dislocated shoulder in October 2008 and a broken finger in a fight against Krys Barch of the Dallas Stars in October 2009.

Della Rovere (Left) fights Trevor Bruess.

Della Rovere was drafted 204th overall in 2008 Draft NHL Draft by the Capitals. Named captain of the Ontario Hockey League's Barrie Colts in 2009, Della Rovere notched 138 points (65 goals, 73 assists) over 4 OHL seasons. Like King, he is also known as willing combatant, racking up 479 penalty minutes in his junior career and recently got into a fight with Trevor Bruess at the Capitals 2010 Development Camp.

UPDATE: Jeremy Rutherford of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports that King signed a 2 year, $1.275 million dollar extension prior to the trade.

Here's video of King's fight with Barch last October:

Flash Back: Capitals Resign Tomas Fleischmann to 1 Year Deal

2010-07-27T23:28:00.005-04:00

The Washington Capitals announced Tuesday evening that they have resigned forward Tomas Fleischmann to a 1 year contract avoiding a salary arbtration meeting, which was scheduled for Wednesday in Toronto, Ontario. The club did not disclose how much the deal is worth, but Tarik El-Bashir is reporting that Fleischmann will receive 2.6 million dollars next season. This would leave the Capitals $5.9 million below the salary cap for next season according to CapGeek.
Fleischmann's agent has compared him to 27 year-old Czech center Tomas Plekanec, who scored 70 points (25 goals, 45 assists) and received $2.75 million in 2009-2010. Fleischmann, a 26 year old from Kopřivnice, Czech Republic, points total has increased in every season since he became a full time NHL player during the 2007-08 campaign. His 51 points (23 goals, 28 assists) in the 2009-2010 were good for 6th on the offensively talented Capitals despite the fact that he missed the first 11 games of the season due to the effects of a blood clot in his leg following blocked shots in 2009 postseason. However, Fleischmann did not transfer his stellar regular season performance to the playoffs, recording just 1 point before being benched for the pivotal Game 7 vs. Montreal. Fleischmann is expected to be the Capitals 2nd line center next season after Washington chose not to resign centers Eric Belanger and Brendan Morrison.

Up Close: Dmitri Orlov

2010-07-18T23:53:00.002-04:00

Dmitri Orlov was the only Russian defenseman in development camp last week. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Stanislav Galiev impressed the hockey mavens who gathered at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex with their skillful shooting and agile skating. In the case of Orlov the general assessment was that he was a talented prospect who has yet to demonstrate his full potential.

Speaking in his native Russian, Orlov appeared impressed by the bulk and physical play of some of his North American counterparts. One lesson Orlov said he had drawn from the camp was the need to work on his physical conditioning.

“If I want to play in North America I need to work on my physical training,” he said. “The guys who are playing there are really big. I need to have enough strength to play against them.”

Orlov, who will be 19 years old on July 23, was born and raised in Novokuznetsk, a small city in central Siberia. The city of some 600,000 is located in the Kemerovo coal-mining region, which burst into the news three years ago when a methane explosion in a mine killed more than 100 people.

Orlov is very much a hometown kid. He likes the easy familiarity of the town where everybody seems to know each other, he can get to the ice rink in ten minutes and the crowds turn out for hockey. Moscow’s flashy nightlife may have appeal for Alex Oveckin, but Orlov said he does not much like the bustling, crowded Russian capital.

Orlov said he was introduced to hockey by his father when he was seven years old. “I didn’t like it, and I wanted to quit,” he recalled. “But my father insisted that I stick with it.” But after playing on a team with his friends and going through a few tournaments he became devoted to the game.

“I started out on defense, “ he said. “Because I wasn’t that big I decided to try myself on offense. I played that for two years and came back to defense again, and I don’t regret it.

Orlov currently plays for the hometown team, Mettalurg Novokuznetsk, in the Kontinental Hockey League, which has given up an opportunity to play against more mature and experienced professional players, including formidable rivals from the cities of Ufa and Kazan. The Russian league, he said, is improving and has attracted some skillful players from the NHL. “The first couple of years were really hard,” he said. “Last year, I got used to it. I grew as a hockey player and my conditioning improved.”

His contract with Mettalug lasts until the end of the 2011-2012 season. But Orlov has his sights set on the NHL and is hoping that his contract with his Russian team can be bought out so he can make it to North America before then. He said he does not know Ovechkin or Alexander Semin but hopes to get acquainted with them in future training camps.

Given his limited command of English, Orlov’s closet buddies at the development camp were Kuznetsov and Galiev. He hung out with them and joined Kuznetsov in wolfing down cupcakes that were donated by a fan.

Bruce Boudreau summed up his view of Orlov on Saturday. “I think Orlov is going to be a player,” the coach said. “He‘s just got to get in better shape. He didn’t come into the camp in as good as shape as he can. But once you look at him you look for the positive stuff and he has a lot of upside on him.”

Yaroslav Maslovsky assisted with the translation.

Photos:

Up Close: Marcus Johansson

2010-07-18T18:33:00.002-04:00

Marcus Johansson showed up for development camp amid great expectations. After six days, and some ups and downs, the 19 year-old Swede left camp with generally favorable notices from the Caps brain trust but also with the recognition that he has some challenges ahead of him.

In an interview with Caps Snaps, Johansson disclosed that he had sought to adjust to the smaller ice and faster style of play in North American by making an equipment change during the camp.

“I actually had to change my stick,” he said in flawless English. “I got a bigger blade.” The sort of blade he was accustomed to using in Sweden, he added, was too small for the quick tempo scrimmages he played at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex and the “pucks kept jumping over it.”

Johansson said that he started to play hockey when he three years old. His father had played amateur hockey and an older brother plays professionally. Johansson finished two seasons with Farjestads of the Swedish Elite League, which gave him an opportunity to go up against older players, and was captain of the Swedish Junior Team in the 2010 world tournament.

But playing in the NHL, he said, has always been his dream. He was picked by the Caps in the first round of last year’s draft. Bruce Boudreau, who had never seen Johansson play before development camps, said on Saturday that Johansson is “going to be in the mix” of the players who may make the Caps this year. If Johansson breaks into the Caps line-up as a center this season he would follow the path of his fellow Swede Nicklas Backstrom, who went from playing in the Swedish elite league to the NHL in a year.

The issue for Johansson, Boudreau suggested on Saturday, is not Johansson’s hockey skills—his skating is “tremendous,’” the coach said-- but how quickly he can adapt to the North American game. Citing Backstrom’s experience, Boudreau implied that Johansson was on track to make those adjustments this year.

“We just play a different style than them.,” Boudreau said. “So it is hard for Marcus or especially the Swedes because their center man doesn’t forecheck. But is something that Nicky got used to, and it just takes time.”

Johansson evinced confidence in his first development camp press conference with reporters. But as the week wore on his mood seemed to shift more to one of determination to move up the learning curve.

The past week, he said, has been “pretty difficult,” though a good learning experience. “It is a different game. It is smaller ice surface,” Johansson said. “It is not as much neutral zone hockey as it is back home. It is more straight to the net and dump and chase than it is back home. So it is a pretty big difference, but it is a fun game.”

So far, Johansson has only received a few pointers from Backstrom. “I have talked a little bit to Backstrom but, you know, not much,” he said. “I will probably do that a little bit later.”

The next step for Johansson is the Caps training camp in September. Boudreau said he expected to seek a marked improvement in Johansson by then. “I’m going to go back home for like one month or something and get ready for next camp,” Johansson said, “and hopefully I will stay here.”

Photos:

The Shootout: Through Their Own Eyes

2010-07-17T22:41:00.007-04:00

After 60 minutes of regulation and 5 minutes of overtime the game between Team White and Team Red remained tied. A shootout would determine a winner. Here's what two key players had to say.

Cody Eakin:
“It is something I have been working on a little bit. I just kind of build up my speed and then when the goalie kind of reads your speed ....at the last second I fire on the brakes and really slow down and try and beat him. . .I think it is a pretty strong move and I was lucky today that it happened to go in.”

Andy Miele:

“Well it was a little bit of pressure since if I score we win if I don’t then it goes on to another shooter. But up at school we do shootouts every week, and I always go in slow like that and it really rattles the goalies. So I thought I would try it with him and it worked out pretty well....Guys were joking around that it looked like I was walking on the ice. It is what I do. It works, so I’ll stick with it. ...If you are not crafty and you are a little guy like me you are going to get tossed around there going against guys like Joe Finley, who are huge.

Miele's goal won the game for team white.

Development Camp Scrimmage, 7/17/10: Game

2010-07-17T20:05:00.006-04:00

1st Period:

Opening FaceoffL

Miele puts Team White up 1-0:

DeSimone ties it up:

2nd Period:

Lone mouthguard on the ice.

Finley and Pisano go at it again:

Eakin and Bruess exchange some heated words...

which leads to this:

Team White grabs a 2-1 lead:

Red ties the game:

3rd Period:

White goes back on top, 3-2:

Shootout:

For the win...

Development Camp Scrimmage, 7/17/10: Warmups/Festivities

2010-07-17T20:00:00.002-04:00

These are photos of warmups, click here to view the game photos.

Up Close: Braden Holtby

2010-07-16T23:50:00.009-04:00

When he was growing up on a farm in Marshall, Saskatchewan Braden Holtby’s father set up a backyard rink under a large spotlight so he could train well into the night.
When Holtby went inside he spent countless additional hours firing pucks off the walls in the family basement.

“I had a way when I was young of shooting on myself somehow. I’d shoot off the wall and try to save it,” he recalled in an interview with Caps Snaps and Addison Huber of Russian Machine Never Breaks. “The walls are kind of looking a little worse for wear now.”

“I played hockey all day” he added. “There is not much else to do in Saskatchewan.”

At 20, Holtby’s goaltending skills have made him a much-discussed prospect. But the Caps organization already has two young goalies: Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth. All of which means that Holtby’s future will depend on the same kind of dogged persistence he displayed as a farm boy in Canada.

“The way I am going into the season is to just have a really good camp and a really good start in Hershey and then hopefully just prove to them that I am ready for the NHL,” he said. “And if something happens that I get my opportunity I will be ready to prove myself. But you can’t think about it too much, and you just got to keep working hard and keep performing and doing things that you need to do, and you will get your chance, I guess.”

Holtby learned the fundamentals of the game from his father, who played goalie for the Saskatoon Blades, a junior team in the Western Hockey league, and was a no-nonsense mentor who would put his son's team through a tough skate if he played poorly in the pervious game.

One thing his father did not insist on was that Holtby also become a goaltender. “My dad always tried to convince me not to be a goalie--mostly on the fact, I think, because the goalie’s equipment is so expensive,” he said. “I always loved the position. I was fortunate enough that I grew up in a small town that I could play in an age group above me as a goalie and then in my age group as a forward.”

Holtby spent part of his summers playing baseball: he was a shortstop and, naturally, a catcher. He still likes the sport and was wearing a Nationals cap during the interview.

After following in his father’s footsteps and making his mark with the Saskatoon Blades, Holtby played his first professional season in 2009-2010, ricocheting among three teams.

Holtby played with the South Carolina Stingrays in the ECHL, did a few stints for the Caps as a backup goaltender (he suited up and was on the bench for five games but did not play) and moved back and forth to the Hershey Bears. He had a starting role on the Bears when Neuvirth was called up to D.C. after Semyon Varlamov's injury and finished his season with the team when it won the Calder Cup. Holtby led AHL rookie goaltenders in the goals-against-average (2.32) and save percentage (.917.) and played in the ECHL All-Star Game.

In his effort to gain an edge over the competition, Holtby’s pre-game ritual involves visualization: rehearsing his moves without a player or puck. He recently had Lasik eye surgery because his sweat used to interfere with his contacts.

Holtby was in the spotlight on Thursday when he had a run-in with Evgeny Kuznetsov, one of the Caps top prospects. (He whacked Kuznetsov with his stick after concluding that Russian was taunting him after a goal.) But he said that he and Kuznetsov had turned the page. “There wasn’t any off-ice issues or anything,” he said. “It was just the heat of the moment type thing on the ice, and we are not looking too much into it.”

In fact, the Russian prospects and Holtby were on the same team when the Caps prospects played paintball later that day, a contest that pitted Team World against Team USA. Even though the Russians and Holtby were comrades there was a near instance of friendly paintball fire. “The Russians were kind of going together--all three of them,” Holtby said. “They were behind me and I was trying to yell that I was on the same team, but obviously none of them could understand. So I just kind of hid there and paintballs are flying by me.”

Bruce Boudreau said earlier this week that Holtby was doing his best to prove himself. “Here is a guy that was expected to play most of the year in the East Coast last year and he ended up being the number one goalie for an awful long time in Hershey. He is a year ahead of himself right now.”

"The cream already rises to the top," the coach added. "Neuvy and Varly are two years ahead of him. It will be interesting to see where Braden is in the same time frame."

Said Holtby: I have always been into hockey. It has always been basically the main thing in my life. I don’t even know what I would do if I couldn’t play it.”

Photos:

Just like old times, Holtby shoots the puck off the boards and back at himself.

Development Camp, 7/16/10: Group B

2010-07-16T23:45:00.000-04:00

Galiev gets robbed:

Nelson and Bruess get into a dust up:

Pisano dishes out a big hit:

Shootout drill near the end of workouts:

Caps Snaps Exclusive: Holtby and Kuznetsov Discuss Their Run-In During Thursday's Scrimmage

2010-07-16T02:07:00.005-04:00

Braden Holtby and Evgeny Kuznetsov got the coaches attention during the Thursday scrimmage—but not entirely in the way they might have wished.

The episode took place when Kuznetsov, the Caps first round draft pick, a player whom Bruce Boudreau has repeatedly praised this week and a forward in today’s scrimmage for the Team Red, brushed into Holtby as the goalie for Team While was trying to play the puck far outside the crease and just outside the face-off circle.

Holtby failed to get back to the net in time after the run-in and Jake Hauswirth easily put the puck in the wide-open goal. As Kuznetsov skated through the crease to celebrate with his team members, he appeared to turn and say something to Holtby.

The frustrated goalie whacked Kuznetsov with his stick across the back of the leg, knocking him to the ice. Kuznetsov, got up with a grimace and, bent over from the blow and apparently adding a few choice words, skated away.

Afterward the scrimmage, Boudreau, somewhat to the surprise to a gaggle of reporters, put most of the blame on Kuznetsov. “I think we’ll have a word with Kuznetsov that in North America you can’t taunt and make funny moves. When he did that—he was having fun maybe—but he gave a little taunt to Holtby.”

The offense? “After it was done he sort of said like ‘Oooh’ and laughed at him and that’s not going to go well with the North American people,” the coach added.

Boudreau said that he would have Arturs Irbe, the Latvia-born and Russian speaking Caps goalie coach, speak to Kuznetsov and “I’ll have a little chat with Holtby.”

As development camp prospects left the locker room, Caps Snaps spoke to each of the players about the incident. Speaking in Russian, Kuznetsov said that today’s scrimmage was harder than the one on Wednesday, in which his dazzling play enabled him to score two goals, as he had slept poorly and did not feel his best.

But he played down the episode and seemed to treat it as a matter of cultural miscommunication. “I myself don’t understand what happened,” he said. “It’s all forgotten. It was one of those things. Maybe I brushed against him, but it’s okay now.”

As for the goal, “our team scored the goal. I played into his stick and he did not get to the goal in time. It was nothing terrible,” he said.

Holtby, who indicated that he was not happy with his own performance on Thursday, was more expansive. “There are probably two sides of the story,” he told Caps Snaps. “I am a pretty big competitor and when I played the puck he kind of hit me and interfered with me, and in a real game that would have been a penalty. But it is kind of a heat of the moment type thing and I don’t know what exactly happened. It is kind of a blur.”

Asked whether he believed Kuznetsov had taunted him as well as interfered, Holtby said, “It was a little bit of both. You never really want to see that, especially in a guy that is going to be your teammate hopefully someday.”

“But we talked it over with Arturs and whatnot,” he said. “It was probably just a kind of a miscommunication. I am sure he did not mean it, but it kind of looked that way. But in saying that, I got to control myself in those situations,” he said. “I lost focus after that whole Kuznetsov thing. It definitely was not my best performance, but I will do better next time.”

The next time may not be far off since the final scrimmage is scheduled for Saturday. Kuznetsov also vowed to step up his performance. “I played better yesterday,” he said. “Today we lost. The day after tomorrow we need to win.”

Yaroslav Maslovsky assisted with the translation.

Photos from the incident:

Video of the incident can be found Here.
Photos without watermarks were still taken by me.

Up Close: Stanislav Galiev

2010-07-16T02:05:00.001-04:00

The game winning maneuver in Thursday’s scrimmage occurred during the shoot-out when Stanislav Galiev showcased a fantastic deke move before he snapped it through the legs of the goaltender.

“It is my special move,” the 18 year-old Russian told Caps Snaps, speaking in the English he acquired since coming to North America to play junior hockey. “I skate from right side, try to get backhand and shoot to the five hole.”

Galiev, who also scored in regulation, was among the handful of players Bruce Boudreau singled out following the scrimmage for special mention. “These guys are skilled--Kuznetsov, Galiev—skilled players.”

Unlike Evgeny Kuznetsov or Dmitri Orlov, two other young Russian prospects, Galiev decided to pursue a career in the NHL at an extraordinarily tender age—16 years old to be precise.

“I started to play hockey at four years,” said Galiev, who was born and raised in Moscow. “When I was like nine or ten, I started thinking it is my dream, my life.”

When Galiev was 16 he went to Chicago for a hockey tournament and returned with a fascination with North American style hockey. “Everything is like fast,” he said. “You need to be quick. You need to be ready. You get hit every second.”

“Coming back home I tell my mom I want to play in North America,” he recalled. “My mom says ‘all right’ because it is my life. You know she understands me.”

Galiev’s first step was a difficult one for a young athlete and reflected the single-minded commitment that many Russians bring to sports. He joined a junior team in Indiana—the Indiana Ice. Leaving his family and friends behind, he arrived in American not knowing any English. He was the only Russian player on the Indianapolis-based team, which won a championship in the 2008-2009 season.

His mother Sveta, who is a widow, visited him periodically. But “Stas,” as Galiev was called by his American teammates, was mainly on his own.

Galiev’s next big decision was to leave Indiana for the Saint John Sea Dogs of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League. This time, his mother moved to Canada to be with him.

Galiev said that his adjustment to North America has also been eased by a local family from Ukraine, whom he was introduced to by his coach, and who gave him pointers on learning English and making his way in the West. “They helped me a lot,” he said. “ I am still talking with them,” he said.

Galiev was named to the all rookie team in the QMJHL and was drafted by the Caps in the third round. Galiev, who said he had the same hockey coach in Moscow as Alex Ovechkin, has impressive skating and puck handling skills. He does not bother with visualizing the game or any special preparation: “just want to go on the ice, have fun.”

Like any normal teenager, he likes American and Russia “hot hits.” “Sometimes I can listen to Rap, sometimes I like to listen to disco,” he said. His biggest pals in development camp have been Kuznetsov and Orlov.

Though he jokes around with his friends and has an easy demeanor his determination is clear: “maybe for this year make the world junior team. Just keep working hard and try to make AHL team next year.”

Galiev with Orlov

Galiev with Kuznetsov

Development Camp Scrimmage, 7/15/10

2010-07-16T02:04:00.293-04:00

1st Period:

Team White takes goes up 1-0:

White takes a 2-0 lead:

3-0 Team White:

Red puts one on the board:

Della Rovere misses a penalty shot:

2nd Period:

Red cuts the lead to one:

The Kuznetsov-Holtby incident happened here. The photos can be found here.

Red takes a 4-3 lead:

Blood on the ice:

Ted Leonsis looks on:

3rd Period:

Johansson ties it at 4.

Red regains the lead:

Shootout:

Development Camp Scrimmage, 7/15/10: Warmups

2010-07-15T21:06:00.001-04:00

Development Camp Scrimmage, 7/14/10

2010-07-15T03:34:00.002-04:00

I'll start with photos from the Joe Finley and Anthony Pisano fight:

Zach Miskovic went down after big hit by Finley...

and Pisano took exception.

Now for the rest of the shots:

Opening faceoff

Finley and Bruess yell back and forth.

Up Close: Evgeny Kuznetsov

2010-07-14T05:58:00.013-04:00

Chelyabinsk, a gritty industrial city 900 miles southeast of Moscow, has produced its share of star hockey players. Alexander Semin began his career in the Traktor Chelyabinsk organization as did former Capitals defenseman Sergei Gonchar. The newest hockey phenomenon to emerge from this factory town is Evgeny Kuznetsov, an 18 year-old forward whom the Caps selected in the first round of this year’s draft.

He looked like he was in great shape." Bruce Boudreau said on Monday, the first day of development camp. “It's not very often that you get an 18-year-old Russian coming here and you're telling him the drills and he's explaining them to other guys,” Boudreau added, referring to Kuznetsov’s guidance for Dmitri Orlov, another young Russian prospect, whose understanding of English is even more limited than his own.

In an interview with Caps Snaps in his native Russian, Kuznetsov talked about the trajectory of his still young career. “My father played hockey,” said Kuznetsov, who was born in Chelyabinsk and lived just a short walk from the local ice rink.

One of his fondest memories, he said, was skating as a young boy on the same rink with Semin, who was already a local hero. “I don’t know if he remembers that,” he added.

Kuznetsov was the captain of the Russian team at the 2010 Under-18 World Junior Championship held in Minsk, Belarus. He excelled, scoring a team high 12 points (5 goals, 7 assists). Last season also marked his professional debut with Traktor Cheylabinsk, which was an opportunity for him to play against older and more experienced players. Kuznetsov is under contract with Traktor Chelyabinsk for two more years—unless the Caps buy out the contract. But he has his heart set on the NHL.

“They are absolutely different games,” he said, referring to hockey in the NHL and Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League. “The difference is huge. More people come to games and the best players in the world are in the NHL. It is more interesting. There are very good players in Russia, too, but the level is not as high.”

So far, little considerations have impressed him. At the Caps development camp the staff has delivered his uniform and equipment to his spot in the locker room. “I have never seen anything like that in Russia. There you just go by yourself and get everything by yourself. So this is kind of unusual for me.”

Since arriving in Washington Kuznetsov has hung out with Orlov and Stanislav Galiev, making them a troika of Russian prospects who have been trying to demonstrate their best to the Caps coaches and navigate their way in the world beyond the Kettler Capitals Iceplex. “Galiev, Orlov and me, we go everywhere together.” he said.

Two things, Kuznetsov said, have taken some getting use to: a new uniform and the language. “I can get used to the uniform but I have to learn English,” he said. “I studied English at school but did not focus on it that much,” he said. “When I return to Russia I will hire a tutor and start studying English seriously.”

Yaroslav Maslovsky assisted with the translation.

Kuznetsov jokes with Galiev and Orlov.

Development Camp, 7/13/10: Group A

2010-07-14T05:32:00.006-04:00

Development Camp, 7/12/10: Group B

2010-07-12T23:30:00.002-04:00

More Photos after the break...

Marcus Johansson speaks to the media

2010-07-12T23:10:00.028-04:00

Marcus Johansson is one of the most promising players in the Capitals organization and has the potential to be key player in the lineup this coming year. After today's development camp workouts he spoke with the media.

It’s just one practice, but how does that feel?

"It feels good to get going. I feel a little rusty, but you get over it..."

Did you talk to Nick Backstrom or anybody, even Anton [Gustafsson] on what this would be like?

"Yeah, a little bit, I talked to them both actually, and I stay with Anton at the hotel. We are just going to have fun and work hard and do the best we can in the situation and enjoy our stay here."

Getting in a week or very days earlier what have you taken in outside of the hockey rink?

Not much, actually, it has been going to the rink and practicing and resting and not doing much, getting used to the time difference from back home. Feels like I am getting into it a little bit. It feels pretty good.

Expectation is that you may play here this year.

"It feels like they believe in me and I appreciate that…. It gives me a good confidence, And I going to do everything I can to get that spot and be able to play on one of the best teams in the world. So it is a great honor."

Do you come into this aware of all the talk of you potentially being the Number Two center on the team:

"I try not to think of it that much. I come here trying to get used to the rink and everything….It’s been a while since last time. It is a great honor, and I appreciate it a lot and I am going have to hard to get it."

Do you believe you have a leg up on the competition here because of the [Swedish Elite] league you have played in for the last two years:

"No of course not. They all play in great leagues over here. They are used to the rink and to the way they play hockey over here. It’s a big difference, you know. It is straighter hockey and more to the net. So it is different like that. But of course I always had great opponents. Been trying to bring A game every night for the last two years in the elite league…So it has been good for me differently."

What are the adjustments you have to make playing in a small rink?

"You know it is everything. You got to get better at everything. Even a penalty here it a big difference….Haven’t got as much time and all that., so it is a lot of things."

Coach Boudreau says you are a better skater than Backstrom. Would you agree?

"I don’t know. We compare sometimes."

Are you challenging him to a race?

"I might. I don’t know yet."

You seem very confident.

"I don’t know you got to be confident. You know you can’t go out there and think if you are good or not. You got to do what you are good at. I try to play a lot with the puck. I try to bring my best every night."

What part of the game need work the most on to be NHL player?

"I don’t know, it’s hard to say. I feel that I got to get better at everything. You know, it is a big step, and every little detail must get a little better. So I got to work on it all."

Texas Stars at Hershey Bears, Calder Cup Finals Game 6: Warmups and Game

2010-06-16T08:05:00.000-04:00

If you missed yesterday's post with post-game celebration photos click here.
Warmups:

First Period:

Opening faceoff.

Carlson puts the Bears on top:

Alzner gives the Bears a 2-0 lead:

Second Period:

Patrick McNeil puts the Bears up by 3:

Third Period:

McNeil nets his 2nd of the night:

Goodmorning, goodafternoon and goodnight Texas!

Cebebration Photos

Texas Stars at Hershey Bears, Calder Cup Finals Game 6: Celebration

2010-06-15T06:04:00.013-04:00

Photos from the game coming later today.
Game 6 celebration photos:

Bourque is named MVP:

Helmer accepts the Calder Cup:

Umm:

Texas Stars at Hershey Bears, Calder Cup Finals Game 2

2010-06-06T15:25:00.002-04:00

Pregame:

Bruce Boudreau circa 1990. Greatest card ever?

Warmups:

First Period:

Opening faceoff

Gagnon scores 1 minute in.

Pinizzotto ties it with a short-handed goal.

Second Period:

Stafford put Texas back on top:

Bouchard scores 46 seconds later:

Third Period:

Beaudoin makes it 3-2 Texas:

Bruce Boudreau looks on.

Gordon ties it at 3 with 10 minutes remaining:

Morin scores with 0:46 left in the game.

Texas wins 4-3:

Texas Stars at Hershey Bears, Calder Cup Finals Game 1

2010-06-03T23:59:00.151-04:00

Warmups:

First Period:

Doc Emrick drops the puck.

B-E-A-R-S Bears Bears Bears... Woo!

Opening Faceoff

Second Period:

Bouchard gives the Bears a 1-0 lead:

Rallo ties it at 1:

Aucoin politely disagrees with a call.

Coco's got the Cup.

3rd Period:

McCulloch nets the go-ahead goal:

The Stars don't take kindly to Gordon's big hit.

Bears lose 2-1: