The Silent Honor of the Hockey Player

In some circles (mostly those that rhyme with "concussion gourds"), the Capitals were -- are, for that matter -- a "soft" team. That adjective is especially derogatory to a player in a sport where an ability to play with a physical edge is among the sport's paramount virtues.

Well...in addition to Chris Clark (groin), Michael Nylander (shoulder), and Brian Pothier (career-threatening concussion) having missed considerable time this year, we learned this in this morning's report on the Capitals in the Washington Post...

"[Bruce] Boudreau said [Shaone] Morrisonn played the final two weeks of the season with a broken jaw and that [Boyd] Gordon played with a torn hamstring in the playoffs. [Alex] Ovechkin also was nursing an injury for the final month of the season..."

And Jeff Schultz -- who seems to have been designated the poster boy for whatever perceived lack of physical play the Caps possess -- also missed the last several games with an "upper body" injury, and Mike Green had a hip pointer.

Ask yourself...if you had a torn hamstring, a broken jaw, or an injury that even the club still won't disclose, and your job involved a desk and a chair, would you still have been showing up every day without missing time? These guys came to work and performed admirably when their very job was directly related to and impacted by the injuries they had. And there was not a peep about it from the players, even after the fact. Hockey players don't indulge in such things.

So, if you do nothing else this summer, dear Caps fans -- well, some of you (you know who you are) -- make a resolution...

"I hereby swear that from this moment forward, I will just shut the *&$# up about players being 'soft.'"