Here we are up to Team O in the Washington Capitals
All-Alphabet Franchise Teams. What does the “O” stand for? Ohhhhhhhh, my God,
it’s early."
Well, not really (sorry, Robin), but it is time to look at
what is a team abundant in vowels.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 1 seasons, 2 games, 0-0-0,
minus-1
Playoffs (with Capitals): none
Seriously. Why? Because there are only five skaters in
Washington Capitals history whose last name starts with the letter “O.”
Curiously, it you look at them in an odd sort of way (and we’ll get to that,
although you can probably figure out what it is already), there is one “O”
player for each position.
Oskar Osala gets the left wing position. Why? Well, he
serves to make a point. Osala was drafted in the fourth round by the Capitals
(97th overall) in the 2006 entry draft, the sixth player taken by the Capitals
in that draft. At 6’4”, 217 pounds, Osala might have been that power forward
that the Caps seem to lack from time to time (at least not named “Ovechkin”).
He sounded like the whole package at the time from the scouting reports…
Central Scouting Bureau Scouting Report:
Is a good skater with a long stride, good straight away speed and balance … a hard and accurate shot and has been used on the point for Mississauga’s power play … he goes to the net and is tough to move … showed some good playmaking ability during the season … sees the ice well and with his good passing ability can move the puck effectively … responsible defensively … a big guy with a good physical presence although not to be considered a punishing type of player … has the ability to separate opponents from the puck … gives a hard working up and down effort … has shown a significant improvement over the course of his 1st OHL season …
International Scouting Service Scouting Report:
Osala entered his rookie season this year with Mississauga of the OHL with high expectations. He had a slow start, which was expected, due to his transition from Europe to the North American game and culture. Surprisingly Osala finished strong, putting up great offensive numbers and finished his rookie OHL season with 27 points in the last 30 games. With his quick release and cannon of a shot, he managed close to a point a game in the second half of the season. He has the offensive tools to be dangerous on a nightly basis, but consistency is the biggest question for this player.
Red Line Report:
Liked him last year as an underager with the Finnish U-18 Team and thought he’d be a strong two-way player and physical center in Mississauga this year. Started coming on in January after disappointing start and even picked up at the offensive end, where he began to pot some goals and create chances for linemates with strong board work and by using his overwhelming size/strength advantage down in the crease area. Two late season viewings showed RLR he’s definitely moved his game ahead after slow transition to North America and is back to being a legitimate prospect. At 6-4/220 pounds, he has a huge frame and will play it rough in the trenches. Can also be a dominant force on faceoffs, and while he will never have great hands, he does have a very hard/heavy shot that he was able to get away more often and with a quicker release as the season progressed. Projection: 4th line shutdown checking center; PK duty.
Sounded pretty good for a fourth-rounder, but that last line
in the Red Line Report was ominous. Fourth line as a projection? Then there was
his progress. Osala spent another season with the Mississauga IceDogs, but then
went back to Finland to skate with Blues Espoo for the 2007-2008 season (he was
not under contract to the Capitals). He signed a three-year deal with the Caps
in June 2008 and came back to play the 2008-2009 season with Hershey, also
getting his two games of playing time with Washington (17 minutes and change,
two shots on goal, no points).
He appeared to plateau, not the best thing to say about a
20-year old. The following season, with his numbers not improving appreciably
in Hershey, he was traded in March 2010 to Carolina with Brian Pothier and a
second round pick in the 2011 entry draft for defenseman Joe Corvo. Osala
played in one game for the Hurricanes late that season (oddly enough, against
Washington – no points in six minutes of ice time), and that would be it for
his NHL career.
The point? Oh yeah, the point. Drafting is an inexact
science (or maybe it really was just a thing about Finnish players with this
team). To this day,
Oskar Osala is the last player drafted by the Capitals from Finland since 2006.
But he gets a jersey for Team O.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 6 seasons, 387 games, 73-290-363,
plus-5
Playoffs (with Capitals): 3 seasons, 32 games, 6-14-20,
plus-4
Pity that most fans these days will remember Adam Oates as
an unsuccessful head coach in his rookie turn behind an NHL bench with the
Capitals. They might not know (or long-time fans might not remember) that Oates
played more regular season games with the Caps (387) than he did for any of the
other six teams he skated with in his 19-season career.
He did not arrive in Washington until he reached his
mid-30’s, having played 11-plus seasons with three other teams – the Detroit
Red Wings, St. Louis Blues, and Boston Bruins. And that was after he was signed
as an undrafted free agent by the Red Wings after three seasons at Renssalaer
Polytechnic Institute.
Oates came to the Capitals from Boston in March 2007 with
Bill Ranford and Rick Tocchet for Jim Carey, Anson Carter, Jason Allison and
Washington's third round choice in the 1997 Entry Draft. He arrived in D.C.
with more than 800 games of experience, more than 250 goals, and almost 1,000
points.
He arrived far too late to salvage any part of the 1996-1997
season, but in his first full season with the Caps he finished second on total
scoring (76 points) to Peter Bondra (78 points) and finished tied for fifth in
the league with 58 assists. In the post-season he tied with Joe Juneau for the
team lead in points (17) as the Caps advanced to their only Stanley Cup final
in team history.
The next season was a difficult one for Oates and the
injury-riddled Caps. He played in only 59 games but still averaged almost a
point per game (54). He came back from that season to post his two top years
with the club. In 1999-2000, having assumed the duties of captain after Dale
Hunter was traded the previous spring, Oates finished 13-69-82 in 81 games, and
then followed it up with a 14-64-78 year in 80 games in 2001-2002. In both
seasons he led the NHL in assists. The
playoffs were another matter. In
1999-2000 and 2000-2001 he could not repeat his solid production from the 1998
Stanley Cup run. Over those two
post-seasons Oates was 0-3-3, minus-4 in 11 games as the Caps were eliminated
in the first round in both years.
That 2001-2002 season would prove to be another difficult
one for Oates and the Capitals. The team traded for Pittsburgh Penguin winger
Jaromir Jagr the previous summer, and much was expected of the 2001-2002
squad. It did not deliver. The Caps stumbled out of the gate, going
5-6-1 in October and had only one winning month over the first four months of
the season, barely at that (5-4-4). It
was too big a hole out of which to climb.
Even though the Caps made a run at a playoff spot, the
damage to the season was done, and on March 19th the Caps traded
Oates to the Philadelphia Flyers for goalie Maxime Ouellet and the Flyers’
first, second, and third round picks in the 2002 entry draft.
Jagr would be gone a year later, and thus ended one of the
more confounding periods in Capitals history, something former teammate of
both, Chris Simon, later alluded to: “For whatever reason, he and Adam Oates
just didn't jell together.”
It seems incomprehensible that Oates, who
meshed quite well with a mercurial personality such as Brett Hull in St. Louis
(158 goals over two full seasons playing with Oates) and with a power forward
such as Cam Neely in Boston (50 goals in 1993-1994) could not jell with Jaromir
Jagr, but the record stands for itself.
Oates wrapped up the 2001-2002 season in Philadelphia, and
then spent a season in each of Anaheim with the Mighty Ducks and Edmonton with
the Oilers. Those would be his last NHL
seasons, completing a 19-year career with the 2003-2004 season.
Adam Oates had one of the more complicated relationships to
Capitals hockey, an immensely skilled center who made others around him
better. He could not, however, find the
combination to unlock the potential of the club in his later years in
Washington when he put up his best personal numbers with the Caps.
Nevertheless, among Capitals playing in at least 250 games for the team Oates
is the franchise leader in career assists per game (0.75) and is fifth in
points per game (0.94). That is why he
is the center on Team O.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 9 seasons, 679 games,
422-392-814, plus-47
Playoffs (with Capitals): 6 seasons, 58 games, 31-30-61,
plus-9
The “headline” numbers for Alex Ovechkin’s career are well
known by fans of the Washington Capitals: five 50 goal seasons, four 100-point
seasons, six times named to the first team NHL all-star team, a four-time
Richard Trophy winner (most goals), a three-time Pearson Award winner
(outstanding player), a Calder Trophy winner (top rookie), a Ross Trophy winner
(most points), and a three-time Hart Trophy winner (most valuable player).
However, that only scratches the surface of Ovechkin’s
accomplishments over his nine-year career.
In addition to the three Hart Trophy wins, he had received votes for the
award in eight of his nine seasons. In
addition to being a six-time first team NHL all-star, he has been named to the
second team three times, including one year in which he was named first team
all-star at a different position (in 2012-2013 he was first team at right wing,
second team at left wing). Three times
he has received votes for the Selke Award as top defensive forward (that is not
a misprint: 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010, in the last of which he
received a first place vote).
Three times he was named a monthly three-star selection by
the league (twice as first star); ten times a weekly three star selection
(seven times a first star). No player
has more hat tricks since his rookie season than Ovechkin (13). He is the only player to have scored four
goals in a game three times over that span of seasons. Only two players – Evgeni Malkin (7) and
Sidney Crosby (5) – scored five or more points in a game more times than Ovechkin
(4).
That he is the dominant goal scorer of his era is in little
doubt. Since he came into the league in
2005 Ovechkin has more than 100 more goals (422) than the second place goal
scorer (Jarome Iginla: 310). And, while
Steven Stamkos is his stiffest challenge to goal scoring dominance at the
moment, Ovechkin leads him in goals scored per game since Stamkos came into the
league (0.60 to 0.57) and has a better goals-per-game mark over his first six
seasons (0.63) than Stamkos’ six seasons to date (0.57).
Ovechkin has four of the league’s 26 100-point seasons since
he came into the league in 2005. Only
Sidney Crosby has more (5), and those four seasons rank in the top-14 point
totals (no player has as many).
However, there are two pieces of NHL hardware still looking
for a place on his mantle – a Conn Smythe Trophy as most valuable player in the
post-season and the Stanley Cup.
Ovechkin’s performance in the playoffs is testimony to how much of a
team game hockey is, and how difficult it is, perhaps especially for a winger,
to bend the post-season to his will.
Since Ovechkin made his first appearance in the playoffs in
2008 he is tenth in total goals scored (31).
He did that in 58 games, by far the lowest total among the top ten goal
scorers. On a goals-per game basis he
has a substantial lead over second place Henrik Zetterberg of the Detroit Red
Wings (0.53 to 0.48 goals per game). His
61 points in the post season ranks tied for 16th, but on a per-game basis he is
fifth (1.05). And for those who remember
with crystal clarity his minus-35 from last year’s regular season, his career
plus-9 in the post season puts him in the top-50 since 2008, tied with Evgeni
Malkin (okay, tied with Daniel Carcillo, too…chalk one up for the plus-minus
haters).
In Capitals history Ovechkin almost stands alone as an
offensive force, despite his having only completed nine seasons. Each of his nine seasons rank in the top-50 in single
season goals scored, and that includes a pair of 32-goal seasons, one of them
in an abbreviated 48-game schedule. He
has six of the top 15 goal-scoring seasons in Caps history. Peter Bondra and Mike Gartner are next with
three apiece. He has five of the 11
50-goal seasons in Caps history (Bondra and Dennis Maruk each have two). He has four of the seven 100-point seasons in
Capitals history, those four years ranking in the top-five. Only Dennis Maruk, who holds the single
season franchise points record (136 in 1981-1982), holds another top-five slot.
Many of his goals were of a highlight quality. There was his stickhandling through three New
York Rangers in Game 5 of the opening round of the 2009 playoffs:
His “selfie” assist off the side board against the Montreal
Canadiens on February 8, 2009:
And there is “The Goal” on January 15, 2006
If Alexander Ovechkin scores goals in 2014-2015 at his
career pace and plays in every game, he will surpass Peter Bondra (472) as the
franchise leader in goals on the last night of the season against the New York
Rangers. If he records points at his
career pace he will surpass Bondra (825) in all-time franchise points (825) in
the tenth game of the season, at Tampa Bay on November 1st. But if Ovechkin was spirited away by aliens
and was not to play another game for the Caps, he would arguably be the best
player in franchise history. Oh, the
right wing thing. Now you know why Oskar
Osala is the left wing on this team. Even
though most of Ovechkin’s achievements were realized as a left wing, he has
continued to dominate from the right side and skates on the right side of Team
O.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 2 seasons, 61 games,
3-16-19, plus-16
Playoffs (with Capitals): 1 season, 7 games, 0-1-1, minus-1
There is a slogan, “join the Navy, and see the world.” Well, for some, take up a career in hockey,
and see North America. Such has been the
case for Steve Oleksy who, at the young age of 28, has seen his share of it in
his hockey career. Undrafted when he
became eligible, he took up with the Traverse City North Stars of the North
American Hockey League, where he recorded 11 goals and 30 points in 57 games of
the 2005-2006 season.
His hockey life took on a semblance of stability when he
moved on to Lake Superior State University of the Central Collegiate Hockey
Association in 2006-2007. Oleksy spent
three years with the Lakers, but no sooner did his 2008-2009 season end, and he
was on the road again, this time to join the Las Vega Wranglers of the
ECHL.
Two games in the Nevada desert was all Olesky would get,
though. In 2009-2010 he headed back to
his native Michigan (born in Chesterfield Township, Michigan) to play for the
Port Huron IceHawks in the IHL. Just 28
games later it was off to play for the Toledo Walleye. He probably didn’t even unpack in Ohio,
because after three games he headed to Boise to play for the Idaho
Steelheads. Three teams and 72 games
(including eight playoff games), his 2009-2010 season came to an end.
In 2010-2011 it was more frequent flyer miles. Oleksy started with the Steelheads, but late
in the season he moved cross country, settling with the Lake Erie Monsters of
the AHL. He lasted 17 games there to end
the season, and then it was back to Idaho to start the 2011-2012 season. After 14 games he moved cross country again,
this time to the Bridgeport Sound Tigers in Connecticut. Oleksy finished the season with the Sound
Tigers, but he would move again.
On July 2, 2012 Oleksy signed as a free agent with the
Hershey Bears. If there was one player
who benefitted from the 2012 lockout and the Capitals and Bears deciding to
have new head coach Adam Oates and assistant Calle Johansson work in Hershey
during the hiatus, it was Oleksy. His
energy and feistiness, plus the fact that he was a right-handed defensemen,
caught the eye of the coaches.
In early March, the Capitals signed Oleksy to his first NHL
contract and called him up from the Bears.
On March 5th, in his NHL debut, Oleksy recorded an assist in a 4-3 overtime
win over the Boston Bruins. He went on
to play 28 games for the Caps and finished tied for third in points (9) and
plus-minus (plus-9) among Caps defensemen in the regular season. He skated in all seven games of the Caps’
first round loss to the New York Rangers in the playoffs, getting 15 minutes of
ice time a night.
With the Caps deep in right-handed defensemen in 2013-2014
and head coach Adam Oates preference to play defensemen on their “handed” side,
Oleksy fought for ice time. He played in
only 33 games yet still ranked fifth among defensemen in points (10) and led
them in plus-minus (plus-7). Part of
that might have been puck luck. Oleksy’s
PDO of 1042 at 5-on-5 was highest among Capitals defensemen playing in at least
20 games, but his Corsi-on ice per 60 minutes of -7.55 was sixth among nine
defensemen in that group.
Yes, there might be some puck luck in Oleksy’s game, but hard
work and perseverance are big parts of it, too.
Eight seasons, nine teams, five leagues, 441 games, and he finally made
to the NHL. The map of Oleksy paints a
picture of determination…
…and that is more than enough to earn him a spot on Team O.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 3 seasons, 119 games,
6-25-31, plus-5
Playoffs (with Capitals): none
Seventy defensemen were taken in the2009 entry draft. Dmitry Orlov of Metallurg Novokuznetsk in the
KHL was the 20th of those defensemen taken.
Since then, though, Orlov has done rather well for himself. Only seven defensemen taken in that 2009
draft have played in more NHL games to date that Orlov (for the record: Victor
Hedman, Dmitry Kulikov, Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Nick Leddy, John Morre, Jared
Cowen, and Ryan Ellis). No defenseman taken after Orlov (second round, 55th
overall) has appeared in as many games (119).
Not that it has been a smooth ride for the 23-year old. After he was drafted, Orlov played another
two seasons in Novokuznetsk, and after the second of those seasons he played in
25 games for the Hershey Bears of the AHL (six of them being post-season
games). That part of his development
looked rather ordinary.
The plan might have continued that way, with Orlov getting a
full season or two in Hershey, but he lasted only 15 games with the Bears in the
2011-2012 season. He ended up dressing
for 60 games with the Caps, finishing fourth among rookie defensemen in scoring
(19 points) and second in assists (16).
Then the 2012-2013 season came around. Or more precisely, it didn’t. When the NHL went on lockout to start the
season, youngsters such as Orlov could continue their development in the
minors. Orlov did just that. But on December 6th, with the Hershey Bears
playing the Norfolk Admirals at Verizon Center in the AHL Showcase, Orlov took
a two-fer hit from Emerson Etem and Chris Wagner that might have concussed him.
In any case something in that game left Orlov with a concussion that limited
him to 31 games with the Bears for the season and, more important, only five
games with the Capitals. The hoped for
development building on his strong rookie year was stopped cold.
Orlov came back to appear in 54 games for the Caps last
season, although his scoring numbers (3-8-11) did not measure up to his rookie
campaign (3-16-19). This might have been
the case of development arrested by iffy coaching as much as any lingering
effects of his concussion.
His bumpy ride over the last two seasons makes Orlov a
tantalizing subject on defense.
Certainly, his rookie season suggested the potential to be a top-four
defenseman. The question is whether that
progress will resume or if it has been stunted by the events of the last two
seasons. Still, Orlov has shown himself
a capable performer in his young career and gets the jersey as second
defenseman on Team O.
Regular Season (with Capitals): 1 season, 6 games, 2-3-1,
3.12, .910, 1 shutout
Playoffs (with Capitals): none
When the Capitals traded Adam Oates to the Philadelphia
Flyers in March 2002, the return was a first, second, and third round pick in
the 2002 entry draft and a young prospect in goal, Maxime Ouellet. At the time, it looked like a steal for the
Caps in return for an aging star on an expiring contract. The “steal” part of it was largely due to
Ouellet’s presence in the return package.
Ouellet was, after all, the second-ranked goalie by NHL Central Scouting
in the 1999 entry draft and was being compared in some quarters to Martin
Brodeur.
Making comparisons like that is often a fool’s errand, and
it ended up being one in this case. He
was fine in the minors. In 146 games
over three-plus seasons with the Portland Pirates affiliate in the AHL, Ouellet
had a so-so win-loss record (55-68-18), but his goals against average (2.40)
and save percentage (.924) were very good, not to mention his 17 shutouts.
The NHL was a different matter. Ouellet had the misfortune to arrive in
Washington about the time that they became historically bad. In the 2003-2004 season, that of the Great
Selloff, he appeared in six games and had decent numbers, given the cards he
was dealt: 2-3-1, 3.12, .910, including a shutout in his first appearance of
the season, a 5-0 whitewashing of the Atlanta Thrashers in December.
Those would be his only games with the Capitals. In a way,
it was a missed opportunity. When the
NHL went into its 2004-2005 lockout, Ouellet tended goal for Portland. Instead of continuing he progress as perhaps
the eventual successor to Olaf Kolzig in goal for Washington, his numbers took
a dive. His goals against average with
the Pirates went from 1.99 in the 2003-2004 season to 2.89, and his save
percentage dropped from .930 to .911.
After recording 20 shutouts in the 2003-2004 season with Portland, he
had none for the Pirates in 2004-2005.
By the end of 2005, Ouellet was out of the
organization. In December the Caps
traded him to the Vancouver Canucks for a fifth round pick in the 2006 entry
draft. He played in four games with the
Canucks in 2005-2006, going winless in three decisions. They were his last in the NHL, and he was out
of hockey entirely after the 2007-2008 season at the age of 26.
Maxime Ouellet was something like Jim Carey without the
Vezina. Promise early and a quick and
quiet exit from the game. The trade that
seemed like a steal at the time on paper seemed a good deal less so with the
passage of time. Ouellet did not fulfill
his promise, and neither the second round pick (Maxime Daigneault) nor third
round pick (Derek Krestanovich) ever played for the Caps. The first round pick would yield some results
later. It was traded to the Dallas Stars as part of a trade made to improve the
Caps’ position in the first round of that 2002 draft. Moving from 26th to 13th, the Caps took
Alexander Semin.
Something came out of the trade that brought Maxime Ouellet
to Washington, but one might ask, what is a goalie with six appearances in one
season for the Caps doing on Team O?
Well, he’s the only goalie in Caps history whose name starts with the
letter “O.”
There is Team O, a collection of two legends (Oates and
Ovechkin), two youngsters (Oleksy and Orlov), and two duds (Osala and
Ouellet). At least it’s balanced.
1 comment:
Might that be 1997?
Great article...
Post a Comment