Carlsonocity

Dan Steinberg over at D.C. Sports Bog at the Washington Post chronicled Team USA/Planet USA/Washington/Hershey defenseman John Carlson’s rather eventful hockey journey in January. We’ve taken a shot at putting Steinberg's prose to a map…

1 -- Jan. 5: Score game-winning overtime goal for U.S. in junior world championships, become international hero. Earn the everlasting hatred of Canadians.

2 -- Jan. 6: Fly the well-traveled route from Saskatoon to Winnipeg to meet up with the Hershey Bears for a glamorous Manitoba meeting with the Moose. Play two games in two nights, win both by a single goal.

3 --Jan. 9: Fly back to Hershey.

4 -- Jan. 12: Bus to Norfolk for a meeting with the Admirals. Lose by a goal

5 -- Jan. 13: Bus back to Hershey.

6 -- Jan. 14: Call-up to the Caps. Car service to D.C. play two games, against Toronto and Philadelphia, in the sold-out Verizon Center.

7, 8 -- Jan. 18: Practice in Ballston with the Caps, get sent back to Hershey, fly to Portland for the AHL skills competition. Go a combined 0-for-6 in the "Rapid Fire" and "Breakaway Relay" events. Jan. 19: AHL All-Star game in Maine. Lose 10-9 in a shootout. This is Carlson's eighth competitive event in 15 days, competing for four different teams in two provinces, three states and the District. Six of the seven actual games were decided by a single goal.

9 -- Jan. 20: Overnight chartered bus trip back to Hershey with fellow all-star participants.

10 – Jan. 20: So the bus arrived at 6:30 a.m. That was Wednesday. Wednesday was a scheduled off-day. It seems like Carlson maybe could use one of them. And then around 1, his phone rang. He was being recalled to the Caps. The car service would be there in about an hour, to take him west toward Pittsburgh, where the defenseman would meet up with the big-league club and likely get tossed into one of the most intense regular-season games of the season.

Since Steinberg wrote about this…

11 – Jan. 21st: Back to Washington after the game in Pittsburgh.

12 – Jan. 22: Sent back down to Hershey, where he skated against the Manitoba Moose that night.

18 days, eight cities, ten competitive events, nine games, four teams, performed in two states, three provinces, and the District of Columbia.

And you complain about needing a vacation.