Looking back at the “All-Alphabet Team” for the Washington Capitals as part of our Peerless Playback during the Pause is now up to the letter “F.” Are there players that merit replacement? Are we good with the original 2014 lineup? Let’s take a look.
Back in 2014, our "All-F Team" was:
LW: Tomas
Fleischmann (2005-2010)
C: Sergei Fedorov
(2008-2009)
RW: Lou
Franceschetti (1981-1989)
D: Chris Felix
(1988-1990)
D: Jean-Francois
Fortin (2002-2003)
G: Frederic
Cassivi* (2005-2007)
Coming up with an “All-F Team” is no easy feat. There have been only 19 skaters in team
history whose last name begins with the letter “F.” It is a group of skaters that includes two
Ferraro’s (twin brothers Chris and Peter) and two Forbes (Colin and Dave). It includes two of the longest last names in Caps
history (Lou Franceschetti and Tomas Fleischmann) and one of the shortest (Rico
Fata). It includes a Hall of Famer,
albeit past his prime (Sergei Fedorov), and five players who dressed for fewer
than five games with the Caps (the aforementioned Ferraro’s, Alex Forsyth, Larry
Fullan, and Owen Fussey).
The group we chose in 2014, listed above, combined for 786
games with the Caps, posting 111 goals and 296 points. It suggests that there would be room for
replacement. However, this is another
letter of the alphabet that suffers from a lack of new options. Only two skaters since the original roster
was published in 2014 with a last name beginning with the letter “F” have
skated for the Caps.
One – defenseman Martin Fehervary – has only six games of
experience in the NHL. At some point, he could be a replacement, but we will hold off on that. It is the other skater,
though, who merits consideration as a replacement. Eric Fehr might have been a better choice at
right wing on the 2014 squad than Lou Franceschetti. Through the 2013-2014 season he had more
goals (70 to 36) and more points (144 to 94), although he did play more games
(379 to 327). The difference might be
that Fehr, a former first round pick famously (among a number of Caps fans)
taken one spot ahead of Ryan Getzlaf in the 2003 Entry Draft, was something of
an underachiever whose career suffered a number of setbacks due to injury. On the other hand Franceschetti, a former
fifth-round draft pick by the Caps, was an overachieving fan favorite with a
feisty streak. Since 2014, Fehr added
19 goals and 33 points in 75 games, and we lean toward including him as the
lone replacement among the skaters on “All-Team F.”
In goal, the Caps have never had a player dress for the club
whose last name begins with “F,” hence the inclusion of Frederic Cassivi and
his asterisk, the only goalie in Caps history whose first name begins with that
letter. Having dressed for only five
games with the club, and doing so without having won a game, a replacement would
seem certain. Well, except for the fact
that in the years since the 2014 All-F Team was published, there have been no “F”
goalies. The best we can do is another
asterisk – Pheonix Copley. In his lone
season with the club, in 2018-2019, Copley appeared in 27 games and posted a
16-7-3, 2.90, .905 record with one shutout.
He becomes the new goaltender on our “All-Team F.”
It goes to show that with a bit of ingenuity and a
willingness to stretch the rules in the name of pronunciation, we can still
cobble together teams by the letters.