Washington Capitals: If Players Were Presidents -- Jeff Halpern

John Tyler was the tenth President of the United States.  And an unlikely one he was, at least in the timing of his assuming the office.  He succeeded William Henry Harrison upon his death on April 4, 1841, just one month after Harrison was inaugurated.  It was not the easiest transition to make for Tyler.  Quite the opposite, Tyler took office in a very difficult period of American history, and in that regard, he might be compared to a Washington Capital who was named captain during a difficult period in franchise history: Jeff Halpern.

Tyler was the first President to have been born after the United States Constitution was ratified, having been born in 1790 (the Constitution was ratified in 1788).  Born in Virginia and educated at the College of William and Mary, he studied law and was admitted to the bar of the Commonwealth of Virginia at the age of 19.  It was politics that would be his future, though.  He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates at age 21 and served there for five years.  That would be but the first step on a path that would lead him to the White House.  That path took him to the United States House of Representatives, where he served for four years. 

Finding service in the House unsatisfying, he returned home to practice law, but it didn’t take.  He returned to the House of Delegates, and two years later was appointed Governor by the legislature (Virginia did not have popular election of governors at the time).  After serving a second one-year term in what was a constitutionally weak office he was appointed to the United States Senate.  He served nine years in that position, often finding himself at odds with members of his own party, including President Andrew Jackson, mostly over economic issues such as tariffs and infrastructure initiatives.  The conflicts between Tyler and his colleagues grew to the point at which remaining in the Senate was an untenable position.  He resigned his seat in February 1836 to return to private life once more.

That didn’t take, either, and he was on the national ticket as a candidate for Vice President under the Whig Party banner.  He lost that election, but in 1840 he would be elected Vice President with William Henry Harrison at the top of the winning ticket.

Jeff Halpern was the first Capital to have been born in Maryland.  Opportunities for developing as a hockey player in Maryland being somewhat difficult to find, he ended up in New Hampshire where he attended preparatory school and developed his hockey talents.  From there it was on to Princeton University where he played for four years.  After posting 50 goals in 69 games for the Tigers over his last two seasons, he was signed as a free agent by the Capitals in March 1999.

Halpern made the parent club out of training camp for the 1999-2000 season and became a reliable two-way player.  He earned Calder Trophy votes as the league’s top rookie in 2000 (finishing 12^th), and twice in his first four seasons he received votes for the Selke Trophy as the league’s top defensive forward.  Over his first five seasons with the Caps, Halpern played in more games than any other Capitals (368) and scored 76 goals (fourth over that period).  Only Peter Bondra scored more game-winning goals (29) than did Halpern (14), and only Bondra had more shorthanded goals (10) than Halpern (7). 

However, things were not going well during this period, either for the Caps or, as it turned out, the league.  The Caps engaged in a slow slide out of a group of competitive teams.  Finishing with 44 wins and 102 points in Halpern’s rookie season, the Caps would win only 23 games and finish with 59 points in 2004-2004.  Off the ice, labor-management troubles led to a lockout that left the league dark for an entire season.  When the differences were settled, the Caps returned the ice for the 2005-2006 season with Halpern as the 12th captain in team history.

John Tyler’s tenure as President was rocky, to say the least.  It started early with a veto of a banking bill, the result of which was the Whig Party expelling Tyler as a member and much of Tyler’s cabinet resigning.  Later, a tariff bill was met by a veto, and the result of that action was the first impeachment resolution against a sitting President introduced in the House of Representatives.  Vetoes, exercised rarely by Presidents before Tyler (with the notable exception of Andrew Jackson, who vetoed 12 bills), were a common theme in the Tyler administration.  He vetoed 10 bills in his almost four years in office and became the first President to have a veto overridden, that of an appropriations bill on Tyler’s next to last day in office in 1845 (he dropped out of the race for re-election the previous August). 

Jeff Halpern’s tenure as captain for the Capitals was rocky in a different sort of way.  Coming out of the 2004-2005 lockout, one could not know just how bad the Caps would be, but folks knew they would be bad.  The club sold off most of its aging assets in the last season before the lockout and, even with rookie Alex Ovechkin making his debut with the club, it was a young team thin on talent.  On a team that won just 29 games and finished with 70 points, Halpern was solid, though.  In 70 games he averaged 20 minutes a game in ice time for the first time in his career, and he was third on the team in points (44) having to play a scoring line role instead of a two-way defensive stopper role for which he might have been better suited.

Despite his turbulent tenure, Tyler did enjoy what were viewed as successes with far-reaching consequences, such as approval of the annexation of Texas, expansion toward the Pacific Ocean, and treaties with China and Canada, the latter settling a matter of some dispute over where the border between Maine and Canada was located.

In his year as Capitals captain, Jeff Halpern served as a veteran influence over a young Capitals squad that included Ovechkin, Brooks Laich, Mike Green, Boyd Gordon, and Tomas Fleischmann, players who would make contributions to the club in their climb back to competitiveness after Halpern left the following season to sign as a free agent with the Dallas Stars.

Two individuals presiding over difficult times, coming upon their offices in somewhat unconventional ways, representing “firsts” in their respective histories, John Tyler and Jeff Halpern are the latest pair linked in this trip down memory lane.

Washington Capitals: If Players Were Presidents -- Curtis Leschyshyn

No President in American history served a shorter term of office than did its ninth President, William Henry Harrison.  Elected in 1840, sworn in on March 4, 1841, Harrison served 31 days before he became the first American president to die in office.  There can be but one Capital who can compare to Harrison.  No, not Alexandre Volchkov, who played in just three games for the Caps, but who was a member of the organization from his being drafted fourth overall in 1996 until he was traded in February 2000.  No, not Jonas Johansson, who from the time he was traded to the Caps in October 2003 until he left the organization in 2007 played in only one game for the Caps.

No, the Capital who gets the call here can only be Curtis Leschyshyn. 

Both had very short stays in their respective “offices” in Washington – Harrison for 31 days as President and Leschyshyn for a week as a Capital, but it isn’t as if they didn’t have long and steady climbs before getting to their respective posts.  Take Harrison.  Born in 1773 in what would become the Commonwealth of Virginia, he became Secretary of the Northwest Territory at the tender age of 25.  Less than a year later, barely eligible for the office, he became a member of the United States House of Representatives, representing the Northwest Territory as an at-large member.  He served only a year in that position before assuming the duties of Governor of the Indiana Territory, a position he held for almost 12 years.

Then, Harrison returned to the national stage, returning to the House of Representatives in a special election to finish the term of John McLean (no, not that John MacLean), who was appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court.  After returning to Ohio to serve in the state senate and losing an election to return to the U.S. House of Representatives, he was elected to the U.S. Senate, where he served for three years before being appointed minister to Gran Columbia. When he was recalled at the end of the President’s term of office, his public service appeared to come to an end after more than 30 years in various positions. 

Life as a private citizen did not take though, and he returned to public service in county government in Ohio.  In 1836 he ran for President, losing to Martin Van Buren, but in 1840 he ran again, defeating Van Buren in a rematch.  And thus was set in motion a series of events that would result in the shortest presidential tenure in American history.  Harrison, who had just turned 68 years old, the oldest ever to take office until Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in 1981, wanted to convey a sense of strength, calling to mind his history at the Battle of Tippecanoe.  Pride and weather conspired against Harrison on Inauguration Day, though.  On a cold, snowy day in Washington in March 1841, wearing neither hat nor coat, he rode on horseback to the Capitol and delivered what is still the longest presidential inaugural address in American history at one hour and 45 minutes.  To that he added attendance at several inaugural ball, and while it is unlikely that the activity was a direct cause of the pneumonia that he developed three weeks later, it was still a difficult way to begin an administration.  And, just 31 days into his administration, Harrison passed.

Curtis Leschyshyn suffered no similar misfortune upon arriving in Washington, but his path here was a winding one of its own.  After two seasons with the Saskatoon Blades of the WHL in Canadian junior hockey, Leschyshyn was taken by the Quebec Nordiques as the third overall pick in the first round of the 1988 NHL entry draft.  He jumped right into the NHL, dressing for 71 games in the 1988-1989 season.  It was a difficult one for the Nordiques, who won only 27 games.  Leschyshyn was second worst on the team in plus-minus that season (minus-32), with some guy named “Sakic” finishing behind him (minus-36).

That rookie year would be a high mark of sorts for Leschyshyn in his early career.  His games played dropped in each of the next three seasons with Quebec, and he eventually split time between the Nordiques and the Halifax Citadels in the AHL in 1991-1992.  The slide was arrested after that, Leschyshyn appearing in 275 regular season and 26 postseason games over the next four seasons, winning a Stanley Cup with the franchise after it relocated to Colorado as the Avalanche in 1995-1996.

Never a particularly prolific defenseman at the offensive end of the ice, Leschyshyn started a bit slowly in the 1996-1997 season, going without a goal in his first 11 games.  At that point, he was an undercard player in a multi-player deal between the Avalanche and the Capitals.  In early November, he and the rights to left winger Chris Simon were traded to Washington for Caps forward Keith Jones, and a first and a fourth round pick in the 1998 entry draft. 

About that “to Washington” thing.  Actually, he never really made it “to Washington.”  At the time, Caps General Manager David Poile said, “With Leschyshyn, well, you can never have enough defensemen. With Sylvain Cote being out and Nolan Baumgartner now having surgery {for a dislocated shoulder} and out four to six months, we felt some of our depth was gone." He added that Leschyshyn would “"definitely…be [with the] Capitals for a while." 

“A while” was seven days.  Leschyshyn joined the Caps for road games in Florida against the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Florida Panthers, not registering a point and finishing even in the plus-minus numbers.  Then, the defensemen that the Caps could not have too many of and who would be with the Caps for a while was traded to the Hartford Whalers for center Andrei Nikolishin.  Of the deal, Poile said, “"I knew going into the Simon trade that we were going to have too many defensemen but I said we made the deal for a good player and now that asset has turned into a quality forward for us."  He could have had a future in politics, that one.

Leschyshyn did not suffer the end Harrison did; he finished the season with the Whalers and played another seven seasons with the Whalers (later the Carolina Hurricanes), the Minnesota Wild, and the Ottawa Senators.  But in his blink-of-an-eye stay with the Caps, never having actually dressed for a game in Washington, Curtis Leschyshyn bears a striking similarlity in his tenure to that of President William Henry Harrison.

Washington Capitals: If Players Were Presidents -- Dennis Maruk

Before Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth President of the United States, he earned a number of nicknames.  Perhaps the best known of them was “The Little Magician,” a nickname bestowed upon him to reflect his stature (he stood five feet, eight inches tall) and his activity in political matters across the country.

Hockey does not have elegant nicknames as what one finds in politics as much as it has clever ones (at best).  Most nicknames in the sport are some derivative of the players last name, usually with a “ie” or “er” appended, but sometimes a simple, but descriptive one sneaks through.  And that brings us to the Washington Capital who might best be paired with Van Buren – “Pee Wee” himself, Dennis Maruk.

Van Buren’s spent his early career in politics as both leader and follower.  He started as a lawyer in New York, a leader of the “Albany Regency,” helping dispense political favors.  It was the first of several stepping stones on his path to the presidency.  The next of those was his election to the United States Senate by the New York state legislature (this was before popular election of senators).  It was there that he became a supporter of Andrew Jackson in his bid for the presidency.  In return for that support, Jackson appointed Van Buren Secretary of State.

At this point, Van Buren’s career took a turn.  He became perhaps Jackson’s closest advisor in a Cabinet that was dividing its loyalties into a Jackson camp and one aligned with Vice President John C. Calhoun, a man with presidential aspirations of his own.  Van Buren proposed a solution to that problem by offering, along with Secretary of War John Eaton, to resign so that the Calhoun faction would be forced to do likewise.  It worked out for Van Buren, who would be given a recess appointment by Jackson as Minister to Great Britain.  He failed to gain Senate confirmation for a permanent appointment, but it hardly slowed his progress.  He would become Vice President in Jackson’s second term as President.  After serving one term as Vice President, he was elected to the Presidency in 1840 to succeed Jackson.

Dennis Maruk has his own winding path on his way to Washington.  It started as a second round pick of the California Golden Seals in the 1975 Amateur Draft.  Having earned a reputation as a prodigious goal scorer in Canadian junior hockey (159 goals in 191 games over three years with the London Knights), he jumped right into the NHL with the Golden Seals for the 1974-1975 season.  Maruk finished that season second among rookies in goals scored, recording 30 in 80 games to the New York Islanders’ Bryan Trottier’s 32 in 80 games.  He finished third in the voting for the Calder Trophy that season (top rookie) behind Trottier and Islander goalie Glenn Resch.

When the franchise relocated to Cleveland the following year, Maruk brought his goal scoring talent with him.  In two seasons with the Barons, Maruk scored 64 goals in 156 games.  Those two seasons would mark the end of the Cleveland franchise, it being merged with the Minnesota North Stars following the 1977-1978 season.  While this was going on, though, the Capitals were putting Maruk in their sights as a trade target.  In October 1978, with Maruk having played just two games for the North Stars, the Caps had their man. 

In 1837, Van Buren reached the pinnacle, sworn in as eighth President of the United States.  The new job came with its headaches, though.  Barely a month into his Van Buren’s administration, financial and economic problems emerging before Van Buren assumed the Presidency came to a head.  Banks in New York City suspended redemptions of promissory notes at full value.  Thus, the “Panic of 1837” began.  The Panic was the beginning of an economic slowdown that lasted for much of the next decade.  Van Buren would be a casualty, losing in his bid for re-election in 1840 to William Henry Harrison.

In 1978, Maruk arrived in Washington to play for a franchise that won just 60 games over its first four seasons.  And it was not as if they started the 1978-1979 season reversing the trend.  When Maruk was acquired, the Caps were 1-2-1, scoring 12 goals, a light volume for the era.  Maruk injected a measure of goal scoring – he had his third 30-plus goal season in his fourth year in the league – and the Caps had their “best” season in franchise history.  However, “best” should not be equated with “good.”  Washington finished 24-41-15 and 63 points.

It would be a recurring theme in Maruk’s career in Washington.  “Pee Wee” was a “little magician” with the puck.  In 343 games over five seasons with the Caps, Maruk led the club in total goals (182 to 157 for Mike Gartner over the same period), assists (249 to 163 for Ryan Walter), and points (431 to 318 for Gartner).  When he scored 60 goals in the 1981-1982 season, he became just the seventh player in NHL history to accomplish the feat, and it was just the 12^th such occurrence in league history.  His 76 assists that season remain a team record for a single season, as is his 136 points that season.

But the club remained anchored to the lower reaches of the league standings. In Maruk’s five years in Washington, the Caps went through four coaches and finished with 70 or fewer points four times, averaging just 72 points per season, an average lifted by a 94-point season in 1982-1983.

Upon leaving the White House, Van Buren returned to his birthplace, Kinderhook, New York.  He made efforts to return to politics, seeking the Democratic Party nomination in 1844 (he lost, largely due to his opposition to the immediate annexation of Texas) and was nominated for the Presidency by two minor parties in 1848.  However, he never held public office again.

After the 1982-1983 season, one in which he scored barely half (31) of the 60 goals he scored in 1981-1982, Maruk was traded back to the team that sent him to Washington – the Minnesota North Stars – for a second round pick in the 1984 draft.  Maruk played another six seasons in Minnesota, but he never reached the 30-goal mark again.

The connection between Martin Van Buren and Dennis Maruk even extends to the medium on which Maruk played his career -- ice.  Van Buren has a mountain in Antarctica named for him.  It is just a reflection of how much (or how far we will go to make) a connection there is between the First Residents of Washington and the players who have contributed to the history of the city’s hockey team.

Washington Capitals: If Players Were Presidents -- Dale Hunter

Andrew Jackson was the seventh President of the United States. His administration was but one part of what historians refer to as the “Age of Jackson.” The person behind the age inspired considerable respect…and hate.  In that sense, he is not unlike a former Washington Capital whose years spent in Washington might be considered its own “age” as well, the age of Dale Hunter.

Where Jackson was born is in some historical dispute. It seems that what is agreed upon is that he was born on or near what is now the border of North and South Carolina, an area that today remains rural, but in that era would have been little more than wilderness. Growing up was a battle for Jackson, quite literally. At the age of 13 he was a courier in the Revolutionary War, during which he became a prisoner of war. He grew up to be a lawyer in the frontier territory of Tennessee, where a lot of the work was in hotly contested land claims and assault cases.  He grew up a prideful person, quick to fight when he perceived assault on his honor, and he dueled Charles Dickinson, who published an attack Jackson and his wife, killing him while suffering a wound that he would carry all his life.  It was a reflection of a personality that was once described as “tough as old hickory wood on the battlefield,” leading to his nickname, “Old Hickory.”

Dale Hunter didn’t have quite the raw and treacherous youth of Jackson, but neither was it entirely dissimilar. He was born in Petrolia, Ontario, the town’s name being derived from the oil boom that swept that region of Ontario in the 1860’s, and he grew up in Oil Springs, a town even smaller than that in which he was born. In terms of his hockey development, he clearly had talent, but he was also something of a provocateur. In three seasons in the QMJHL (Kitchener, Sudbury), he had 98 goals and 259 points in 188 games, but he also accumulated 492 penalty minutes. And it was not any different when he arrived in the NHL. Drafted by the Quebec Nordiques, he would be nicknamed “The Nuisance” by his head coach, Michel Bergeron for his ability to antagonize opponents.

Jackson was also an astute manager of his affairs.  He managed to accumulate sufficient resources to build a home and general store near Nashville.  To this he added a plantation, the “Hermitage” and additional land later.  He was owner of more than 1,000 acres that continues today as a museum. 

What Dale Hunter built came after his playing days were over, and was accomplished in very different ways (Jackson is said to have once owned more than 300 slaves).  He took over the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League as co-owner, president, and head coach in 2000.  Since then, his Knights have won eight division titles in the OHL, four OHL championships, and twice won the Memorial Cup as Canadian Hockey League champion. 

As President, Andrew Jackson might have been described as confrontational toward elites.  He advocated abolishing the Electoral College and opposed patronage.  But he also had the idea of the “commander” about him, making use of the veto and his partisan position in an effort to dominate Congress (it was under Jackson that the old “Republican” party split, with “Democratic-Republicans,” what would become the Democratic Party, following Jackson), and throwing his weight against the rechartering of the Second Bank of the United States and efforts to end protective tariffs.

Dale Hunter was not any less the “commander” as a Washington Capital, and he was no less confrontational on the ice.  He came to the Caps in a 1987 trade and would eventually become the ninth captain in team history in 1994.  He led be example, and quite an example it was.  He was widely considered a “dirty” player, a reputation Hunter would inflame in a 1993 playoff game against the New York Islanders in which he checked Pierre Turgeon into the boards after Turgeon scored an insurance goal in what would be the series-clinching win for the Islanders.  Turgeon suffered a separated shoulder than caused him to miss the first six games of the next playoff round, but Hunter received a 21-game suspension from new Commissioner Gary Bettman, then the longest suspension in league history for an on-ice incident.

Hunter might have been the bete-noire of 29 other teams, but he was a rough sort beloved by Caps fans, especially after scoring the game-winning, series-clinching overtime goal in Game 7 of the Patrick Division semi-finals at home against the Philadelphia Flyers in 1988.  He served as Captain of the club from 1994 until he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche late in the 1998-1999 season and was a player who, throughout his tenure as a Washington Capitals player, inspired strong feelings, good and bad.  He was a player who commanded respect for his skills, but who inspired hate among opponents and their fans for his antics outside the rulebook.  Hunter is the only player in league history to record at least 300 goals (323) and accumulate at least 3,000 penalty minutes (3,565).
 

Andrew Jackson defined an age in American history and was an important transitional figure from the revolutionary past to a more modern nation.  He was a complex personality that could, even in the context of his achievements, inspire respect and hate.  Dale Hunter was a soft-spoken sort off the ice, but on-ice he was as much a person capable of inspiring respect and hate, despite his achievements (the Caps reached the postseason in 10 of his 11 full seasons with the club, including reaching their only Stanley Cup final).  In many respects, Andrew Jackson and Dale Hunter were one-of-a-kind.

Washington Capitals: If Players Were Presidents -- Chris Bourque

John Quincy Adams was America’s sixth President.  He was the first son of a President to take the oath of office.  While one of a select few to hold the office, it could be fairly said that he did not have the resume of accomplishments his father – John Adams – had.  In that respect, and some others, he resembles another son of a more accomplished father, a son who played for the Washington Capitals – Chris Bourque.

Adams the Younger had what was arguably an undistinguished term as President.  He served but one term, losing his re-election bid to Andrew Jackson in 1828.  He had quite a list of accomplishments before he became chief executive, though.  Minister to the Netherlands, Minister to Prussia, Minister to Russia, Minister to the Court of St. James, member of the House of Representatives, senator from Massachusetts, and Secretary of State, all of which he accomplished over a 30 year-period in public service before becoming the sixth President of the United States.

If John Quincy Adams was the well-traveled son of a former President in his climb to the White House, Chris Bourque was the well-traveled son of an NHL Hall of Famer.  From Cushing Academy in Massachusetts, Bourque moved on to the Boston University Terriers in the NCAA for a year after he was taken in the second round of the 2004 entry draft by the Caps.  Then he started his way up the Caps organization, playing with the Portland Pirates late in the 2004-2005 season before the AHL affiliation moved to Hershey and the Bears.  Bourque played two seasons with the Bears before making his NHL debut in the 2007-2008 season.  He ended up playing just 12 games with the Caps over two seasons before he was waived and claimed by the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Barely two months later, after playing in 20 games for the Pens, he was waived again and re-claimed by the Capitals.

Bourque played just one game with the Caps in his second tour with the organization, spending most of his time in Hershey and wining a Calder Cup with the Bears in 2010 as well as the Jack Butterfield Trophy as the most valuable player of the AHL playoffs.  Finding his path to the NHL blocked, though, he headed to Europe to start the 2010-2011 season, joining the Atlant club in the KHL. Lasting just eight games there, Bourque then moved on to the HC Lugano team in the Swiss League.  After the season he returned to North America and the Capitals for a third time, this time failing to crack the parent roster.  He did play in 73 games with the Hershey Bears.  He was traded late in the spring of 2012 to the Boston Bruins for Zach Hamill and split time between the Bruins and the AHL Providence Bruins in the 2012-2013 season.

After that, Bourque was on the move once more, heading back to the KHL and the Kazan Ak-Bars club, followed by a trip to the Biel HC club to close out the 2013-2014 season.  Then it was back once more to North America, first with the New York Rangers’ AHL club in Hartford, then this past season once more in the Hershey with the Bears where he led the league in points (80 in 72 games).

Chris Bourque is under contract to the Capitals for the 2016-2017 season, but who knows where his travels will take him after that (if not sooner)?  In that sense, as much as he is the son of a more famous father, he has much in common with John Quincy Adams.

Washington Capitals: If Players Were Presidents -- Marcus Johansson

America’s fifth President, James Monroe, is not the revered figure in American history that other Presidents are.  He is not mentioned in the same breath as a George Washington, or an Abraham Lincoln, or a Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  That is not to say he was not an effective President, perhaps worthy of a little more “good feeling” than he generally gets.  In that respect, he is not unlike a current Washington Capital – Marcus Johansson.

You might say that James Monroe had a “first round” pedigree in his development.  He studied law under Thomas Jefferson, was Governor of Virginia, served as a diplomat to France where he helped negotiate the Louisiana Purchase, and served as Secretary of State and Secretary of War under James Madison. 

Marcus Johansson became a first round pick of the Capitals by effecting a steady, purposeful rise through the ranks of hockey in Sweden – the IF Malmo Redhawks, the Swedish U-18 national team, Lulea HF, Farjestads BK Karlstad U18, Skare BK, Farjestads BK Karlstad, the Swedish Junior National Team.  It prepared him to become a 24^th overall selection for the Capitals in the 1990 NHL Entry Draft.

Marcus Johansson has no “doctrine” as James Monroe has, but there is something of a connection here.  For those of you who have forgotten just what the Monroe Doctrine is, here it is in the “author’s” words… “as a principle in which the rights and interests of the United States are involved, that the American continents, by the free and independent condition which they have assumed and maintain, are henceforth not to be considered as subjects for future colonization by any European powers. . .”  In other words, any efforts by European nations to colonize territory in the Western Hemisphere would be considered an act of aggression requiring an American response.

But did he write those words? No, he didn’t.  It turns out that the wording came from his Secretary of State, John Quincy Adams.  Not to take away anything from Monroe, who certainly was an advocate for the point of view reflected in the statement, but it sort of shows the importance of teamwork.

As for Johansson, it is worth noting (and we have in the past) that Johansson is among the brightest stars of his draft class.  Seventh in games played, eighth in goals scored, fourth in power play goals scored, fifth in assists, fifth in points.  Since he came into the league with the Caps in 2009-2010, he is fifth on the team in games played, fourth in goals scored, fourth in assists, third in total points.  However, over those years, Johansson spent the bulk of his 5,407 minutes of 5-on-5 ice time playing along side Alex Ovechkin (1,864 minutes) and Nicklas Backstrom (1,533 minutes).   It would be hard not to be productive playing more 5-on-5 minutes with those two forwards than with any other for the Caps over that period.  Not to take anything away from Johansson, who certainly has been productive in that role, but it demonstrates the value of teamwork.

As President, James Monroe’s administration was one characterized by a disinclination to draw party lines.  He made appointments without regard to partisan affiliation for many posts, a behavior that led to his era being called the “Era of Good Feelings,” although there are those who employ the term with a measure of sarcasm.  Marcus Johansson is a player who in a sense epitomizes “good feelings.”   Since he came into the league in 2010-2011, no player in the NHL has appeared in at least 375 games and accumulated fewer penalty minutes than Johansson (52).

James Monroe is often lost in the reverie of our Founding Fathers and as a result might not be accorded the respect he deserves as President and in his other capacities.  But, in an aggregate ranking of American Presidents, there he is, in 16th place, between Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Marcus Johansson might not be generally recognized among the best of his generation of hockey players, either in the NHL generally or the Capitals specifically, but he has made his contributions.  In that respect, there are some things that the two have in common.

Washington Capitals: If Players Were Presidents -- Kelly Miller

We have had a look at three Presidents of the United States and who we think might be their Washington Capitals counterparts.  In a way, Washington-Adams-Jefferson might be something of a “top line” threesome of Presidents, but let’s not underestimate the fourth person to hold this office – James Madison – or who might be his Capitals counterpart – Kelly Miller.

There is the superficial similarities between Madison and Miller.  Both came from large “families,” so to speak.  Madison was the oldest of 12 children, while Miller is a member of one of the largest families in hockey.  Ten hockey-playing members, in fact. 

Both were a bit undersized for their positions.  “Jemmy” Madison was the smallest President in American history, coming in at five-feet four-inches tall and barely breaking 100 pounds.  Miller, who spent most of his career as a checking forward in a division known for its bare-knuckled physical play, was just 5’11/195 pounds.

There are deeper similarities, though.  Madison is often referred to as the “Father of the Constitution.”  He was a major force in the calling of a constitutional convention to replace the Articles of Confederation of the new Republic and was a prolific speaker during the proceedings of the convention. His work was not limited to that of debate within the confines of the convention, though.  He was a durable advocate of the product of that convention, assuming the role of a leader of the effort to ratify the new constitution.  He was one of three authors (all writing anonymously) of a series of articles published over a ten-month period in 1787 and 1789 that constituted a comprehensive argument in favor of ratification and would later be compiled and known as “The Federalist Papers.”  Then, as a member of the new House of Representatives, he was a principal sponsor of the first ten amendments to the Constitution -- the "Bill of Rights."

Miller could not be fairly claimed to be the “father” of the style of hockey the Capitals played over his tenure with the club, but he was the embodiment of it.  From the time he arrived in Washington in a New Year’s Eve 1987 trade with the New York Rangers until his last season with the Caps (and in the NHL) in 1998-1999, Miller was the epitome of a 200-foot, hard-working sort of player what was the style of the Capitals of the period.  He was an extraordinarily durable player, especially given his size and style of play, setting what was a career record of 940 games played in a Capitals uniform (since eclipsed), appearing in more than 95 percent of the games played by the Capitals in the 12-plus seasons he spent with the club.  Although he was a fine scorer in his college days (82 goals and 163 points in 163 games at Michigan State), he would forsake the scorer's role to find multiple ways of contributing at both ends of the ice -- the timely goal or taking on the opposition's top offensive threat.

If there was one thing that characterized Madison’s tenure as chief executive, it was presiding over the War of 1812, thought be some to be one conflict in the much broader series of conflicts grouped under the “Napoleonic Wars” that involved more than two dozen participants.

In 12 full seasons with the Capitals, Miller had some of his harshest competition in the battles of the Patrick Division (later morphing into the Atlantic Division) and in particular the two Pennsylvania and three New York area teams that made for the nastiest rivalries.  In those 12 seasons, Miller went 59-112-171, plus-36 in 335 games against those five teams, his 171 points representing more than 40 percent of the points he scored as a Capital (408) and his plus-36 almost half way to his career plus-75 with the Caps.

In his post-Presidential years, Madison went on to serve as a member of the Virginia state constitutional convention, wrote a number of essays on political subjects, and served as chancellor at the University of Virginia, thus passing along his experience and employing his knowledge for the benefit of future generations.  In Miller’s case, coaching was the avenue.  He started soon after his playing days were over, serving as an assistant with the AHL Grand Rapids Griffins.  He also served as an assistant with the Anaheim Ducks and the New York Islanders in the NHL, among other positions, before returning to his alma mater – Michigan State University – where he serves as an assistant coach.

Given the breadth and depth of his contributions to a young nation, perhaps James Madison does not get as much historical recognition as he should for those contributions.  Kelly Miller has played more games than all but two players in Capitals history, and no one has played in more postseason games (he’s tied at 100 with Dale Hunter).  He is in the top-20 in team history in regular season points scored and would arguably be the last name fans would identify to be on that list.  Kelly Miller was the personification of a Capitals style of hockey for more than 1,000 regular season and playoff games, but in the years that have passed since his retirement, he does not seem to get nearly the credit he might deserve for being such an important part of the franchise’s history.  In that sense, his career bears a resemblance to that of the Nation’s fourth President.  

Washington Capitals: If Players Were Presidents -- Bengt Gustafsson

We continue our stroll through the history of American Presidents and compare the third President of the United States – Thomas Jefferson – with a Washington Capital of the past.  And that Capital is… Bengt Gustafsson.

Any child in grade school knows the basic history of Thomas Jefferson’s life and career.  Governor of Virginia, member of the Continental Congress, principal author of the Declaration of Independence, the first Secretary of State in American history, and Vice President under John Adams, in addition to serving as the Nation’s third president.

In Washington Capitals history, Bengt Gustafsson holds a lofty place of his own.  He ranks 14^th in team history in games played (629), sixth in goals scored (196), seventh in assists (359), and seventh in total points (555).  Despite appearing in only 32 postseason games in Caps history, he ranks 15^th in goals-per-game, fourth in assists-per-game, and sixth in points-per-game.

Those are the basics.  But what sets each of these individuals apart, and in a sense what binds them for purposes of this whimsical scribble, is what lies beneath.  With regard to Jefferson, John F. Kennedy once remarked at a dinner honoring Nobel Prize winners that the gathering was “the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered together at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.”  

It was not hyperbole.  Jefferson was a prolific inventor and innovator.  Some were mundane, like the “turning machine” for clothes.  Others served a utilitarian purpose, such as his take on the “moldboard plow.”  He also explored the process of copying with his “polygraph,” a redesign of the “dumbwaiter,” and even delved into encryption with his “wheel cipher.”   Certainly, Jefferson was much more than the offices he held.

It could be said that Bengt Gustafsson was more than goals, assists, and points, too.  He was a particular effective player on both sides of special teams.  More than 40 percent of his career assists (145 of 359) and more than a third of his total career points (194 of 555) came on the power play.  Four times in his last five seasons in the NHL he received votes for the Selke award as the league's top defensive forward, finishing as high as fourth in the voting for the 1985-1986 season.  And, as if to illustrate he could play the entire spectrum of “gentlemanly play,” Gustafsson demonstrated a certain fearlessness (if utter lack of good judgment) in playing physically, from his rookie year, when he had the temerity to dump Gordie Howe to the ice, to his last year in the NHL, when he finished sixth among 27 players receiving votes for the Lady Byng Trophy. 

When Thomas Jefferson died, he was buried at his home at Monticello under a marker engraved with an epitaph he wrote: “Here was buried Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of American Independence, of the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom, and father of the University of Virginia.”  He did not include his offices held among those accomplishments and for which he might be best known to students of American history. 

For Caps fans, Bengt Gustafsson is best remembered for the nine seasons in which he played in Washington.  But more than that, he was a fixture on the Swedish national hockey team, playing in five world championships, medaling four times (two Gold).  He played in Canada Cup tournaments in 1984 (runner-up) and 1987 (eliminated in the semi-finals).  Gustafsson also appeared once in the Olympics for Sweden, that in 1992 (Sweden finished fifth).  He would go on to become an assistant coach with the Swiss national team, then move up the coaching ladder in Europe including stops as head coach with Färjestads BK in Sweden, where he won a championship in 2002, and with the Swedish national team.  In 2006 he cemented his spot in coaching history as the first coach to win both a world championship (over Czech Republic) and an Olympic gold medal (over Finland) in the same year.

Thomas Jefferson might have been, as John Kennedy suggested, the greatest collection of talent and human knowledge ever to find himself in the White House.  It might be said that Bengt Gustafsson was among the most talented and versatile players ever to have worn a Washington Capitals jersey.  It is in the richness and depth of their respective endowments, abilities, and varied experiences that is the reason they find themselves mentioned in the same space here.

Washington Capitals: If Players Were Presidents -- Adam Oates

After our look at which Washington Capitals player might be best compared to the first President of the United States, we now take a look at the second chief executive and which Capital might be the best comparison.  Today, we look at a pair of “Adams…es…”  John Adams and Adam Oates.

John Adams was our second President, but he was much more.  He was one of the most prolific and well regarded political theorists of his time and in American history. He provided a key "assist" to Thomas Jefferson in the writing of the Declaration of Independence.  He was the principal author of the constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.  He served two terms as Vice President under George Washington.

Adam Oates would play 19 seasons in the National Hockey League and would play more games with the Washington Capitals (387) than he would for any of the seven teams for which he played.  But he was more than that.  He was twice a first team All American and was named to the All-Tournament team in the 1985 NCAA playoffs while at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.  He would become one of the greatest playmakers the NHL has even known, currently seventh in the all-time career assist rankings in the NHL.  He is one of just five players in NHL history to record at least 90 assists in a season two or more times (only Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux have done it more than twice).  And, he would return to Washington after his playing days to coach the team he once captained (we will return to this).

And about those assists.  John Adams provided a lot of assistance to his cousin, Samuel, in the revolutionary period of American history, even as Samuel was perhaps the more dynamic personality of the two.  In two and a half seasons with the St. Louis Blues, Adam Oates recorded 228 assists in 195 games, many of those helpers put on the stick of Brett Hull, quite a personality himself, who scored 212 goals with the Blues while a teammate of Oates.

But it was with the Capitals…sort of…that Oates twice led the league in assists (he led the league three times in his career).  We say “sort of,” because while he led the league with 69 assists in 81 games in 2000-2001, he recorded 57 of what would end up being a league-leading 64 assists in the 2001-2002 season.  He was traded by the Caps late that season to the Philadelphia Flyers for goaltender Maxime Ouellet and a first, second, and third draft pick in 2002 (that first round draft pick would later be traded to the Dallas Stars for a draft pick that would become Alexander Semin).  

John Adams’ tenure as Chief Executive might have been expected to go smoothly, given his experience as Vice President under Washington.  However, it was not without its controversy.  He signed the Alien and Sedition Acts, four bills that brought the full weight of the executive branch down on immigration, citizens deemed by the government to pose a danger, and those critical of the Federal government.  He also had his philosophical disagreements with Alexander Hamilton over the matter of strong central government.

Hockey has far less consequence than national policy, of course, but Adam Oates had his share of controversy, even if he brought assistant coaching experience to his first posting as a head coach in the NHL.  There was his odd and persistent obsession with “handedness,” not just for defensemen, but extending to the forwards, flipping Alex Ovechkin from the left side to the right in no small part because Ovechkin is a right-handed shot.  There was his odd line combinations, most notably with respect to Ovechkin, who skated a substantial amount of time with the likes of Matt Hendricks, Jason Chimera, Aaron Volpatti, and Joey Crabb.  Then there was the borderline bizarre venture into coaching Braden Holtby in the finer arts of goaltending despite never having played the position that, while not career-shattering, perhaps wasted a year of productive development. 

It is worth noting that John Adams served only one term as President of the United States.  He was defeated for re-election by Thomas Jefferson in the election of 1800.  Jefferson reversed a number of initiatives enacted by Adams, including the Alien and Sedition Acts and a number of taxation measures.  Similarly, it is worth noting that Adam Oates did not survive as head coach after his second season with the Capitals, one in which the club failed to reach the postseason.  He was replaced by Barry Trotz, under whose administration Alex Ovechkin was returned to his natural left wing, and Braden Holtby returned to a more aggressive, athletic style of goaltending.  Ovechkin scored at least 50 goals in each of his two seasons playing for Trotz, while Holtby continued his ascent into the elite ranks of NHL goaltenders, winning the Vezina Trophy as the top netminder in the league in 2015-2016.

Despite being born 227 years apart, one in Massachusetts, the other in Ontario, there would seem to be much in the experience of John Adams and Adam Oates that connects them.  Well, enough for us to write about.

Washington Capitals: If Players Were Presidents -- Yvon Labre

And now, as we steam (quite literally) into the dog days of summer, and we gird our loins for what looks to be an entertaining political season, we will take a look back at Washington Capitals over the years and ask ourselves, “if so-and-so was a U.S. President, which one would he be?”  Let’s start at the beginning…

Yvon Labre, the “Father of Our Franchise.”

It makes sense, right?...

George Washington, first President of the United States, first (and to date, only) President to be elected unanimously (in 1789 with all 69 electoral votes).  Yvon Labre was not the first Captain of the Washington Capitals (Doug Mohns was), but he scored the first home goal in franchise history (the Los Angeles Kings were the victim; it was the only Caps goal in a 1-1 tie, the first standings point earned in club history) and was the first player in franchise history to have his number retired.

George Washington fought for the British before fighting the British.  Yvon Labre was a Pittsburgh Penguin before he played against the Pittsburgh Penguins...

George Washington lost more battles than he won.  In fact, “he lost more battles than any victorious general in modern history.”  Yvon Labre lost more games than he won as Captain of the Capitals (91 losses to 41 wins).

George Washington was the only President who did not live in Washington, D.C.  Yvon Labre didn’t play for the Capitals in Washington, D.C.  The Caps played at the Capital Centre in Landover, MD.  Oh, and Washington was a landowner…land-owner…land-over.  Almost the same, eh?

George Washington did not wear wooden teeth (his false teeth were made from other materials), but he famously had problems with his teeth (mostly a lack of them).  Yvon Labre was a hockey player…’nuff said.

George Washington had a variety of health problems over the course of his life.   Yvon Labre had knee injuries that would ultimately cut short his career. 

Yvon Labre played his last seven NHL seasons with the Capitals, all of them in the difficult, formative years of the franchise.  It was not unlike a military commander called upon to lead a young collection of colonies to independence through battle and into the formative years of the Republic.

OK, it is different, but let’s not get too serious.  After all, it is summertime.  

Washington Capitals: As The Great Talent Rush of 2016 Begins

July 1st is a date that every hockey fan circles – the start of the unrestricted free agent signing period.  Like its comparison event, the NHL entry draft, it represents hope.  Hope that can be addressed in a more immediate nature with the signing of players who can help their team now, not four or five years down the road (if at all).

Fans of the Washington Capitals are no different.  They were made very happy last year at this time when the club signed free agent winger Justin Williams to help get them over the pesky second round playoff wall they never seem able to scale.  Things did not turn out as planned, but hope springs anew as the 2016 version of the “NHL Talent Rush” commences.  I’m sure the cousins have something to chime in with on this issue, so let’s get their take…

Peerless… OK guys, let’s start with holes.  Where are they on this roster?

Fearless… If you look at the 12 forwards and six defensemen, plus the two goaltenders you are likely to want playing every night with this team, it isn’t really a team with holes, or at least they have fewer than just about any other team in the league.  Their top-six forwards are not in such a state that you would seriously contemplate taking on salary to add that level of skill, given where the Caps are on the salary cap.  The same goes for the top-four on defense.  There might not be a Norris Trophy candidate in that group, but there aren’t many teams with the balance the Caps can ice at that position.  Goaltending certainly isn’t an issue for this club.

Cheerless… Well, cuz, in this game, if you snooze, you lose.  Stand still, and you’re moving backwards.  If you’re not the early bird, you don’t get the worm.  Are you going to look at what the bottom nine forwards did in the playoffs and what the defensemen not named “Carlson” did on offense and say, “we’re good?”  If you can improve there with a free agent, you do it.  You strike while the iron is hot.  You can make the numbers work.  Other teams seem to be able to do it.

Peerless… The Caps have several free agents, both restricted and unrestricted, whose futures must be addressed.  Who stays, and who goes?

Fearless… By the time folks read this, I suspect Jason Chimera will shortly, if not already be the property of another club.  His fate was sealed when the Caps traded for Lars Eller, which will end the matter of Marcus Johansson, wing or center?  As for Johansson, a restricted free agent, I have a hard time imagining how the Caps don’t re-sign him.  He’s among the most productive players from his draft class, and he’s a solid, reliable 45-50 point contributor (at that level or better per 82 games over the last five seasons).  As for the “Mike’s” – Latta, Richards, and Weber – Latta (a restricted free agent not tendered a qualifying offer) is gone, and the other two will follow.  That leaves the other restricted free agents, Tom Wilson and Dmitry Orlov.  Both, like Johansson, were extended qualifying offers.  They have roles to play on this team; I don’t think either is going anywhere (note: Wilson was signed to a two-year extension).

Cheerless… What Fearless said, but I wonder about Tom Wilson.  Something Brian MacLellan said about Latta sticks with me… “I think the key for him is he’s gotta bring something besides energy in that fourth-line role. He’s got to kill penalties; there’s got to be another dimension to his game for him to be successful in the league.”  Something like that might have been said about Wilson last year, when it seemed his biggest skill was making mayhem.  He added penalty killing this past year, fourth among Caps forwards who appeared in more than half the games.  But he’s a 16th overall pick, too.  I think folks are going to want to see him add some more offense to his game, even if his point totals have improved every year.  The team thinks there is something there; they re-upped him for two more years. 

Peerless… Let’s get right to the nub of it.  This is a team that has built itself largely from the draft, but the last two summers the Caps have been busy under Brian MacLellan, getting defensemen Brooks Orpik and Matt Niskanen in 2014 and forwards T.J. Oshie and Justin Williams last summer.  Will they be busy this summer?

Fearless… No.  Head Coach Barry Trotz gave up the ending yesterday when he said:

“I don’t think we’ll be actively going after a high-end free agent or anything…One of the reasons is we have a couple players out here that could challenge I think for our hockey team. We’ve been patient with some of our young guys who really made a lot of progress and showed how much they’ve grown. They went to the Calder Cup Final, and they’ve really grown. We don’t want to block our good young guys with a 35-year-old veteran, who can get it done, because we have a veteran team now…We want to give some opportunity to our kids. They’ve made great progress, and I think they’ve earned that right to challenge for spots, and I think we’re not going to block them. I think if we do anything, we might add maybe one forward. I think we’ll be pretty quiet.”

That pretty much sums up what Caps fans can expect.

Cheerless… If I’m dealt two pair, I’m not throwing one of them out to try to get four of a kind.  I like my chances with this hand…maybe I look for another card to round out a full house, but I’m not blowing up my hand.  All that talk about snoozing and worms and all that.  Forget it.  The Caps have a pretty good hand right now. 

Peerless… In the end, the Caps are in a pretty good place, if you’re an optimist.  If you look at the postseason just completed, the Caps were an overtime away from taking the eventual Stanley Cup champions to a seventh game on home ice despite:

• Their leading scorer in the regular season having one point in six games against the Pittsburgh Penguins.  Evgeny Kuznetsov just turned 24 in May.
• The 13^th player in team history to record at least 60 points over his first two seasons before reaching the age of 22 having one point in six games against the Penguins.  Andre Burakovsky turned 21 in February.
• A defenseman who missed an entire regular season of hockey coming into this season and who had never appeared in an NHL postseason game before this year having no points in five games against the Penguins.  Dmitry Orlov is 24 years old.
• A 16^th overall draft pick who has improved on his regular season scoring numbers in each of his three seasons having one point in seven games against the Penguins.  Tom Wilson turned 22 in March.

The worst you could say about this quartet is that they won’t get worse in the postseason.  Frankly, it would be hard to do that.  You hope, if not outright expect, that they will improve.  And, if they do next season, they do it with Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Justin Williams, John Carlson, Matt Niskanen, and others to perform at or near their production levels this past season. 

Go back to the quote from Barry Trotz above, and think about where the open roster spots are.  The Caps probably stabilized their forwards by trading for Lars Eller, which will likely settle Marcus Johansson in a wing slot on a permanent basis.  With Jason Chimera (likely) and Michael Latta not coming back, one could envision a spot for a winger, but this is where those “good young guys” come into play.  The Caps might want to take a long look at players like Jakub Vrana, Riley Barber, Chandler Stephenson, or Travis Boyd to fill a slot to reward developmental performance and, in the longer term, keeping salary room available for any moves the team might want to make in season or at the trading deadline.

If a lot of moves in free agency is something fans find entertaining, this free agent signing period is likely to look to Caps fans like a bad public access cable talk show.  But this is a club that would already seem to have the parts it needs, just with a little more experience for some of them, to kick in the door to the vault where that Stanley Cup is kept.

Washington Capitals: 2015-2016 By the Tens -- Goaltenders: Braden Holtby

Braden Holtby

“Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others.”

-- Jonathan Swift

In less than nine years, Braden Holtby went from an obscure fourth-round draft pick, the tenth goaltender taken in the 2008 entry draft, to the pinnacle of his profession, tying a record for wins in a single season by an NHL goaltender.  Measured another way, only one of the nine goaltenders taken ahead of him – Jake Allen of the St. Louis Blues – has more career wins (57) than Holtby recorded in the 2015-2016 season (48).  Five of those goaltenders taken ahead of Holtby have yet to appear in an NHL game.  He has come a long way indeed.

Holtby started fast this season, setting a performance standard that would be difficult to maintain over a full season.  Looking at his ten game segments, he had that hot start – 6-2-0 in each of his first two segments, followed by an 8-0-1 record in his third segment, with goals against averages under 2.00 in each of those three opening segments – but he hit a rut in the middle of his season.  His win-loss record did not suffer, going 19-2-2 in his fourth through sixth ten-game segments, but his goal against average was progressively worse in each one, and his save percentage was barely above .900 in the fifth and sixth segments.  Holtby rebounded in his last two segments, going 9-3-4, 2.17, .916 over his last two segments, but it was still short of that blistering start to his season. 

What he did over the course of the season was something more than give his team a chance to win.  He was often the best player on the ice for either team.  It was a matter of being very good when he was on, posting a record of 38-2-2 when allowing two or fewer goals over a full game.  No goalie in the league finished with more games allowing two or fewer goals in a full game (minimum: 55 minutes) than Holtby (42).

Fearless’ Take… Braden Holtby obliterated the franchise wins record, surpassing Olaf Kolzig’s 41 wins (later tied by Holtby) with his 42^nd win on March 15^th in his 56^th game of the season and Game 69 for the Caps in 2015-2016.  He became the first player in franchise history to appear in at least half of the team’s games, post a goals against average under 2.25, and record a save percentage of .920 or better.  Kolzig is the only other Caps goaltender to have accomplished that feat (2.20 and .920 in 1997-1998).  Holtby is still younger (26) than Kolzig was when he had that season (27). He did not lose consecutive decisions all season until April 5^th and 7^th, his 64^th and 65^th games of the season, and even then both losses were in overtime.

Cheerless’ Take… There really isn't a lot here to get all wound up about from the regular season.  Even when he was bad, he wasn't often awful.  He was pulled early three times in 66 games, and in his 16 regulation and extra time losses he had a goals against average of 3.44 and a save percentage of .882.  That save percentage just in losses isn't a lot worse than Eddie Lack (.901) or Mike Condon (.904) posted in all games this season.

Odd Holtby Fact… Braden Holtby allowed four or more goals eight times during the regular season.  Seven of them came after January 1^st.

Bonus Odd Holtby Fact… There have been 33 instances in NHL history of a goaltender winning 40 or more games while appearing in 70 or fewer contests.  Only two of those goalies won more than 70 percent of their appearances – Ken Dryden (.732 winning percentage on 41 wins in 56 games in 1976-1977) and Braden Holtby (.727 winning percentage on 48 wins in 66 games this season).

Game to Remember… April 9^th versus St. Louis

Approaching a record, especially one held by a legend, is something that can often play havoc with the pursuer of that record.  As Braden Holtby got nearer to the single-season wins record by a goaltender, held by hall of famer Martin Brodeur, the wins were slower in coming.  When Holtby took the ice in St. Louis against the Blues, he had just two wins in his previous five games.  What made things more agonizing was that all three losses in that five-game stretch came in extra time.  And, as if to amp up the pressure just a little bit more, Holtby was seeking to tie the record with the record holder in attendance in St. Louis.  Brodeur was serving as an assistant general manager for the Blues.

It was not a start that inspired visions of a celebration for Holtby or the Caps as the Blues scored just 75 seconds into the contest, courtesy of Vladimir Tarasenko on the Blues’ third shot of the game.  That would be the last the Blues would see of a puck in the back of the net, though.  Holtby stopped the last 17 shots he faced, while the Caps scored five unanswered goals, three of them on an Alex Ovechkin hat trick.  Holtby had his record-tying win and a handshake of congratulations from Brodeur to seal the occasion.  Holtby would tie the season wins record in his 66^th and final game of the regular season; Brodeur won his 48^th season game in Game 78 of the 2006-2007 season (through 66 games that season Brodeur had 41 wins).

Game to Forget… December 18^th versus Tampa Bay

Sometimes one will hear talk of a goalie feeling the puck early in games to get into the swing of things.  When that first feel doesn’t come early, things do not always end well.  In mid-December, they didn’t for Holtby against the Tampa Bay Lightning at Verizon Center.  He did not face his first shot on goal until the 8:18 mark of the first period.  Unfortunately for Holtby and the Caps, the Lightning scored on that shot, Alex Killorn doing the honors.  He did not record his first save until 10:33 had passed in the period.  He would not face his third shot until the 19:24 mark of the period and faced only four shots in all over the first 20 minutes. 

The Lightning got pucks to the net with some more frequency to start the second period, but it was still hardly a barrage.  When the Lightning broke through with a pair of goals just over two minutes apart on consecutive shots, their 11^th and 12^th of the contest, it was clear that Holtby was not sharp.  He was pulled after allowing his third goal on 12 shots in 28:57 of ice time.  The Caps roared back with Philipp Grubauer in relief in goal, scoring five unanswered goals to steal a 5-3 decision, but for Holtby it was arguably his worst performance of the regular season in one that had few poor ones.

Postseason: 12 games, 6-6, 1.72, .942, 2 shutouts

Among goaltenders appearing in at least half a dozen postseason games this season, Braden Holtby led all goaltenders in goals against average (1.72) and save percentage (.942).  He had one fewer shutout in the postseason than leader Martin Jones in half the games played (12 for Holtby to 24 for Jones).  And yet, the Caps still didn’t advance past the second round.  What happened?

Well, for Holtby it was a tale of two series.  In the opening round against the Philadelphia Flyers he was 4-2, 0.83, .968, with two shutouts.  In the second round against the Pittsburgh Penguins he was 2-4, 2.57, .923.  It was not as if he was significantly outplayed by his Penguin counterpart, Matt Murray, but given the starting point of expectations – Holtby as a potential Vezina Trophy winner and with a record-tying season in wins versus Murray appearing in his first NHL postseason after playing just 13 regular season games – Murray’s better goals against average (2.40 to 2.57) and save percentage (.926 to .923) for the series had the feel of a clear Pittsburgh win at the position.

In the end…

Braden Holtby is now at that point in his career where he can be mentioned among the very best the league has to offer among goaltenders, but he has unfinished business.  His career postseason record is, on the whole, sparkling – a 1.87 goals against average, a .937 save percentage.  He is the only goaltender in more than 30 years to post a career playoff goals against average under 2.00 and record a save percentage better than .935 in 20 or more postseason games played.  On the other hand, his win-loss record of 22-24 is very much underwhelming. 

What has been perhaps the most agonizing part of this is that Holtby’s last two postseasons ended on an overtime goal allowed, in Game 7 of the Caps’ second round series against the New York Rangers in 2015 and in Game 6 in the second round against the Penguins this season.  Three of his four season-ending games in the postseason have been by one-goal margins.  Such is the thin line between success and elimination in the postseason.

Braden Holtby is very much a believer in vision training.  He uses it, as he puts it, “to warm up [his] eyes and keep them sharp. If you're not seeing it, nothing else matters. Your eyes are the basis of your whole game."  If there is one “vision” yet to be realized, it is Holtby finding a way to piece together more of those superb postseason efforts to help get the Caps past the frustrating obstacle of the second round of the postseason and perhaps to the Cup that has long avoided this franchise.

Grade: A-

Photo: Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America