Courtesy: guardianlv.com
The 2014 Winter Olympics are on the horizon as the NHL is set to play their final contests Saturday, Feb. 8, before a plethora of players will travel across the pond to represent their home countries in Sochi, Russia.
Washington will send forwards Alexander Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Marcus Johansson, Martin Erat and defenseman John Carlson to play for their respective countries over the next two weeks and some change as they will engage in one of the best representations of nationalism in the modern world.
But professional hockey, like all sports, is a business.
While the opportunity to honor their country in the grandest of stages arises, these players will be playing the game they love at the highest level of international competition. Their teammates on back in North America will not.
They have a hiatus. A rest period. A time to recoup, rebuild and retool. A time to spend with family. But no time for hockey.
The NHL is the main vehicle that drives players into Winter Olympic competition, with a few leagues overseas like the KHL providing countries with a few other worthy candidates. That being said, the break in action can prove to be detrimental for a few franchises, yet provide some good for others.
Washington may be a team that receives a little bit of a mixed bag… first, the good:
1. Martin Erat/John Carlson will show just how valuable they really are
Pointing to these two players may seem strange as they both serve vastly different roles for the Capitals, but their play during the Winter Olympics will show just how valuable they are to the Washington Capitals going forward. Erat has been a disappointment thus far for the Capitals since arriving in D.C. last spring and has requested a trade twice as he has been relegated to lower line duties, with only a few appearances with the top guys. Playing for the Czech Republic team will not only pin him against the best in the world, but he will be playing with all-star caliber talent on his own roster. Great players make good players better, but Erat will not only have to prove to general manager George McPhee his worth, but also show that he is more than just a lower line player to head coach Adam Oates and the rest of the NHL. This will also serve as a litmus test for Carlson. Not to knock Karl Alzner and the rest of the defenseman on the Capitals, but they don’t measure up to the talent that is on Team USA. He’ll be playing alongside better players and it will allow him to grow and develop over a brief period.
2. Rest, rest and more rest
This is something the entire NHL will experience and some will view it as a good and bad thing. For a team like the Capitals, who have been plagued by the injury bug, this will serve as the biggest benefit to the franchise. Sure, time away does hurt the chemistry of the roster, and becoming acclimated to the way certain guys play again will be tough for the five guys going to Sochi, but it’s such a small percentage, it shouldn’t prove too devastating.
3. Scouting and scrambling for trades should be at the forefront
The Capitals are on the outside looking in on the playoff race as of right now and like years past, George McPhee is going to try and make this team a playoff contender no matter how much time is left before the trade deadline. The problem is the roster is almost too unbalanced with holes a plenty that there isn’t just one particular area to highlight as a glaring weakness other than maybe goaltending. It’s not that the goaltending has been bad as much as there is uncertainty in who to play. That stems from the Capitals assessing where they are this season. Washington hasn’t changed much as a team since 2006-07. They still rely far too much on Alexander Ovechkin, the power play than playing sound defense and winning the battles in the neutral and defensive zones. This comes back to the front office. Sure, they can try to be contenders again, pull in a Sergei Federov type of move and sneak into the eighth spot in the East. But if they want to maximize their potential for the future, these next two weeks must be a period of serious evaluation of guys on the current roster, players across the league on the trade block, players who will be unrestricted free agents in 2014-15 and players overseas in Sochi.
A list of good things coming from the Olympic break wouldn’t be complete without a list of bad:
1. There are still no right answers at goalie
Braden Holtby, Michal Neuvirth nor Philipp Grubauer will help the Capitals escape from the muck they entrenched themselves in before the Olympic break. Is Oates the one to blame in this case? Is goalie coach Olaf Kolzig not doing his job? Since Kolzig’s departure from D.C. as a professional hockey player, there hasn’t been stability at the goalie position. Sometimes, change is necessary, but sometimes consistency is key. Washington has been through it all with goaltenders. They’ve seen young talent like Seymon Varlamov go elsewhere to Colorado and be coached up by one of the all-time greats in Patrick Roy to become one of the better netminders in the league. They’ve had established veterans like Brent Johnson and Jose Theodore between the pipes to provide a stopgap for the future goalies of the organization to develop. The problem with what Washington is dealing with at the moment is that they have no veteran presence among their three candidates as Grubauer, Neuvirth and Holtby are all 25 or younger. There isn’t enough experience there. Expecting one of these three to emerge as a top-flight starter with no veteran presence other than the position coach is absurd. That’s why the name Ryan Miller has been so intriguing. But how much will it take to get a guy like that? Just like the saying in football goes, “When you have two quarterbacks, you really have none.” When you have three goaltenders, you really have no viable option to win as a hot goaltender is the key to any Stanley Cup run.
2. A small percentage of the team will be overseas; the rest of the roster isn’t playing hockey
As good as rest and relaxation can be for those who play such a physically-demanding sport, not playing any hockey for the better part of two weeks can cause a drop off in play. Of course, every team in the NHL will be going through this trying time as well, but the league mandates that no hockey activities will take place during this time and that is the right thing to do. With players having minor league clauses in their contracts and also some teams sending over more players than others, it’s only fair for each team to have a stagnant period of development and practice. But a team like the Capitals needs the work. They need to be able to improve on what they have done to this point of the season. This is a time where the mental aspect of the sport is at its greatest. How much film a player watches, how much time a player exercises and how much time a player sets apart for rest will be crucial to how long it takes for a team to regroup once it’s Olympians return back to their respective franchises. This is a make-or-break period as too much stagnation could lead to a higher draft pick and a diminished chance at a playoff berth.
3. An evaluation of where they are as a franchise could make or break future plans
This is more related to the front office than the players and it was touched on a little bit in the good section. Every team wants to win. Every team wants to raise the Cup in June. Every team wants to make the playoffs and give their fans another chance to watch the team they love in what is the highest level of play against the best teams on the ice. However, Washington has been there and done that. Still, no championships to show for it. They’re in a predicament similar to the San Diego Chargers of the NFL a few years back. A team that could finish high in the AFC standings, win their division and never advance to the Super Bowl and win that elusive title. They fired Marty Schottenheimer after a 14-2 season because of no post-season success. Some may say that Adam Oates and George McPhee are on the hot seat because of how Washington has played and they should be. But is it them as much as it is Alexander Ovechkin? There are times when the franchise has to look back and think that maybe he is a coach/franchise killer as he has been in D.C. consistently and has ran out the liked of Bruce Boudreau and Dale Hunter to name a few. But Ovechkin is also box office and owner Ted Leonsis loves putting people in the seats. But when does winning a championship start to take precedence over simply winning and getting to the playoffs? If the Capitals think they can win the Stanley Cup, they will try to make any savvy move for a crafty veteran or two who could potentially spark this team to another level in March. If they think they have minimal chances to do so, they will look to developing younger players like Nate Schmidt, Connor Carrick and Philipp Grubauer over the next two months. Time will tell, but it’s up to the men who get paid the big bucks to wear suits and ties as to whether or not they are satisfied with simply being a good, not elite hockey franchise in one of the best sports markets in North America.
