A Winter Classic Yearbook

Thanks to Russian Machine Never Breaks for originally posting this picture and providing the inspiration for this blog post.

                                                                           (Photo by Brian Babineau/NHLI via Getty Images)

Remember the yearbook pictures of  "Senior Superlatives"? Yeah, I isolated a few of our guys for a little "Superlatives" of my own, purely based on the photograph, no personal preferences involved. (yeah, right).

Most Athletic

Cutest 

Class President 

Best Dimples

Most Likely to Inflict Punishment

 

 Best Smile

 Most Studious

Snarkiest

Most Injured

Best Facial Hair

Maybe, just maybe, I'm still a little tipsy from New Years Eve. Then again, maybe not.

1st Semin-ester Report Card

Oh Sasha, you constantly surprise me. It’s as if you are making sure you will get the best contract offer possible. On second thought, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised after all.

 

We all know that the Capitals have to wait until January to begin negotiations with Alex Semin. At the beginning of the season, Semin signed a one year $6M contract, so he will be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2010-2011 season. On a side note, other players that will also be unrestricted free agents at the end of the 2010-2011 season are Mike Knuble, Tomas Fleischmann, Brooks Laich, Matt Bradley, Boyd Gordon, Matt Hendricks, and John Erskine. If you’ve been counting, that’s 8 players on our current roster that could potentially not be Washington Capitals next season. Please note, I said COULD. Oh, and one last player who we will not have to worry about anymore- Michael Nylander will finally, finally, finally be an unrestricted free agent in July of 2011. Sorry Circles, your time is up.

Obviously, Alexander Semin is HOT, HOT, HOT right now. This bodes extremely well for a chance at being offered a lucrative contract from the Caps in January. That is if Semin wants to stay on the team and the Caps have the cap space. The formerly fairly inconsistent Semin has tallied 3 hat tricks, with 17 goals and 12 assists in 24 games. Pretty awesome stats. However, for penalty minutes for offensive players, Sasha is second only to Matt Hendricks, with 22 minutes in the sin bin. But, with 85 shots on goal and a +8 rating, it looks like (so far), Alex could write his own ticket if he keeps this up. It’s all up to him. In a little over 30 days, our tweet stream and the blogosphere will be filled with contract negotiation rumors and reports. What do you think will happen?

Regarding the 7 other players who will be UFA at the end of this season; I think we won’t have any clear indications until maybe even July when it comes to re-signing any of them except Brooks* and Brads*. I’d wager they get decent offers that they will accept. I know there are going to be readers who will vehemently disagree with me on a few of these, but I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if Knoobs*, Flash*, and Gordo* don’t get the nod. I may be alone in this, but with Boudreau constantly changing which line Knoobs plays on this season, I think his time may be coming to an end. As for Gordo, as much as I like him, I’m going to say his health issues will be a stumbling block when contract time comes up, I hope I’m wrong. And Flash…well, I think it’s just time*. The only other players I have any re-signing expectations for are Matt Hendricks* and John Erskine*.

Having played for Gabby before, and seemingly fitting very well into the Caps system, I could see another Washington Capitals contract for Hendy by July 1. I really appreciate how he stands up for his teammates and shows team spirit. I’ll admit it; I like him and hope he gets to stay a little longer, no matter how many penalty minutes he racks up.

As for Erskine, frankly I don’t know why I think he might get another contract*. Something about how he plays a type of enforcer role for us, and you gotta admit, he throws a pretty good punch when needed. Call it gut instinct, if you will, but I get the feeling that Bruce just likes the guy, no matter how frustrating he can be at times to us fans.

There are a couple players who will be restricted free agents at the end of the season: Karl Alzner and Semyon Varlamov*. Don’t think we’ll have any worries about those two.

Finally, with the December 1 deadline fast approaching, of all the players we let go from last year; it looks like only Scott Walker may be the only former Caps player without a contract for the 2010-2011 season. Other than stating that fact, I got nothing else to say on that except I’m glad everyone else found a place to play.

I know I’m really jumping the gun on all of these predictions, but for now, let’s just call them my woman’s intuition. At the risk of looking totally stupid, I just wanted to get these out there now. Come July, I’ll revisit this post and see how right or wrong I was. And you can totally rib me if I am way off base, but if I’m right, I’m reserving gloating privileges.

*Editors Note: 11/30/2010 Caps trade Tomas Fleischmann for Colorado Avalanche defenseman Scott Hannan.  I'm gonna call this is a win in my prediction column.
12/17/2010 Boom! Caps sign Erksine to a 2 year extension. That's 2 correct so far!
1/27/2011 Caps sign Semin to a 1 year (reported 6.7 million ) extension. That counts for 3 right, doesn't it?
2/23/2011 Caps sign Matt Hendricks to a 2 year extension. That's 4 correct, damn, I did pretty good so far, eh?
4/11/2011 Caps sign Mike Knuble to a 1 year extension. Happy to be wrong about this prediction!
6/28/2011 Caps sign Brooks Laich to a 6 year contract. Cougar Bait re-signing makes 5 correct in the prediction column.
7/1/2011 Gordon signs with Phoenix, Varly traded to Colorado for a 1st & 2nd round draft pic. 1 right and 1 wrong
7/2/2011 Bradley signs with the Florida Panthers. Another one wrong. But only 3 wrong ain't that bad, right? Only player left from this post is Alzner. Fingers crossed!

Grandpa Slippers Hits 900

Grandpa Slippers? Poor Mike Knuble, it’s not that you’re old. As a matter of fact, 38 is prime time, and you couldn’t reach the 900 game mark without living through the whole kit and Knuble. (See what I did there?) Not quite the Iron Man status of Cal Ripken Jr., but you still gotta appreciate what 900 games really means in the NHL. Mike started in the AHL in 1995 at age 23 and has been going pretty strong ever since. 15 years is a decent career stint if I do say so myself.

First, let’s take a little trip in the way back machine. Knoobs has been able to play 82 straight regular season NHL games 5 times in his career. Once with the Rangers, twice with the Bruins and twice with the Flyers. So far, I’m impressed. He has scored more than 20 goals every regular NHL season he’s played in the last 7 years. Ditto for assists, 20 or more in the last 7 seasons. And let’s not forget, the man has a Stanley Cup ring, thanks to his stint with the Red Wings in the 97-98 season. Now, aren’t you happy the Flyers couldn’t come to terms and GMGM thought it would be a good idea to sign him up in 2009?

Now let’s look at what 900 games have meant to Knoobs when it comes to the Medicare report. According to his bio, Mike’s injuries have included:

~injuring his hamstring, ouchie, but not so bad as-

~breaking the middle finger on his left hand (which is a bummer since most players use that finger to wave “Hi” to all their opponents, and I personally use it to let fellow drivers know when I’m changing lanes or taking a certain parking place, but I digress), and then there was the time that he-

~fracturing his right cheekbone and orbital bone, which I’m sure hurts as bad as it sounds.

And, of course, lots of bumps, bruises, scrapes, tweaked muscles, and all the other aches and pains that come with getting older playing hockey. It’s a tough job, somebody is gonna get hurt.

Speaking of a tough job, it’s time for Mike’s review of his performance in the office. His office? That’s that blue area in front of the goalie. You know; it’s called the crease. As a player, Mike can be in the right place at the right time. The right place for Mike is in the goalies face, blocking his view of the ice and always prepared for a pass that he can smash into the net. Last year, Mr. Knuble scored 29 goals and had 24 assists, so if I were writing his yearly work evaluation, I’d say his performance would be categorized as “Exceeds Expectations”. Where I come from, that’s worthy of a raise. Unfortunately, Mike will be UFA at the end of this season, and if he is still a Capital by July, I would be happy but surprised.

And, don’t start harping on me for being mean to Mike about his age. He is one of the few Caps players that I could never possibly be old enough to be his Mother, not matter how much of a slut I could have been. At my age; and Mike’s age, I can really appreciate what he has achieved in his career, so I kid with love.

So I say, let’s raise our glasses in a toast to Michael Rudolph Knuble. Wait, Rudolph? Yup, his middle name is Rudolph. Makes some sense now. Anybody who has a middle name of Rudolph has to have gone through life defending himself, so it’s no surprise he became a hockey player. Maybe back in school he was ribbed about it, but would you want to give him grief over it now? Didn’t think so.