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Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
In the 1990s, Brent Johnson was a terrific starting goalie for the St. Louis Blues. He led a good team, stopped the shots he had to stop and won more than he lost. He set a (since broken) playoff shutout record. At that time, the Capitals had a great starting goalie of their own named Olaf Kolzig. Towering over other NHL goalies of the day at 6'3", Kolzig wore the nickname Zilla with pride, even getting it painted on the back of his helmet. Two years ago, Johnson came to Washington and became Kolzig's unquestioned backup. For two years he struggled unsuccessfully to shake that tag.
This summer the Caps replaced Kolzig with the younger, more accomplished Jose Theodore, and Johnson's prospects of assuming a starting netminder's job looked slimmer than they had in some time. But Johnson has just earned three straight starts. He held Ottawa to overtime and then beat Carolina and the New York Rangers. Carolina and New York are both division leaders, so he hasn't looked bad.
Don't misunderstand: Johnson hasn't looked better than Theodore. Both goalies tend to let in a couple of frustratingly preventable goals every time they play. Both give out too many huge rebounds, making it easy for opponents to shoot again. Both make beautiful acrobatic saves on shot after shot, and then get beaten easily off rebounds and deflections. They look like two average NHL goalies. The difference is that when Johnson plays average, the Capitals win. Tonight Johnny deserves a fourth straight start against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Classic Kolzig photo by timkelley.
There could certainly be no greater personal validation for the once-elite athlete's humble acceptance of his supporting role in Washington than the chance to face Kolzig and the local legend's second ever NHL team.
Whether Johnson plays or not, though, tonight's game will certainly be worth watching. The Lightning have knocked the Capitals out of the playoffs in two of Washington's last three appearances, and they have built their team around the resulting rivalry. When Kolzig signed with the Lightning, he joined former Capitals Captain Jeff Halpern there. Tampa Bay has since picked up Matt Pettinger off waivers from Vancouver. Pettinger played parts of seven seasons with the Capitals, and can also expect unironic applause tonight.
In case the point wasn't clear enough to Caps fans, though, the Lightning made a trade with the Philadelphia Flyers on Friday to acquire defenseman Steve Eminger. Eminger, like Kolzig, was once a highly regarded first round pick for the Capitals. The difference is that, where Kolzig spent several years in the minor leagues before coming into the NHL, and arrived ready for action, Eminger played for Washington as a teenager, and has never really found a niche in the big leagues.
The focus on past Capitals teams is unique to Tampa. No other team in the NHL has so many former Capitals. In league history, one would be hard pressed to name any team that has acquired so many former Caps in the space of a single season. The Capitals themselves have only four players who played for Washington before the NHL's owner's lockout of 2004 (Boyd Gordon, Shaone Morrisonn, Michael Nylander and Alexander Semin). The Examiner points out that the Eminger trade gives the Lightning a total of five former Capitals players. We would be surprised to see Jamie Heward called up to Tampa before the trade deadline, but there's still a strong point to be made there.
Tonight we hope it will be the Capitals making points at Verizon Center. One goal and two points would give Semin the league lead in both categories. Two points in the standings (a win, either in regulation or otherwise) would give Washington the lead in the Southeast Division. Either one would be a great pre-Christmas present for D.C. hockey fans, but the Caps will have to face more than one ghost of seasons past if they hope to ride the Lightning.
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It's still so odd to see Olie in anything other than a Caps uniform. For Skins fans out there, it would be something like seeing Darrell Green play his final season for the Eagles or Giants.
How Kolzig plays tonight (will his emotional return to DC inspire or distract him?) and the reception he gets from the crowd (I assume there will be a good deal of cheering during the video retrospective they plan on showing, but what about during the game itself?) will be very interesting to watch.
I hope the Phone Booth crowd shows Olie the Goalie some love. He gave many quality years, and a lot of emotion and leadership, to this franchise - and can hardly be blamed for departing after last season.
It will be like seeing Art Monk in a Jets jersey. Oh, wait....
Caps fans behaved like a very classy bunch yesterday. From the pre-game through the 3-points-in-first-period to the last (miserably poor) Tampa goal to take it 4-2 Caps, the Caps crowd cheered Ollie, applauded him, and generally showed the guy the love that he earned through so many seasons.
The fact that he let in those 4 goals shows, though, why he's no longer with the Caps. Even though he's a huge loss.
Eminger still stinks, though.