Caps Briefing: Brett the Lion Hearted
Last night the Capitals continued their domination of the once-mighty Ottawa Senators with a 5-1 win at home. Goalie Brent Johnson had fans asking "Olaf who?" as he held the Senators scoreless until the game's final minutes, stopping every shot and holding on to every puck that came near him.
The Senators tried everything to throw Johnson off his game. They tripped him. They slashed at him with their sticks. They even body checked him to the ice a couple times. Goalie pads only offer strong protection on the front of the goalie's body, which faces pucks, but Johnson came back after the Senators threw him repeatedly on his back. When Johnson starts, former MVP Jose Theodore usually backs him up, and vice versa. Today Theodore suffered a hip-flexor injury before the game, and the Caps looked everywhere for a backup goalie.
They called up Simeon Varlamov, their first pick from the 2006 NHL draft, but they weren't sure if he could make it on time. Varlamov plays with the Caps' top farm club, the AHL's Hershey Bears, and they were in San Antonio, Texas for a road game. The Caps called up Michal Neuvirth, their second round pick from the 2006 NHL draft -- but similarly, they weren't sure if he'd make it on time from Florida, where the Caps lower farm club, the ECHL South Carolina Stingrays, were on route.
Photos of Brent Johnson on the ice by Eli Resnick.
Upon realizing that neither goalie would likely arrive in time for the opening faceoff, the Capitals signed Brett Leonhardt to an amateur tryout contract. Leonhardt manned the bench until Varlamov arrived, and then returned to his regular job as the team's Website Producer, leaving behind one of the only scorecards in Caps History to list forty-one players.
Leonhardt filled the role of backup goalie to a "dt." Although the shift from the team's Communications Staff to the bench was a sudden one, he did a great job of watching the game patiently and staying ready in case he had to actually play. From our vantage point, he didn't make a single mistake out there.
And why not? Leonhardt -- who stands at a looming 6'7" and would have been tied the record for tallest goalie to ever play in the NHL had he played -- often takes part in Caps practices when the team needs an extra goalie.
So, on behalf of hockey related web content generators everywhere, we'd like to salute Brett Leonhardt for having the immense courage to risk moving onto the page and becoming hockey related content. Now that his tryout is over, we'd like to invite Brett to join us in a large, hearty, collective sigh of relief.