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WEDNESDAY
February 8, 2012
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FEATURE
HGoalie
Tomas Vokoun
Finds His Form
Inside:
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CAPS’ STALWART
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H Flashback: Kolzig
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Flashback: Feb. 3-15, 2000
Key Run For Vezina-Winner Kolzig
Vokoun’s
Improved Play
Provides Boost
Caps goalie Tomas Vokoun watches
warmups before his game against the
Philadelphia Flyers at Wells Fargo
Center on Oct. 20, 2011.
Ever since Tomas Vokoun’s first
season with the Washington Capitals
endured a 10-game bump, the twotime All-Star goaltender has been
near his best.
In 18 games from Nov. 29 to Jan.
24, Vokoun allowed more than three
goals just three times and never more
than four, while saving fewer than
90 percent of the shots he faced just
four times.
The 35-year-old’s .926 save percentage during that stretch would
rank in the NHL’s top five and his
2.34 goals-against average over
those two months would rank in the
league’s top 15.
That improved Vokoun’s season
totals to 2.56 and .916 through his
first 35 games, and his teammates
were seeing the stalwart goalie they
remembered.
“Against Florida in my mind, it was
like, ‘Vokoun is going to be there.’
He’s a hard goalie to score goals on,”
Washington captain Alex Ovechkin
said in January. “If he finds his game
and he knows exactly what he has
to do, it’s very hard to score against
him.”
A big part of Vokoun’s turnaround
was a run of 10 consecutive games
he started from Dec. 28 to Jan. 17.
Backup goalie Michal Neuvirth
had started the previous five games,
leaving Vokoun on the bench from the
start of the third period in Philadelphia on Dec. 13 to the middle of the
first period at Buffalo on Dec. 26.
Vokoun said consistent playing
time helped him find his form.
“I’ve been a starting goalie for 10
years now, so you’re used to when
you have a shaky start, you get back
in there,” Vokoun said. “But once you
play, you get kind of in a rhythm just
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like everybody and it gets easier.”
Even when Vokoun hasn’t posted pristine statistics in individual
games, he has continued to come
through for the Caps, which helped
him become one of only two goalies
to win at least 20 games each year
since 2002-03.
Vokoun stopped fewer than 90
percent of his shots (27 of 31) last
Tuesday against Tampa Bay, but was
a huge reason Washington was able
to come back from two goals down,
force overtime and earn a standings
point before falling 4-3 to the Lightning.
Two saves stood out above all.
He stoned NHL leading goal-scorer
Steven Stamkos on a breakaway
early in the third period and made a
spectacular stop in overtime, reaching way to his left to get a glove on
Vincent Lecavalier’s shot toward a
wide-open goal.
“He cares and he wants to win,”
Caps coach Dale Hunter said of Vokoun after the game. “He’ll do anything to win.”
Although Vokoun admitted that
this year hasn’t always been perfect
and not exactly as he pictured, he has
enjoyed it. He came to Washington
after four seasons with the Florida
Panthers, none of which ended with
a playoff berth.
Now he’s in the thick of a playoff
chase, playing for a team with a large
fan following.
“It’s a nice change for me. I love
playing at home. The games are great
with all the fans,” he said. “I haven’t
been used to that in my career, so
that’s really nice to have a fanbase
like that and to play in front of soldout crowds every home game.”
UPCOMING
GAMES
Thursday, Feb. 9
Vs. Winnipeg Jets
7 p.m., Verizon Center
CSN (HD), Caps Radio 1500 AM
Goaltender Olaf Kolzig looks on during the
Capitals’ 3-2 victory over the Florida Panthers
on Feb. 23, 2000 in Washington.
In 1999-2000, Olaf Kolzig had the
greatest season of a tremendous
decade between the pipes for the
Washington Capitals.
Kolzig set career highs with 41
wins and 73 games played. His 2.24
goals-against average was the
second-best of his career and his
.917 save percentage was his thirdbest.
For his efforts, Kolzig became
the second Washington player to
earn the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s
best goaltender.
Kolzig put together one of his
best runs of that season at this time
of that year.
From Feb. 3-15, 2000, Kolzig allowed just four goals on 111 shots
in a four-game stretch, all of which
Monday, Feb. 13
Vs. San Jose Sharks
7:30 p.m., Verizon Center
NBCSP (HD), Caps Radio 1500 AM
Caps Week in Tweets, Quotes and Numbers
Save of the year for Tomas Vokoun. –@SWhyno on
Vokoun’s dive across the net to rob Tampa Bay’s Vincent
Lecavalier in overtime on Jan. 31.
Tough OT loss tonight... But we will bounce back
tomorrow! The only thing I can say is that I wish I
could be on the ice with the boys...
–@backstrom19 on Jan. 31 after Caps fell 4-3
in overtime at Tampa Bay.
“It’s an important game today. Other
teams keep winning. You’ve got to
keep winning or you’ll fall behind.
Today, we played a strong defensive
game, got timely scoring and Tomas
was real good again.” – Caps coach Dale
Hunter after his team’s 3-0 shutout win at
Montreal on Feb. 4.
“Brooksie made an outstanding play, a
wonderful second effort to get the puck
over to me. I went to shoot it. I don’t know
if it jumped or if I just missed the puck or
what happened. … I just wanted to spin
around and throw it back on. It found the
back of the net. It’s been a while, so it felt
good.” –Forward Matt Hendricks on scoring his
Photos by NHL IMAGES.
By Josh Land
H H H H H H H h H h H h H h H h H h H h HH h H h H h H
It is never bad to play in Florida in January
–@JohnCarlson74 on Jan. 30.
Sunday, Feb. 12
At New York Rangers
12:30 p.m., Madison Square Garden
NBC (HD), Caps Radio 1500 AM
were wins. That gave the 6-foot-3,
224-pound netminder a 1.00 goalsagainst average and a .964 save
percentage over those four contests.
It started with a 2-1 win over
the Carolina Hurricanes on Feb. 3.
Kolzig followed with 24 stops in a
1-0 shutout at Montreal on Feb. 10.
It was Kolzig’s fourth blanking of
the year.
He then beat the Nashville Predators 4-2 on Feb. 12 and edged the
Colorado Avalanche 2-1 on Feb. 15.
That came as part of a much
longer run of quality play for Kolzig.
He lost just once from Jan. 8 to Feb.
18 that year, going 15-1-1 during that
time. Kolzig led the league in saves,
shots faced and minutes played in
1999-2000.
second goal of the year, on Jan. 31 at Tampa Bay.
65 Alex Ovechkin’s points
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total in 45 career games
against the Winnipeg Jets
franchise. The Jets visit
Washington Thursday. It is the
most points Ovechkin has
recorded against any team.
4-1-1
The Capitals’
record in their last five trips to
face the New York Rangers at
Madison Square Garden.
1.98, .927 San Jose Sharks goalie
Antti Niemi’s goals-against average and
save percentage in four career games
against the Caps. San Jose plays at
Washington Monday.
20
Washington goalie
Tomas Vokoun earned his 20th win of
the year on Jan. 24 against Boston.
That made him one of two goalies
with at least 20 wins in each of the
last nine seasons.
Orlov gets a biscuit to the grill for the
second straight afternoon. #caps
–VogsCaps on the young defender’s poor
luck on Feb. 5 against Boston.
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Q&A with Jay Beagle
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Q: Even though you missed some time with the concussion, how
do you feel your first full season in the NHL has gone?
Q: How much confidence did it give you that when you were
healthy, they got you right back out there?
JB: Obviously you don’t want to have an injury at any point in the season, but then to have one early in the season, it’s tough when it’s your first
[full] NHL season. But what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. So I’m
battling to get back to where I was shape-wise and strength-wise. With
the concussion, you can’t do anything to keep your conditioning up or your
strength. But I started feeling better last week and I started to feel like I
had that jump again. Obviously things happen in the season that you don’t
plan for, so you’ve just got to be mentally tough and keep battling, and keep
playing hard.
JB: It was great. Obviously when you come back from injury and getting
new coaches, it’s always stressful because you want to be there for when
the coach is here. He showed a lot of confidence in me, playing me right
away and I’m just trying to get better for the team and for the coaching
staff and for myself and to help this team win.
Q: With all sports being so cautious with concussions, how tough
was that to go through, not being able to do anything for a while?
This year marked the first time that forward Jay
Beagle broke training camp with the Capitals. The
26-year-old center had some bad fortune, suffering a concussion on Oct. 13, in his second game
of the season. He was out until late December, but
returned to action on Dec. 28. Beagle played in nine
of the Caps’ 12 games in January.
JB: It’s the toughest thing in the world for anyone. Sitting around on the couch
and just trying to sit in a dark room and rest your head for a couple months is
absolutely miserable. That’s why they say you can get depression and stuff like
that. It’s from the lack of being able to do anything. It was tough, but it makes
you stronger and I learned a lot from it from sitting and watching the games.
I just tried to continue to learn and get better.
Q: Where some people have a game-speed and a practice-speed,
you’ve been lauded for practicing at 100 mph. Where does that
come from?
JB: Every time I step on the ice, I want to give it everything I’ve got. If I’m
not going to give it everything I have, then there’s no point in me being here.
So I’m trying to get better every day. I’ve got a lot of stuff to work on and to get
better at, and the only way to do that is to come out and practice your hardest,
and to always get better every day. I know it sounds weird, but sometimes in
seasons, you can forget and you don’t work on some stuff, and it’s almost like
you’re back-sliding during the season and not progressing. I’m trying to always
progress every day and get better, and also I’m trying to make the team better.
If I’m going 100 percent, then the guys are going to have to go hard, too. …
I was always taught to work my hardest and it’s just in my nature just to go.
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