Caps center Boyd Gordon is in town preparing for his seventh NHL season. The longest-tenured Capital from the standpoint of continuous service, Gordon was a first-round (17th overall) selection in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft. He has been here through the highs and lows of the 2000s, and has seen his own career plagued by a back injury that he thinks is finally under control.

Gordon had his best NHL season in 2006-07 when he totaled seven goals and 29 points while appearing in a career-high 71 games. He also posted a team best plus-10 for a 28-42-14 team that season.

The native of Unity, Saskatchewan is annually among the team’s top face-off artists. Gordon won 61 percent of his draws in 2009-10, but injuries limited him to just 36 games and he did not have enough face-offs to qualify for the league leader board in that department. He has won at least 52 percent of his draws every season since 2006-07 and ranked among the league’s top 10 in face-off pct. in 2007-08 and 2008-09.

Earlier this week, we spent a few minutes chatting up the righty shooting pivot. Here’s how the conversation went:

It’s kind of odd that you’re looked at as a veteran on this team. You are the guy who has been here the longest, continuously, of anyone in the organization, but if you look at the calendar, you are not even 27 yet.

“I guess I’ve been here the longest but you get to the point where you feel more comfortable. But I obviously want to keep playing more games and getting more experience. You’re never satisfied. I just want to keep playing the best I can and stick around as long as I can. That’s all I’m really trying to do.’

It’s been eight years since you were drafted into this organization. Comment a little bit on how the climate and the culture in the organization has changed.

“I was young when I came in, and it was that year where everything kind of got dismantled. After that, it was a process of rebuilding. I’ve experienced everything from top to bottom here; that transitional period where we weren’t very good and we were getting beat quite a bit to winning the [Presidents’ Trophy]. It’s exciting to be on this team and the city has really taken us in. We want to keep playing well but we want to show that we can win in the playoffs and that’s our goal this year.”

Injuries are part of the game and everybody has to deal with them, but you seem to have had more than your fair share of them the last couple years. Do you feel like the player you were in 2006-07 – when you played more than 70 games – is a fair picture of the player you can be when you are healthy?

“My goal this year is to be healthy and I think if I can stay healthy things will take care of themselves. Last year, I was very in and out. I don’t want to have another one of those seasons where you don’t know if you can go, or if you’re healthy enough to play that night or whatever. I want to try to be as close to 100 percent as possible. We’ll see. It hasn’t been an easy process, but I made a lot of positive steps in the off-season. The big goal for me is to stay healthy.’

You were out for a while and then got a couple games in before the playoffs. It seemed like during the playoffs – to the naked eye upstairs anyway – that you were 100 percent during the playoffs? Were you?

“Yeah, I felt good. With the back [injury], it kind of limits your skating and your quick movement. For me to be effective I’ve got to be able to skate and to work hard. When you have a bad back, you’re a little tentative to do things and tentative to skate hard. That was the biggest thing for me. I figure if I can skate, I can play. That’s when I am most effective.

You talked about ‘being effective.’ Your game is the kind of game that doesn’t always reflect well in the scoresheet. How do you assess yourself or critique your game?

“You kind of know. Some games don’t go your way, but other games they do. Our line, when we get out there we want to get the puck in their end and outwork them and get chances. You want to play solid and you want to be reliable. When I go into a game I want to do well on the draws and I want the [penalty-killing] to be good. All of those things add up to how you assess yourself and your role on the team.”

You came in here as a teenager and made the team. The team has gone from nothing to one of the best teams in the league since. Hershey has had three Calder Cup champions in the last five seasons, and you played on the first of those teams. Traditionally, five or six guys from a Calder Cup champ will go on to play regularly in the NHL. Those guys are hungry to play here, and some are willing to leave the organization to get a chance to play [in the NHL] elsewhere. What does that feel like now where you are on the other end of that pressure and guys are looking to take your job?

“It’s the best league in the world and there are always going to be guys coming up. We have a great group here and obviously Hershey has had a lot of success and we have a lot of good young players coming up. I look at it the same way every year. You have to fight to keep your job and you have to be just as hungry as one of the younger guys just to stay here. For me, that hasn’t changed over time.”

Fans look at various aspects of this team and critique it, but in a salary cap world, you can’t build a perfect team. You sort of have to decide what areas are going to be a bit weaker. One of the areas that people criticize about the Caps is the lack of deep Stanley Cup playoff experience. Only Mike Knuble has played for Cup winner, but looking up and down this roster, you have a lot of guys who have won championships whether it’s a Memorial Cup or a Calder Cup. Winning those titles is a long grind and it would seem that should count for something.

“We have good guys in here and we have guys who have won before at various levels, like you said. Obviously we haven’t proven that we can go all the way at the NHL level. It’s one of those things. We have to find how to play playoff-winning hockey and that this is our year to show that. Everyone is banking on that happening and hopefully it happens.”

How do you approach this regular season? It is going to be difficult to improve upon a 121-point season but you guys have to play 82 games just to get back to where you want to be and get your detractors off your back.

“We want to come out and have a good start. More of the same; we want to win and we want to go into every game thinking we can win. There are obviously no easy games and people know that we’re more than capable of winning. It’s one of those things. You want to keep getting better. It was a lot of points we got last year but you want to keep improving and keep going and try to win when it really matters. Time will tell and we’ll have to see how that goes.”

Every summer you are the first or one of the first guys back in town to start skating and working for the upcoming season.

“I spent most of my summer here. I did some re-habbing elsewhere, but I’ve been here most of the summer off and on the last three or four years. My routine has changed a little bit this summer and that’s all geared toward getting healthy. Summers have kind of been similar but I’ve made a few changes.”

It just seems like you’re okay with being the guy with the shortest summer on the team, year in and year out.

“I don’t look at it like that. Everyone else is skating and everyone else is working out. It’s just that I am here and they are somewhere else. I don’t look at it like I am coming in early to work. Everybody is working out and skating, so it’s the same thing. It’s not that big of a deal.”

The front page of the Aug. 25, 1982 edition of The Washington Times trumpeted, “Caps to remain capital team.” The accompanying article, written by the late Dave Fay and subheaded, “PG grants a tax break,” also featured photos of Caps fans at the Prince George’s County council hearing and the late Caps owner Abe Pollin. Pollin addressed the council, speaking for 11 minutes.

The council’s vote to grant the team an amusement tax decrease from 10 percent to one half of one percent for a period of three years ended one of the most eventful off-seasons in franchise history.

With all the off-season politics and wrangling finally at an end and with the start of training camp (in Hershey, Pa.) beckoning, Pollin and new minority owner Dick Patrick set about putting the final touches on their busy summer’s work.

On Friday Aug. 27, the Caps announced the firing of acting general manager Roger Crozier. Crozier, still the only man in franchise history to serve the team as player, head coach and general manager, had occupied the post since he was tabbed to replace Max McNab the previous November.

David Poile was named as Crozier’s replacement at an 11 a.m. press conference on Monday Aug. 30, thus becoming (along with George McPhee) the first of just two general managers to hold that position in Washington over the last 28 years.

At that introductory press conference, Poile said he’d be speaking with the other 20 GMs in the league to “get a feeling of what they think of the Caps, and at the appropriate time in October or November, when some team’s not doing so well, we’ll be ready to make changes.”

It turned out Poile was ready to make changes before that.

On Sept. 1 he introduced veteran Czech star Milan Novy to the D.C. media. Crozier drafted (third round, 58th overall in 1982 NHL Entry Draft) and signed Novy, who had reportedly scored more than 400 goals in 14 seasons playing in the Czech National League. The 31-year-old signed a one-year deal that paid him $110,000 for the 1982-83 season. Novy totaled 18 goals and 48 points that season before returning to his native country.

A week later, Poile eased his team’s goaltending glut by dealing Mike Palmateer back from whence he came, to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The return on Palmateer was minimal, but a couple days later, Poile pulled the trigger on the biggest deal in franchise history.

This summer and this September have been decidedly less eventful than those of 28 years ago, but the main thing is, September is finally here.

Yay.

It has been a bit less than two years since Hockey Hall of Famer and ex-Capitals great Mike Gartner made an appearance before his many fans here in the Washington area. Gartner returned to the District on Dec. 28, 2008 for “Mike Gartner Night” at Verizon Center. The Caps honored him that evening by hoisting his No. 11 sweater to the Phone Booth rafters and by having all current Caps skate that night’s warm-up in No. 11 sweaters.

Just over a month from now, Gartner will be back.

The speedy right wing – whose 397 career goals as a Capital place him second on the team’s all-time list – will be a featured guest at the second annual Caps Convention on Oct. 2. Gartner will be available for autographs and will also be featured in at least one of the convention’s panel discussions.

Drafted with Washington’s first pick (fourth overall) in the 1979 NHL Entry Draft. He scored 36 goals in his first NHL season (1979-80), sparking a run of 15 straight seasons with 30 or more goals.

When Gartner finally hung up his skates after the 1997-98 season, he had totaled 708 goals and 1,335 points in 1,432 games over a span of 19 seasons. (Gartner also played a season in the World Hockey Association prior to being drafted into the NHL.)

Among all the right wings in NHL history, only Gordie Howe (801) and Brett Hull (741) have scored more goals than Gartner.

Earlier this month, goaltender Olie Kolzig confirmed his attendance at the 2010 Caps Convention. Kolzig’s 301 career victories are the most ever by a Washington netminder.

The 2009 inaugural Caps Convention was a sold out, all day affair and a terrific success leading into the 2009-10 season. The 2010 convention will be held at the downtown Washington Convention Center on an off day sandwiched between the Capitals’ final two preseason contests this fall.

The upcoming 2010-11 campaign will be the sixth in a capitals’ uniform for 26-year-old forward Tomas Fleischmann. The left wing-turned-center arrived in the District earlier this week and he hit the ice with a few of his Washington teammates on Thursday morning in preparation for the upcoming season.

Although Fleischmann’s goal, point and ice time totals have risen in each of his five seasons with the Capitals, and although he totaled 23 goals and 51 points last season, and although he just inked a $2.6 million deal for 2009-10, the Czech Republic native has heard his name floated in recently rumored trades that would reportedly bring a defenseman back to D.C.

A "Flash Drive" -- Tomas Fleischmann takes a shot

There is a faction of the Caps’ fan base that would be in favor of such a trade, citing Fleischmann’s postseason production (one assist in six games last spring) and the team’s need for experience on the blueline. Those fans conveniently forget that he was a stellar playoff performer at the AHL level, and that moving the Caps’ best option as a second-line center would create a new hole on the roster even as it filled another.

Fleischmann will be an unrestricted free agent next July 1, so another strong season – especially if he follows it with a solid playoff run – could have him poised for a lucrative multi-year deal next summer.

With all that as a backdrop, the affable Fleischmann gave us a few minutes of his time on Thursday after finishing up on the ice. Here’s how the interview played out:

How much different is it going to be this fall just to be able to be on the ice with your teammates from the start of camp? (Fleischmann missed training camp and the first few weeks of the season last fall because of a bout with deep vein thrombosis.)

“It’s going to be different than last year. I’m just excited about the camp. It’s a good time to be with the guys and get together, to play on a line and just don’t worry about getting healthy and having to worry about my health.”

How do you feel physically right now compared to previous years at this time?

“Physically, this time I feel way better because I didn’t have to worry [about my health] and I could work out. I feel really strong and I think I put a couple more pounds on, too. We’ll see how it’s going to help.”

You guys were the best team in the league last year with 121 points. But getting 122 points in 2009-10 isn’t going to silence your critics. You won’t be able to silence them until April and it will take a strong playoff run to do that.

“I don’t think it’s going to be hard. We have to play the same hockey we played last year and don’t worry about the one bad week we had in the playoffs. I think we can succeed. I think if we don’t make 122 points – if we make 118 or something – it’s still good, I think. The core stays the same and I hope we have a good season.”

You can finish with 105 or 98 and win it all and they’ll be quiet.

“Exactly. You saw last year that you can end up [seventh or] eighth in the league after the seasons and still end up in the finals. That’s how good [playoff] teams are.”

Getting scratched for the last game of the playoffs had to hurt. Do you use that as a motivating factor going forward?

“Oh, obviously. I still think about it. You still have it in your mind and it moves you forward. You’ve got to try to forget about the bad things and focus on the good things, and let it make you a better hockey player.”

You and some of the other guys in this room struggled in the playoffs last year, but you’ve also had a history of excelling in the playoffs at prior levels, for example when you played at Hershey. Is it kind of unfair to just look at the last six games when looking at someone’s playoff history?

“I would do the same thing if I was a fan, look at what they’ve done and say ‘Why wasn’t he playing good?’ I just think it was one bad week. Maybe this year the bad one week comes during the season and not in the playoffs. Then everybody will say, ‘Now he is playing good.’ It’s just one bad week and you can’t do anything about it right now. Just keep trying to get better and better every game and as a team.”

Tell me a little bit about the arbitration process. The team spends a lot of time preparing its case against you, but how do you and your agent approach the process? (Fleischmann elected to have an arbitrator determine his salary for the 2009-10 season, but the process was avoided when he and the Caps came to terms independently on a deal at the 11th hour.)

“I didn’t do anything. Basically, after the season ended, I told my agent, ‘Just get it done somehow, I don’t care how.’ He called me every time to tell me how things were going and that’s basically it. I was just waiting for the call if I was going to arbitration or not because I didn’t know how it was going to end up. It finished with a signed contract, so I am happy. I never expected I was going to have that much money in my life. I am just happy for everything I’ve got.”

You made the move to center around the middle of last season. What’s it going to be like to have a whole training camp to work on playing the position and playing it from the start of the season?

“That’s a great thing. I love to play center and if I can get preseason games at center and get into it right away, I can be better. I played left wing and I knew everything I was supposed to do, now as a center I have to figure out a couple of things and to keep scoring and keep making the plays. As a center I just need a couple more games and I’ll get to it.”

Do you have a preference one way or the other, left wing or center?

“No, not really. But I said that I wanted to play center. It’s more playing with the puck and you can do more things there. So I wish I could play center.’

Did you spend any time over the summer mentally preparing yourself to play that position, thinking through game situations and things like that?

“Oh yeah. There are some situations that I think about, what a center would do or what [Nicklas Backstrom] would do from the center position. I think bout things on the ice, but every situation is different and you cannot prepare for it. I thought a little bit about that, and that might make you better.”

Looking back at recent Stanley Cup winners, most of those teams have two pretty good centers. Over the summer, we’ve heard a lot around here about how the Caps need a second-line center and the Caps need to upgrade their defense. And then there are those who suggest trading you – the team’s best option for a second-line center – to help upgrade the defense. Have you heard the trade rumors involving you and how does that make you feel?

“A newspaper guy called my agent, and he called me to tell me what’s going on. I didn’t know. There are rumors everywhere and when you get a higher salary, you on the top of the list. I just laughed. I cannot do anything about it. It’s a business. If they want to trade me, they will trade me. I am happy I am here and I just want to be the second-line center and be better than Backie [laughs].”

You’re one of the guys who has been here a while, you’ve won a championship in Hershey, you’ve grown up with these guys and I have to imagine you’d want to stay here and win the big one with them.

“Basically, that’s what I’m thinking. I’ve never had thoughts about moving out of Washington. The team is unbelievable and I just want to stay here. If somebody is saying we need a defenseman, it’s tough to say. The season didn’t even start yet, so it’s tough to say what we need.”

In the history of the NHL – which spans nearly a century now – only 71 goaltenders have played in 30 or more regular season games in a campaign at the age of 22. Looking at the Capitals’ depth chart, it is possible that Washington will have a pair of 22-year-old netminders who will turn that trick in 2010-11.

Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth became linked together when the Caps drafted them both in consecutive rounds of the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. The

Semyon Varlamov

Russian-born Varlamov was chosen in the first round (23rd overall) while Czech Republic native Neuvirth was chosen in the second round (34th overall). The two goaltenders were born exactly five weeks apart in the early spring of 1988; Neuvirth is the elder of the two.

Heading into the 2010-11 season, Varlamov and Neuvirth sit atop the Caps’ goaltending depth chart. Varlamov has appeared in 32 career regular season games (winning 19) to date while Neuvirth has played in 22 (winning 11).

Since it’s August and I’m bored, I decided to pore over the list of those 71 goaltenders to see what sort of informational nuggets could be gleaned.

If both Varlamov and Neuvirth manage to get into 30 or more games this season,Washington would become just the second club in NHL history to have a pair of 22-year-old goaltenders play in 30 or more games each. Back in 1967-68, when the Original Six expanded into the Original 12, the expansion Philadelphia Flyers had a pair of 22-year-old goaltenders in Bernie Parent and Doug Favell.

Parent went on to the Hockey Hall of Fame, helping the Flyers to a pair of Stanley Cup championships after a brief (and failed) dalliance with the Philadelphia Blazers (née Miami Screaming Eagles) of the World Hockey Association.

Philly drafted both Parent and Favell from Boston in the 1967 expansion draft. Remember, the Bruins drafted Ken Dryden in 1964 and they also had Gerry Cheevers and Eddie Johnston in their goaltending stable in the mid- to late-1960s. Dryden and Cheevers also went on to enjoy Hall of Fame careers, showing that Boston had a burgeoning array of netminding talent at the time.

Michal Neuvirth

Parent won 271 games before an eye injury cut short his NHL career. He won 16 of the 38 games in which he played as a 22-year-old in 1967-68. Favell, who was later traded in a deal involving Parent, won 15 of his 37 games in ’67-68. Favell labored for less-than-stellar teams for the bulk of his dozen NHL seasons, topping out at 20 wins in his final season with the Flyers and finishing up with 123 career NHL victories.

Parent is one of eight Hockey Hall of Fame goaltenders who appeared in 30 or more contests at the age of 22. Thirteen of the 71 goaltenders who have done so are still active, and that list includes New Jersey’s Martin Brodeur, so the ranks of Hall of Famers on the list will swell with time.

During the league’s Original Six era, only seven goaltenders played in 30 or more games at the age of 22 and four of those seven – Alec Connell, Turk Broda, Harry Lumley and Terry Sawchuk – went on to Hall of Fame careers.

Three of the 71 goaltenders – Sawchuk in 1951-52, Grant Fuhr in 1984-85 and Brodeur in 1994-95 – backstopped their teams to Stanley Cup championships during their age 22 seasons. Three more – Harry Lumley in 1948-49, Andy Moog in 1982-83 and Ron Hextall in 1986-87 – led their clubs to the Cup final before falling during their age 22 seasons.

Three more goaltenders – Rogatien Vachon in 1967-68, Phil Myre in 1970-71 and Rollie Melanson in 1982-83 – played the requisite 30 or more games during the regular season for teams that went on to win the Cup but did not start the lion’s share of the postseason games for their teams that spring.

Don Edwards played the most games (72) of the 22-year-olds with 30 or more games played. Edwards posted an impressive 38-16-17 mark for the Buffalo Sabres during his sophomore season in the circuit in 1977-78. He led the league in minutes that season, rarely giving back-ups Bob Sauve (11 games) and Gerry Desjardins (three games) a chance to shake off the rust. Edwards’ 4209 minutes is the most ever for a 22-year-old NHL netminder.

Sawchuk and Roger Crozier (in 1964-65) both played in 70 games at the age of 22, appearing in all of their team’s games that season. Sawchuk (44 wins) and Crozier (40 wins) are two of the three goaltenders to win more games than Edwards at that age; Marc-Andre Fleury (40 wins in 2006-07) is the other.

Getting back to Brodeur for a bit, he is obviously the goaltender with the most career wins among the 71 who toiled for 30 or more games at the age of 22. Brodeur has 602 NHL wins. And counting.

Hudson Bay’s Larry Lozinski holds the distinction of having the fewest career NHL wins of these 71 men. Lozinski’s season as a 22-year-old was his only season in the NHL, and he posted a 6-11-7 record while appearing in exactly 30 games for the lowly (19 wins) 1980-81 Detroit Red Wings.

While 11 of the 71 goaltenders totaled 30 or more wins at the age of 22, there were nine who weren’t able to reach double-digit victory totals. At the far end of that spectrum is Dunc Wilson, who had the misfortune of backstopping the expansion Vancouver Canucks in 1970-71. Wilson posted a 3-25-2 record, notching the fewest wins of any 22-year-old goalie with 30 or more games played.

Two of the goalies played for Washington as 22-year-olds. Jim Bedard went 6-17-6 in 30 games with the 1978-79 Capitals. Jim Carey was 22-31-3 in 59

Jim Bedard

games during the 1996-97 season. Carey is the only one of the 71 goaltenders to split his 22-year-old season amongst two teams. The Caps dealt him to Boston on March 1, 1997 in a six-player trade.

Montreal and Pittsburgh have each had seven goalies with 30 or more games at the age of 22, the most of any teams in the league. Although they are one of the Original Six clubs, the Chicago Blackhawks have had only one 22-year-old goaltender appear in 30 or more games. That happened in 2003-04 when Michael Leighton posted a 6-18-8 mark for the Hawks. Leighton was the losing goaltender in the 2010 Stanley Cup final, falling to the Blackhawks as a member of the Philadelphia Flyers.

Carey is one of five goalies to amass 30 or more losses as a 22-year-old. The other three are Bruce Gamble (12-33-7 in 52 games with the 1960-61 Bruins), Roberto Luongo (16-33-4 in 58 games with the 2001-02 Panthers), Gilles Meloche (12-32-14 with the 1972-73 California Golden Seals) and Sean Burke (22-31-9 in 62 games with the 1988-89 Devils).

Ex-Cap Pete Peeters is at the good end of the losses list. He posted a 29-5-5 mark with the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers.

Sawchuk leads the way with a dozen shutouts at the age of 22. Connell is second with seven while Crozier and Lumley each had six. Among those goaltenders from the expansion era, Rask, Fleury and Martin Biron top the charts with five whitewashes each.

Sawchuk’s 1.90 goals against average is tops among the 71 goaltenders, and Boston’s Tuukka Rask’s (1.97 in 2009-10) is second. Quebec’s Ron Tugnutt brings up the bottom of that list at 4.61.

Save percentage numbers are available only since the start of the 1983-84 season. Since then, Rask (.931 in 2009-10) has by far the best mark. Luongo’s .915 is second on the list. Tugnutt is at the other end of the save pct. spectrum with an unsightly .859 in 1989-90.

As you might expect, Hextall was the most irascible of the 22-year-olds. His 104 penalty minutes is nearly double the total of the next netminder (Burke, 54) on the list.

I mentioned earlier that only seven of the goaltenders on the list had their seasons as a 22-year-old during the Original Six era. There were three 22-year-old goalies in 1967-68, the first season of the expansion era. There were four in 1972-73, 1979-80, 1981-82 and 1986-87. There have been three in 1987-88, 1988-89, 1996-97 and in 2009-10.

Besides Varlamov and Neuvirth, the Blue Jackets’ Steve Mason will be 22 this season and is a good bet to reach the 30-game level if healthy. The Kings’ Jonathan Bernier and the Sabres’ Jhonas Enroth are the only other goalies who saw action as 21-year-olds in the NHL last season.

Time will tell how Varlamov and Neuvirth stack up as 22-year-old goaltenders this season. Much has been written about the relative youthfulness of the Washington defense, but the Caps’ goaltending corps is even younger as the 2010-11 season approaches.

Both Varlamov and Neuvirth have fared well in their North American pro postseason experience to date, and one or both could join the ranks of those who helped propel their teams to the Stanley Cup final at the tender ago of 22.

We’re finally into the back nine of another summer that’s longer than we’d like it to be. Less than a month from now, we’ll have practices and scrimmages to write about. Until then, we’ll look forward a bit and look back a lot.

Over the course of the summer to date, we’ve spent some time in this space looking at summers past and seasons past. Thinking back to the busy month of August five years ago, one of the stark differences between then and now is the amount of coverage available to Caps fans and hockey fans in general. Newspapers were still king in 2005, but we’ve come a long way since.

Last month’s summer camp was given the blanket coverage treatment by many wise, pithy and capable bloggers, many of which also possess cameras and keen eyes. Since then, we’ve been treated to much more of the same even without any “actual” hockey to cover.

I enjoyed Russian Machine Never Breaks’ take on which of the 2009-10 Hershey Bears should enjoy NHL success at some point. As a guy who has believed for a while now that Chris Bourque belonged somewhere in the NHL, it was good to see some numbers that point to a similar conclusion.

Last week, the incomparable Peerless posted a piece on blueline experience. He analyzed the backlines of the last 10 Stanley Cup champions, and compared them to what the 2010-11 Caps blueline looks like at this point.

Shortly thereafter, a post from A Capital Offense expounded on this topic a bit further. The discussion of blueline experience is near and dear to me. I spent a good bit of last summer researching the blueline corps of the Stanley Cup champs of the post-expansion era.

Peerless did a great job of breaking down each team’s blueline, looking for similarities, and he also broke down the amount of regular season experience each defenseman had with the championship team, noting that the 2007 Anaheim Ducks had several experienced NHL defensemen who were relative newcomers to the Ducks.

The Capital Offense turned back the clock a bit further, seeking to find the Cup-winning defense from the last 30 years that is most similar to Washington’s current blueline mix.

Capital Offense identified the 1980 Islanders and the 1984 Oilers among the teams with less regular season blueline experience than the current Caps. That’s true, but the league was different in those days because the NHL was still relatively recently removed from massive expansion.

Here’s what I mean. When the Isles won in 1980, they did so in a league that had gone from six to 21 teams in a span of 13 years. That process (plus the presence of the rival World Hockey Association from 1972-79) created many more “major league” blueline jobs and had a downward effect on the average blueline experience around the league.

The 1966-67 Toronto Maple Leafs copped the last Stanley Cup of the Original Six era. They did so with a group of five defensemen (three of which were

Tim Horton

holdovers from the team’s run of three straight Cups from 1962-64) that entered the playoffs that season with 4.202 career regular season games played. Remember, this was during an era in which teams only played 70 games per season. Teams also dressed only four or five defensemen a night in those days. Those five Leafs blueliners averaged better than 800 regular season games played per man.

Even though the 1965-66 Montreal Canadiens won the Cup with a much less-experienced blueline corps, the Habs averaged more games played per defenseman than many of the Cup winners from 1968-80. The league began to solidify after the addition of the four WHA clubs in 1979-80, and even when another round of expansion occurred in the 1990s, the blueline experience level of Cup-winning teams did not dip.

The Caps’ current top six of Tom Poti, John Erskine, Mike Green, Jeff Schultz, Karl Alzner and John Carlson enters the season with a total of 1,747 career games played. Assuming those six skaters add another 420 games (an average of 70 games each) over the course of the upcoming season, they’ll surpass the total of 2,148 of the 2009-10 Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks.

Peerless’ point was to show the Caps would be well served by signing veteran free agent defenseman Willie Mitchell. And The Capital Offense piece reassured Caps fans that Washington can compete for a Cup next spring in spite of a rather green blueline. I agree with both of them, and I’m just chiming in with some context and adding this: in 2010-11, the NHL will be 10 seasons removed from its most recent expansion. The last time the league could make that claim was in 1989-90.

It’s great to have so many insightful, interesting and provocative hockey pieces to read every day. Especially the dog days.

Two days ago, I wrote about the busiest month in Capitals franchise history, August 2005. That month is quite likely the busiest in NHL history as well, at least as far as off-season months are concerned.

Mere days after the official end of the lockout that wiped out the 2004-05 NHL season, the 30 NHL GMs had very little time to assimilate the resulting collective bargaining agreement (some 600 pages in length) between the league and the Players’ Association before they had to start putting it into practice. From the standpoint of hindsight, some of the activity of that month is startling.

The Boston Bruins totaled more than 100 standings points in two of the last three seasons prior to the lockout that killed the 2004-05 season. Heading into the 2005-06 season, many prognosticators picked the B’s to be among the elite in the Eastern Conference again. But one terrible month proved to be Boston’s undoing. And that month came before the season even started. (Also, some of those prognosticators picked the B’s to do well on the very basis of those August 2005 signings.)

The Bruins signed a dozen players in August, 2005. Eight of those players were Boston’s own restricted or unrestricted free agents; four were unrestricted free agents on the open market. The deals bestowed on those 12 players came to 23 total years in term at an aggregate outlay of more than $70 million.

Boston general manager Mike O’Connell must have realized the error of his ways fairly quickly. Two of the players he had signed to multi-year deals (Dave Scatchard and Joe Thornton) were dealt before the 2005-06 season was even half finished. Boston ended up buying out two of those other multi-year commitments (to Glen Murray and Travis Green) the team made that month.

For the first two seasons after the lockout, the B’s did not reach the 80-point plateau. That hadn’t happened in Beantown since 1965-66 and 1966-67, the last two seasons of the Original Six era.

Relatively speaking, Carolina and Edmonton were two of the more frugal teams from the summer of 2005. They went head to head for the Stanley Cup the following spring.

A few things to remember before we look at what the other 29 NHL clubs did on their summer vacation in 2005:
1. The age required to become a free agent at the time was 31, not 26 as it is today.
2. The list includes restricted as well as unrestricted free agent signings.
3. Some of the players who signed merely accepted their qualifying offers.
4. The salary cap for the upcoming 2005-06 season was $39 million, more than $20 million less than it is today.
5. This was the pre-circumvention era.
6. Seat belts, please.

Anaheim:
7/29/05: Re-signed Sandis Ozolinsh (two years, $5.5 million)
8/4/05: Re-signed Rob Niedermayer (four years, $8 million); signed Scott Niedermayer (four years, $27 million)
8/8/05: Signed Jason Marshall (one year, $450,000)
8/22/05: Signed Teemu Selanne (one year, $1 million)
8/24/05 Re-signed Sami Pahlsson (two years, $1.275 million)
8/25/05: Signed Craig Adams (one year, $465,000)

Atlanta:
8/2/05: Signed Bobby Holik (three years, $12.75 million)
8/8/05: Signed Eric Boulton (one year, $500,000)
8/11/05: Re-signed Andy Sutton (two years, $3.8 million) and Brad Larsen (one year, $485,000)
8/16/05: Re-signed J.P. Vigier (one year, $450,000)
9/2/05: Signed Mike Dunham (one year, $750,000)
9/18/05: Signed Peter Bondra (one year, $505,000)

Boston:
8/02/05: Re-signed Glen Murray (four years, $16.6 million); signed Shawn McEachern (one year, $1 million) and Dave Scatchard (four years, $8.4 million)
8/3/05: Signed Brian Leetch (one year, $4 million)
8/4/05: Signed Alexei Zhamnov (three years, $12.3 million)
8/10/05: Re-signed Sergei Samsonov (one year, $2.774 million) and P.J. Axelsson (one year, $1.064 million)
8/11/05: Re-signed Joe Thornton (three years, $20 million)
8/12/05: Re-signed Jiri Slegr (one year, $950,000)
8/15/05: Re-signed Brad Boyes (one year, $600,000)
8/17/05: Re-signed Travis Green (two years, $1.3 million)
8/30/05: Re-signed Hal Gill (one year, $1.6 million)

Buffalo:
8/4/05: Signed Teppo Numminen (one year, $2 million); re-signed Taylor Pyatt (one year, ($990,000)
8/8/05: Re-signed Mike Grier (one year, $1.365 million)
8/12/05: Re-signed Martin Biron (one year, $2.128 million), Ryan Miller (one year, $501,600) and Brian Campbell (one year, $459,800)
8/15/05: Re-signed Daniel Briere (one year, $1.938 million), Tim Connolly (one year, $1.037 million), Jochen Hecht (three years, $6.6 million), Maxim Afinogenov (one year, $1.087 million), J.P. Dumont (one year, $1.596 million), Ales Kotalik ($838,000), Jeff Jillson and Henrik Tallinder (one year, $592,000).

Calgary:
8/2/05: Signed Tony Amonte (two years, $3.7 million) and Darren McCarty (one year, $800,000)
8/3/05: Re-signed Jarome Iginla (three years, $21 million)
8/4/05: Re-signed Jordan Leopold (two years, $2.3 million)
8/10/05: Re-signed Andrew Ference (one year, $750,000)
8/11/05: Re-signed Steve Reinprecht (one year, $1.444 million)
8/12/05: Re-signed Miikka Kiprusoff (two years, $6.4 million) and Rhett Warrener (three years, $6.9 million)
8/14/05: Signed Roman Hamrlik (two years, $7 million)
8/15/05: Re-signed Chuck Kobasew (one year, $902,000) and Matthew Lombardi ($450,000)

Carolina:
8/2/05: Signed Cory Stillman (three years, $5.25 million)
8/4/05: Signed Oleg Tverdovsky (three years, $7.5 million)
8/7/05: Signed Ray Whitney (two years, $3 million)
8/8/05: Signed Matt Cullen (one year, $668,800)
8/9/05: Re-signed Kevyn Adams (two years, $1.45 million)
8/10/05: Re-signed Radim Vrbata (one year, $475,000) and Justin Williams (one year, $1,225,000)
8/12/05: Re-signed Erik Cole (one year, $1.14 million) and Jesse Boulerice (one year, $501,600)
8/15/05: Re-signed Bruno St. Jacques and Pavel Brendl (one year, $889,745)
8/16/05: Re-signed Glen Wesley (one year, $1 million)
8/18/05: Re-signed Josef Vasicek (two years, $2.3 million)

Chicago:
8/2/05: Signed Adrian Aucoin (four years, $16 million)
8/4/05: Signed Martin Lapointe (three years, $7.2 million) and Jaroslav Spacek (one year, $2.25 million)
8/5/05: Signed Nikolai Khabibulin (four years, $27 million) and Jim Dowd (one year, $525,000)
8/10/05: Re-signed Mark Bell (one year, $1.064 million)
8/11/05: Re-signed Tyler Arnason (one year, $1.2 million)
8/23/05: Signed Todd Simpson (one year, $600,000)

Colorado:
8/3/05: Signed Pierre Turgeon (two years, $3 million) and Patrice Brisebois (two years, $4.5 million)
8/4/05: Re-signed Alex Tanguay (one year, $3.23 million) and Kurt Sauer (one year, $718,200)
8/5/05: Signed Brad May (two years, $1.35 million)
8/6/05: Signed Andrew Brunette (two years, $1.6 million); re-signed Milan Hejduk (five years, $19.5 million)
8/9/05: Re-signed Karlis Skrastins (one year, $1.425 million)
8/12/05: Re-signed Dan Hinote (one year, $643,720) and Marek Svatos (one year, $450,000)
8/16/05: Re-signed David Aebischer (one year, $1,900,000)
8/17/05: Signed Curtis Leschyshyn (one year, $500,000)
8/18/05: Re-signed Jon-Michael Liles (one year, $450,000)

Columbus:
8/2/05: Signed Adam Foote (three years, $13.8 million)
8/3/05: Signed Bryan Berard (two years, $5 million)
8/8/05: Re-signed Rick Nash (five years, $27 million)
8/10/05: Signed Jan Hrdina (one year, $1.05 million)
8/15/05: Re-signed Rostislav Klesla (one year, $943,635) and Pascal Leclaire (one year, $627,000)

Dallas:
7/31/05: Re-signed Sergei Zubov (three years, $12 million)
8/3/05: Re-signed Mike Modano (five years, $17.25 million)
8/3/05: Signed Martin Skoula (two years, $3.15 million)
8/5/05: Signed Johan Hedberg (one year, $600,000)
8/6/05: Signed Stephane Robidas (two years, $1.1 million)
8/12/05: Re-signed Niko Kapanen (one year, $450,000) and Steve Ott (one year, $582,960)
8/15/05: Re-signed restricted free agent Jason Arnott (one year, $2,926,000)
819/05: Re-signed restricted free agent Brenden Morrow (two years, $4.1 million)

Detroit:
8/4/05: Re-signed Chris Chelios (one year, $850,000) and Mathieu Schneider (two years, $6.6 million)
8/8/05: Re-signed Chris Osgood (one year, $900,000)
8/9/05: Re-signed Steve Yzerman (one year, $1.25 million)
8/16/05: Re-signed Jason Williams (one year, $450,000)
8/24/05: Signed Andreas Lilja (one year, $650,000)
8/26/05: Re-signed Niklas Kronwall (two years, $1.98 million)
9/18/05: Signed Mikael Samuelsson (one year, $537,500)

Edmonton:
8/5/05: Re-signed Jussi Markkanen (two years, $1.7 million) and Igor Ulanov (one year, $900,000)
8/10/05: Re-signed Marty Reasoner (one year, $650,000) and Jarret Stoll (one year, $501,600)
8/15/05: Re-signed Ales Hemsky (one year, $901,740)
8/16/05: Re-signed Raffi Torres (two years, $1.75 million)
8/19/05: Re-signed Shawn Horcoff (one year, $1 million)

Florida:
8/1/05: Signed Joe Nieuwendyk (two years, $4.5 million) and Gary Roberts (two years, $4.5 million)
8/2/05: Signed Martin Gelinas (two years, $1.9 million) and Joel Kwiatkowski (two years, $950,000)
8/12/05: Signed Chris Gratton (one year, $900,000)
8/12/05: Re-signed Stephen Weiss (one year, $610,280), Kristian Huselius (one year, $1.216 million) and Niklas Hagman (one year, $643,318)
8/15/05: Re-signed Juraj Kolnik (one year, $450,000)
8/17/05: Signed Jozef Stumpel (two years, $3.25 million)

Los Angeles:
7/25/05: Re-signed Luc Robitaille (one year, $1 million)
8/2/05: Signed Pavol Demitra (three years, $13.5 million)
8/8/05: Re-signed Eric Belanger (one year, $758,100)
8/10/05: Re-signed Mike Cammalleri (one year, $857,850)
8/12/05: Re-signed Alexander Frolov (five years, $14.5 million)
8/12/05: Signed Valeri Bure (one year, $1.5 million)
8/15/05: Re-signed Joe Corvo (one year, $668,800)

Minnesota:
7/29/05: signed Alexandre Daigle (one year, $850,000)
8/1/05: Signed Andrei Nazarov (one year, $625,000)
8/3/05: Re-signed Marc Chouinard (one year, $650,000) and Manny Fernandez (one year, $1.672 million)
8/9/05: Re-signed Willie Mitchell (one year, $1.35 million) and Pierre-Marc Bouchard (one year, $950,000)
8/10/05: Re-signed Andrei Zyuzin (one year, $1.25 million)
8/15/05: Signed Daniel Tjarnqvist (one year, $700,000)

Montreal:
8/2/05: Re-signed Francis Bouillon (one year, $600,000)
8/3/05: Re-signed Alex Kovalev (four years, $18 million), signed Mathieu Dandenault (four years, $6.9 million)
8/8/05: Re-signed Pierre Dagenais (one year, $550,000)
8/11/05: Re-signed Mike Ribeiro (one year, $1.178 million) and Mike Komisarek (one year, $901,740)
8/12/05: Re-signed Jan Bulis (one year, $1.026 million)
8/15/05: Re-signed Saku Koivu (one year, $3.42 million) and Marcel Hossa (one year, $585,200)
8/25/05: Re-signed Andrei Markov (two years, $3.5 million)
9/2/05: Re-signed Jose Theodore (three years, $16 million)

Nashville:
8/4/05: Re-signed Mark Eaton (one year, $700,000)
8/5/05: Signed Paul Kariya (two years, $9 million)
8/6/05: Signed Scott Nichol (two years, $1.05 million)
8/10/05: Re-signed Scott Hartnell (one year, $1 million)
8/15/05: Re-signed David Legwand (one year, $1.349 million)
8/16/05: Re-signed Steve Sullivan (four years, $12.8 million) and Dan Hamhuis (one year, $901,740)
8/19/05: Signed Randy Robitaille (one year, $475,000)
8/29/05: Re-signed Martin Erat (one year, $875,000)

New Jersey:
8/4/05: Re-signed Brian Rafalski (two years, $8.4 million), signed Dan McGillis (two years, $4.4 million) and Vladimir Malakhov (two years, $7.2 million)
8/11/05: Re-signed Jamie Langenbrunner (one year, $1,655,130)
8/12/05: Re-signed Jeff Friesen (one year, $2.28 million), Scott Gomez (one year, $2.204 million) and Viktor Kozlov (one year, $1.748 million)
8/13/05: Re-signed Sean Brown (one year, $450,000)
8/16/05: Re-signed Alexander Mogilny (two years, $7 million)
8/17/05: Re-signed Brian Gionta (one year, $627,000)
8/18/05: Re-signed Colin White (one year. $1.71 million)
8/19/05: Re-signed David Hale (one year $502,000)
8/23/05: Re-signed Paul Martin (one year, $502,000)

New York Islanders:
8/2/05: Signed Alexei Zhitnik (four years, $14 million)
8/3/05: Signed Miroslav Satan (three years, $12.765 million)
8/11/05: Signed Brad Lukowich (two years, $2 million)
8/12/05: Re-signed Mattias Weinhandl (one year, $600,000)
8/13/05: Re-signed Trent Hunter (one year, $1 million)
8/15/05: Re-signed Oleg Kvasha (one year, $1.178 million), Arron Asham (one year, $627,000) and Radek Martinek (one year, $575,000)
8/19/05: Signed Joel Bouchard (one year, $450,000)
8/22/05: Re-signed Shawn Bates (one year, $877,800)

New York Rangers:
8/2/05: Signed Marek Malik (three years, $7.5 million) and Martin Straka (one year, $3 million), re-signed Kevin Weekes (two years, $3.9 million)
8/3/05: Re-signed Martin Rucinsky (one year, $3 million)
8/4/05: Signed Ville Niemenen (one year, $700,000) and Jason Ward (two years, $1.275 million)
8/15/05: Re-signed Tom Poti (one year, $2.356 million)
8/18/05: Re-signed Jamie Lundmark (one year, $550,000)

Ottawa:
8/10/05: Re-signed Mike Fisher (three years, $4.5 million) and Martin Havlat (one year, $2.6 million)
8/11/05: Re-signed Ray Emery (one year, $450,000)
8/12/05: Re-signed Jason Spezza (one year, $1.1 million), Antoine Vermette (one year, $564,300), Chris Neil (one year, $585,200), Anton Volchenkov (two years, $2.6 million) and Christoph Schubert (one year, $450,000)

Philadelphia:
8/2/05: Signed Jon Sim (one year, $450,000), Derian Hatcher (four years, $14 million), Mike Rathje (five years, $17.5 million) and Chris Therien (one year, $500,000)
8/3/05: Signed Peter Forsberg (two years, $11.5 million)
8/9/05: Re-signed Simon Gagne (one year, $2 million), Branko Radivojevic (one year, $551,760), Patrick Sharp (one year, $450,000) and Kim Johnsson (one year, $2.2 million)
8/10/05: Re-signed Robert Esche (two years, $2 million) and Dennis Seidenberg (one year, $450,000)
9/15/05: Signed Brian Savage (one year, $500,000)

Phoenix:
8/2/05: Re-signed Brian Boucher (one year, $900,000)
8/11/05: Re-signed Derek Morris (one year, $2.66 million)
8/15/05: Re-signed Krys Kolanos (one year, $722,000)
8/17/05: Signed Curtis Joseph (one year, $900,000)
8/22/05: Signed Paul Mara (one year, $1.775 million)

Pittsburgh:
8/3/05: Signed Sergei Gonchar (five years, $25 million)
8/4/05: Signed Andre Roy (three years, $3 million)
8/8/05: Signed Ziggy Palffy (three years, $13.5 million)
8/15/05: Signed John LeClair (one year, $2.1 million) and Steve Poapst (one year, $500,000)
8/15/05: Re-signed Josef Melichar (two years, $1.45 million)
8/16/05: Re-signed Konstantin Koltsov (one year, $627,000)
8/27/05: Accepted Dick Tarnstrom arbitration award, (one year, $1.6 million)
9/1/05: Re-signed Ryan Malone (one year, $750,000)
9/2/05: Signed Lyle Odelein (one year, $500,000)

St. Louis:
8/9/05: Re-signed Bryce Salvador (three years, $4.2 million) and Eric Boguniecki ($501,600)
8/9/05: Signed Dean McAmmond (one year, $925,000)
8/11/05: Re-signed Mark Rycroft (one year, $450,000) and Ryan Johnson ($585,200)
8/15/05: Re-signed Jamal Mayers (two years, $1.8 million)
9/14/05: Signed Scott Young (one year, $750,000)

San Jose:
8/9/05: Re-signed Nils Ekman (two years, $2.2 million)
8/10/05: Re-signed Wayne Primeau (two years, $2.25 million) and Tom Preissing (two years, $1.1 million)
8/11/05: Re-signed Kyle McLaren (three years, $6.9 million) and Niko Dimitrakos (two years, $1.3 million)
8/15/05: Re-signed Patrick Marleau (three years, $12.5 million), Marco Sturm (two years, $4.1 million) and Brad Stuart (two years, $4.3 million)
9/12/05: Signed Josh Langfeld (one year, $525,000)

Tampa Bay:
7/28/05: Re-signed Tim Taylor (two years, $1.45 million) and Martin Cibak (one year, $450,000)
7/30/05: Re-signed Ruslan Fedotenko (one year, $1.3 million)
8/5/05: Re-signed Nolan Pratt (two years, $1.3 million)
8/9/05: Re-signed Dan Boyle (three years, $10 million)
8/9/05: Signed Sean Burke (two years, $3.2 million) and Rob DiMaio (two years, $957,500)
8/16/05: Re-signed Vincent Lecavalier (11 years, $85 million)
8/24/05: Re-signed Martin St. Louis (six years, $31.5 million)
8/25/05: Re-signed Dave Andreychuk (one year, $800,000)

Toronto:
8/5/05: Re-signed Tie Domi (one year, $1.25 million)
8/5/05: Signed Jason Allison (one year, $1.5 million)
8/10/05: Signed Alexander Khavanov (one year, $1.25 million)
8/10/05: Re-signed Wade Belak (two years, $1.24 million) and Aki Berg (one year, $1.064 million)
8/11/05: Signed Eric Lindros (one year, $1.55 million)
8/12/05: Re-signed Nik Antropov (one year, $1.007 million) and Clarke Wilm (one year, $450,000)
8/18/05: Signed J-S Aubin (one year, $500,000)
9/9/05: Signed Mariusz Czerkawski (one year, $500,000)

Vancouver:
8/3/05: Re-signed Markus Naslund (three years, $18 million)
8/5/05: Re-signed Brendan Morrison (three years, $9.6 million)
8/9/05: Signed Richard Park (one year, $750,000)
8/10/05: Re-signed Daniel Sedin (one year, $1.25 million) and Henrik Sedin (one year, $1.25 million)
8/15/05: Re-signed Sami Salo (two years, $3 million) and Bryan Allen (one year, $941,411)
8/17/05: Signed Anson Carter (one year, $1 million)
8/18/05: Re-signed Dan Cloutier (two years, $5 million)
8/24/05: Re-signed Mattias Ohlund (four years, $14 million)
9/1/05: Re-signed Jarkko Ruutu (one year, $600,000)

I had a brief conversation about durability with Caps’ assistant general manager Don Fishman yesterday, and it led me to do some light research. Since we’re in the single digit days of August and there’s literally nothing happening outside of the Kovalchuk drama, I figured I’d share my findings.

Anyone who listens to our “Capitals Report” podcasts at 2 p.m. on Wednesdays (shameless and timely plug) knows that I’ve said for years that you need about 10 defensemen to get through an 82-game regular season schedule. I might want to amend that to 11 now.

The Capitals just finished playing the 35th season of their NHL existence. Only 25 times in those 35 seasons has a Capitals defenseman played in as many as 80 games in a season. Over the same time span, forwards have turned in seasons of 80 or more games played 94 times.

I think we can all see why defensemen are more susceptible to injury, and thus more prone to playing fewer than 80 games in a season. They log more ice time than forwards. They block more shots. They deliver more hits. In short, they generally spend more time in harm’s way.

Calle Johansson

A long memory isn’t required to remember the Caps using forward Sergei Fedorov (and briefly, forward Brooks Laich) on defense. Around that same time (a third of the way through the 2008-09 season), the Caps played games in which recent Hershey recalls Karl Alzner, Sami Lepisto, Bryan Helmer and Sean Collins were all in the lineup on the same night.

A depleted blueline may have kept the 2005-06 Buffalo Sabres from advancing to the Stanley Cup finals. When the Sabres took to the ice for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final against the Carolina Hurricanes that spring, Toni Lydman (360 career regular season games) was the team’s most experienced defenseman. He and Brian Campbell (246 games) each logged well over 20 minutes that night. They were joined on the Buffalo blueline by Rory Fitzpatrick (210 games), Jeff Jillson (140 games, and none since), Doug Janik (10 games) and ex-Caps draftee Nathan Paetsch (one game). The Sabres hung in gamely, but lost 4-2.

On the sidelines for the Sabres that night: Teppo Numminen (1,235 games), Jay McKee (582), Dmitri Kalinin (338) and Henrik Tallinder (249).

Let’s steer this back to the Caps now. Here are a few facts about those 80-game seasons:

• Calle Johansson is responsible for five of the 25 seasons.

• Johansson is the only Caps defenseman over the age of 30 to play in 80 or more games. He did it twice (at ages 32 and 35) past the age of 30.

• Nothing cheap about Calle Jo’s 80-game seasons in his thirties. He logged 23:55 a night with 24 PIM as a 32-year-old and skated 21:45 a game with just 22 PIM as a 35-year-old.

• Johansson has the three lowest PIM totals (22, 23 and 24) of those 25 seasons with 80 or more games from Caps defenders.

• With three, Scott Stevens is the only other Caps defenseman to play 80 or more games in more than two seasons.

• Stevens was the youngest to do it, he was 20 when he logged 80 games in 1984-85.

• Only 16 teen-aged defensemen have played in 80 or more games in a season, and they were all 19-year-olds. Six of the 16 did so in the last decade, and three of them (Zach Bogosian, Michael Del Zotto and Tyler Myers) did so last season. The 2009-10 campaign is the only one in league history in which three teen-aged defensemen played in 80 or more games.

• Twice as many (32) players have played in 80 or more games on the blueline past the age of 35. Raymond Bourque, Chris Chelios, Larry Murphy and Stevens each did so three times. Chelios (44) and Bourque (40) are the only ones to do so past the age of 39.

• Three Caps defensemen played 80 or more games in the 1970s, seven did so in the 1980s, 10 in the 1990s and five in the 2000s.

• Only two Caps defensemen (Shaone Morrisonn in 2005-06 and Mike Green in 2007-08) have played in 80 or more games in the five seasons since the lockout.

• The most common ages at which Caps defensemen have played 80 or more games is 26 (six times) and 23 (five times).

• Playing in 84 games in 1993-94, Sylvain Cote was plus-30, the best mark of any Caps defenseman playing 80 or more games in a season.

• Playing 80 games in 1975-76, Yvon Labre was minus-38, the worst mark of any Caps defenseman playing 80 or more games in a season.

• Kevin Hatcher scored 34 goals in 83 games in 1992-93.

• Morrisonn scored one goal in 80 games in 2005-06.

Bottom line, it’s hard to get into 80 games as a defenseman in the league. That’s why Karlis Skrastins’ feat is so remarkable.

After spending more than a week back home in and around Chicago during a much-needed and richly enjoyed vacation, I am back in the greater DC area. In this business, you can’t really take a vacation until the team’s annual summer development camp is in the rear view. From then until the start of rookie camp in early September, there generally isn’t much going on in the hockey landscape.

Ah, but that wasn’t the case this time around.

Where to start? Let’s see, Tomas Fleischmann inked a one-year deal for $2.6 million to avoid an arbitration hearing with the Capitals. Flash’s salary came in right about where most expected, and now all of Washington’s restricted free agents are under contract for the upcoming (I swear it’s upcoming, the summer simply can’t last forever) 2010-11 campaign.

Assuming a 22-man roster (13 forwards, seven defensemen and two goaltenders), I’ve got the Caps around $55.8 million for the upcoming season, leaving roughly $4.4 million worth of salary cap breathing room.

To me, there isn’t much (if anything) of interest remaining in the free agent scrap heap. Unless there are more trades in the works, I’m in favor of banking the cap space and letting it accumulate for a possible trade deadline acquisition or two. Every team has holes, and the Caps are no exception. But the Caps — with a farm system that has produced three of the last five Calder Cup champions — have some talent and depth in the system. I’d prefer to see how some of the younger kids do with a shot at the show before making any radical moves. That’s just me. Your mileage will vary.

The Caps dealt 2008 draftee Stefan Della Rovere to the St. Louis Blues in exchange for left wing D.J. King. Della Rovere, who participated in the Caps’ summer development camp last month, was Washington’s seventh choice (204th overall) in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft.

In this swap, the Caps added some size and toughness, dealing a prospect who is a few years shy of being ready for NHL duty for a guy who has played 101 games in the league. The 6-foot-3, 230-pound King has notched 27 fighting majors in those 101 games. His presence in the lineup will hopefully deter opponents from taking liberties against some of the Caps’ more skilled players.

We also learned last week that Washington Post writer Tarik El-Bashir will be leaving the Capitals beat to cover Georgetown hoops, NASCAR, boxing and MMA for the paper. Tarik is a diligent reporter who helped define what beat coverage should be in this ever-changing era of sports media and new media coverage. He logged countless miles and hardly ever got a day off or missed a practice or morning skate. We had our differences here and there over the years, but we also shared a lot of good times and good meals on the road during that span. His presence on the beat will be missed, and we wish him all the best in the future. Katie Carerra takes over the Caps’ beat for The Post, and we welcome her and give her our best wishes as well.

Ex-Caps defenseman Brian Pothier, traded to Carolina at the March 3 trade deadline this year, signed a contract to play for Geneva-Servette of the Swiss Elite League last week. Pothier, one of the classiest guys ever to don a Caps sweater, has an out clause should an NHL team come calling with a better deal between now and August 15. We wish Pothier all the best in Switzerland, which is by all accounts a terrific place to live and play hockey. Pothier and his family are sure to benefit from their stay there.

Finally, defenseman Shaone Morrisonn departed via free agency yesterday, inking a two-year deal for an annual average value of $2.075 million with the Buffalo Sabres. Mo spent more than six years in the Washington organization, playing in 377 games with the Caps.

Acquired from Boston in the March 3, 2004 deal that sent Sergei Gonchar to the Bruins, Morrisonn departs the District tied for 11th (with Rick Green) among all defensemen on the franchise’s games played list.

During the last decade (from 2000-01 through 2009-10), only Alex Ovechkin (396 games) and Brooks Laich (392) played more games for the Caps than did Morrisonn.

All the best to Mo in Buffalo. Except, of course, when the Swords are facing the Caps.

Continuing our look back at the Capitals’ 2004 summer development camp at Piney Orchard in Odenton, here is a brief rundown of the lone scrimmage that took place during the week. Contrast that to the three scrimmages conducted at the team’s 2010 summer camp at Kettler last week.

“Thursday night’s scrimmage featured more than an hour’s worth of high-paced firewagon hockey. Players were encouraged to display as much scoring, skating, stickhandling and playmaking skills as possible and they did not disappoint. It was open season on netminders, though some saves evoked as many “oohs” and “aahs” from the crowd as most of the approximately 50 goals that were scored on the night.

With 11 skaters and two goaltenders on each side, the two teams played four skaters to a side for most of the night with strictly enforced short shifts (teams playing the puck after the whistle were penalized with a penalty shot against them) and fire drill line changes. Goaltenders were not permitted to freeze pucks, the red line was nonexistent, home run passes were frequent, and the occasional faceoffs were achieved by placing the disc atop the helmet of one of the combatants and allowing it to tumble to the ice.

Chris Bourque stood out, scoring at least three goals and assisting on six or seven others (the assembled media lost track of the goal count somewhere in the mid-teens). Jakub Klepis scored four straight goals for the “white” team at one point, many of them on sweet feeds from Bourque. Jonas Johansson scored more than a hat trick’s worth of goals, displaying a wicked quick release on his deadly accurate wrist rocket. Virtually every player on the ice did something to dazzle the spectators at some point during the evening’s festivities.

Those who attended can attest to the fact that skill and speed are certainly abundant in the Capitals’ system at present. And it should be noted that three of the team’s recent first rounders (forwards Alexander Semin, Eric Fehr and Alexander Ovechkin) were not on the ice for the entire week of the team’s development camp.”