Same ol' Olie

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If you were to carve a Mount Rushmore representing loyalty and service of professional athletes in Washington, these four faces would be on the mountain: Darrell Green, Redskins, 21 seasons. Sam Rice, Senators, 20 seasons. Monte Coleman, Redskins, 16 seasons. And ...

Olie Kolzig, Washington Capitals, 15 seasons and counting.

The Capitals goalie now is one of the grand old men of sports in this town. He first appeared in a Caps uniform in 1989 and has been back for all or part of every season since 1992-93 after several years in the minor leagues.

In 1989, Joe Gibbs was coming off his first losing season, and the Redskins still played at RFK Stadium. The Wizards were still the Bullets and played in Landover. The Orioles still played at Memorial Stadium, and Frank Robinson was their manager. Washington's future baseball team still was in Montreal with an 81-81 record, and the District still faced two more rounds of rejection in the derby for an expansion franchise.

Kolzig has seen the entire sports landscape in this town change while he was in net for the Caps. He never received the attention given the stars in other sports who have come and gone in Washington because of the status of hockey here.

He is, nevertheless, a big part of Washington sports history, and, at the age of 36, he is determined to write one great, final chapter in his story.

"I don't feel like the grand old man," Kolzig joked after stopping 35 shots in Wednesday night's 6-2 win over the Ottawa Senators. "I don't feel old, period. I feel as good as I ever have."

And looking as good as ever, too.

Kolzig holds nearly every Caps goalie record, is a two-time All-Star and once won the Vezina Trophy. This season, he has exceeded all expectations with his play except perhaps his own. He stopped 48 shots in one game and has five games with 40-plus saves.

"I felt good going into the season," Kolzig said. "I felt my game was good last year, and that was after basically missing a year [because of the lockout]. I felt energized and refreshed. This summer, I did a different workout routine and lost seven pounds. Not that I was fat before, but instead of bulking up on muscle I did more toning and working on certain areas.