It was a breakup day like no other at Piney Orchard. Unlike most years, the Washington Capitals weren’t feeling the sting of a playoff loss from the previous night. But as Olie Kolzig looked around the locker room yesterday, the Caps’ future had never been so uncertain.
That’s not because the Caps had just concluded their worst season in 26 years, finishing 32 points out of the playoffs. There is the specter of the probable player lockout by the owners when the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement expires Sept.15, a move that could threaten the league’s foothold in markets like Washington.
The eight cost-cutting deals the Caps made this season left Kolzig and defenseman Brendan Witt as the only players who have won a playoff series with Washington and Kolzig and rookie left wing Alexander Semin as the only players under contract for next season. However, centers Jeff Halpern and Dainius Zubrus are sure to receive qualifying offers by the June30 deadline. Eleven of the 18 Caps on the ice in Sunday’s season-closing loss in Pittsburgh were signed off waivers this year or spent part of the season in the minors.
“Realistically, a lot of guys might not be back because in other situations they wouldn’t have been here … but the uncertainty of next year makes it tougher,” said Kolzig, who turns 34 today. “I’m playing to win a Stanley Cup. I might not be able to do that next year and if [the lockout] goes longer, at my age, I might not be doing it ever. Washington isn’t a Philadelphia, Montreal or Toronto where hockey’s roots go very deep. It’s still fragile territory. We’ve got the Redskins, the Orioles, the Redskins, the Redskins. People have to see hockey. If we’re not here for a year, they’ll find something else to watch.”
But if there is a 2004-2005 season, the Caps — in their current state — won’t have much of a product to put on the ice and attract fans to MCI Center.
“If ticket sales are slow at first that’s to be expected, but if we start winning, that’s the most important thing,” Kolzig said. “People come to see a team, not a group of individuals. We brought [2001-2002 glamour addition Jaromir Jagr] in to be the marquee guy and take us over the top and it didn’t work. In this sport, more than any, it’s chemistry, a combination of skill, heart, desire and grittiness.”
Having shed the contracts of Jagr, Robert Lang, Peter Bondra, Sergei Gonchar, Steve Konowalchuk, Michael Nylander and Mike Grier, the Caps are a shell of the team that went to Tampa Bay for the start of the playoffs this time last year. But general manager George McPhee, who stockpiled five picks in the first two rounds of June’s draft while also acquiring a handful of promising prospects in those trades, points to San Jose — 19 points out of a playoff spot last year but now the Western Conference’s second seed — as a model.
“The one positive to take out of this season is that a lot of guys who hadn’t had a chance to play showed what they could do,” Halpern said. “I would take a guy like Darcy Verot on my team any day. We worked very hard, but you need skill to win in this league. We need a whole first line and some impact defensemen. If I’m the leading scorer, we’re not going to win too many games.”
Still, Halpern agreed with Kolzig that the framework for a renaissance is in place.
“As bad as it has been, we’re headed in the right direction,” Kolzig said. “We’re a lot more flexible in terms of being able to get unrestricted free agents. We might be able to get some good players at half [their current] price. And we’ve got some up and coming young guys. I don’t think it’s going to be as big a rebuilding process as people think.”
Witt also concurred and added that the few remaining veterans wouldn’t stand for a repeat.
“All we can do is regroup, learn from this and try to make a positive out of it,” Witt said. “We don’t want to go through this ever again.”
Zubrus, a relative veteran at 25, said having coach Glen Hanlon’s relentlessly positive leadership all season will make a difference, especially with a young team.
“Glen’s a good teacher and he has good people skills, which is especially important for the younger guys,” he said. “You want to play for him, which you can’t say about every coach.”
McPhee said Hanlon’s 15-28-9-2 record after replacing the fired Bruce Cassidy on Dec.10 was deceiving because of the extremely difficult circumstances he faced.
“What’s important is that the team played with enthusiasm and grit,” McPhee said. “You couldn’t find a better guy to work with than Glen. He’s very comfortable in the job.”
Notes — Semin, who was fined for missing Saturday’s plane to Pittsburgh, has been sent to Portland for the playoff push. Depth forwards Roman Tvrdon and Garret Stroshein returned to the Pirates. … Kolzig will play for Germany in this month’s World Championships in the Czech Republic. … The Caps will wind up with no lower than the fourth pick in the draft no matter what happens in today’s lottery in which they have a 14.2 percent chance of landing the top choice. … Halpern was named the NHL’s player of the week yesterday. The Potomac native led all NHL scorers with eight points last week, netting four goals and four assists while adding a plus-8 rating in four games. Halpern, who turns 28 next month, collected multi-point games in three of his four contests and totaled six goals and eight assists for 14 points during his last 10 games of the season.
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