Aucoin making best of opportunity with Caps
By: Brian McNally
Examiner Staff Writer
October 29, 2009
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| Center Keith Aucoin was brought up to the Capitals from Washington’s minor-league affiliate in Hershey. He scored a goal and had two assists over the last week. (Getty Images) |
Journeyman centering Washington's third line
He has only been back with the Capitals for a week. But every single day brings the possibility that Keith Aucoin will get that familiar tap on the shoulder and instructions to head back to the organization's minor-league affiliate in Hershey.
It is a process Aucoin knows all too well. The 30-year-old center has long since fallen off the top prospects list. Instead, he is a 5-foot-9, 187-pound journeyman whose size has always limited his ceiling as an NHL player.
Caps notes
» Déjà vu for Washington, which heads back to Atlanta for the second time in a week to play the Thrashers at Philips Arena on Thursday night at 7 p.m.
» Caps catch a break: Atlanta star F Ilya Kovalchuk — who scored two goals against Washington in a wild 5-4 game last Thursday — is out 3-to-6 weeks.
» Washington is in the midst of playing four games in six days. It hosts the Islanders on Friday and Columbus on Sunday at Verizon Center.
With several Caps players injured, Aucoin has taken advantage of his latest NHL opportunity with a goal and two assists over the last week. He's been a dangerous player during that stretch while centering the third line and has at least garnered the attention of coach Bruce Boudreau and the front office.
"[Aucoin] might not have the size or anything else," Boudreau said. "But he sure knows what to do with the puck when he gets it."
Aucoin played in 53 games over three years with the Carolina Hurricanes before joining the Caps last season. Injuries gave him a chance to see action in 12 games with Washington. But Aucoin couldn't crack the lineup despite a dominant season at the AHL level with Hershey, where he had 25 goals and 71 assists and led the Bears to a Calder Cup championship.
He arguably was the best player in the second-best hockey league in the world. But his margin for error is so small. When some of the Caps' injured forwards -- especially center Boyd Gordon (back) -- return, Aucoin is likely headed back to Hershey. That's nothing new for a player who has been overlooked his whole career -- even playing college hockey at Division III Norwich University and going undrafted after his senior year.
"I can identify with Keith so well, I think, because that's what I was as a full-time minor league guy," Boudreau said. "When you've got the chance to get in the NHL you go, go, go. He's as smart as any NHL guy. He just doesn't have the physical attributes that a lot of them do. [But] he's a self-made player and those kind of guys are driven."
