Capitals associate goaltending coach Olie Kolzig says he could get used to this coaching thing. The organization’s all-time goalie leader in wins (301), shutouts (35), saves (18,013), seasons (16) and games played (711) was hired in June to serve as an apprentice of sorts to Dave Prior, his mentor and once again the team’s director of goaltending. The idea was to get Kolzig working with the organization’s young goalies and see if it was something he could see himself doing long term. So far, so good.
“I enjoy it. I really do. I love the fact that I’m involved with the game again,” Kolzig said. “And being able to have an impact or an influence on the up-and-coming goalies in the organization – there’s a certain sense of gratification you get out of that. And I can understand why people want to coach. I don’t know if that necessarily means being a head coach. But being a goalie coach for me right now is satisfying.”
Kolzig’s contract with Washington requires just 7-to-10 days from him a month. But Prior warned him that he would easily exceed those minimum expectations. His family, including wife Christin and his three children, Carson, Kendall and Ashlynn, is back in the Tampa, Fla. area after making their offseason home for years in Washington State.
That location makes it relatively easy for Kolzig to get back and forth from Charleston, SC, where the Caps’ ECHL affiliate is located, and up to Hershey to see the AHL’s Bears. Travel isn’t easy in the ECHL – just ask Washington goalie Michal Neuvirth, who played 13 games there in 2008-09 and still shakes his head at the memory. But it helps Kolzig that the Stingrays play a three-game series over four nights in the Fort Myers, Fla. area in both February and March against the Florida Everblades. That’s only a two-hour drive from Kolzig’s Tampa home. And next season, the ECHL is adding a team in Orlando, giving Kolzig more chances to see South Carolina’s goalie prospects.
Kolzig just returned from a visit with the Stingrays in Charleston and first-year pro Philipp Grubauer. He’s been up to Hershey three times already this season and says his next trip there is the day after Thanksgiving. Haven’t seen Kolzig in Washington since training camp, but he says that should happen the first week of December.
“You don’t want to lose too much touch with the parent club,” Kolzig cracked.
Kolzig will then go from the Caps back for another short stint in Hershey and also needs to head to Washington State next month to check in on his Tri-City Americans, the junior hockey team he played for and still co-owns in Kennewick, Wash. Busy guy. But after two years out of the game he wouldn’t have it any other way.
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