Plenty has been written early this season about accountability in the Capitals’ dressing room. Matt Bradley’s now infamous comments about Alex Semin got the ball rolling on that theme, but really it was one of the primary topics during the individual meetings players had with general manager George McPhee and the coaching staff in the aftermath of last year’s disappointing Stanley Cup playoff exit. They didn’t need fans or media to bring it up.
One of the areas where there appears to be a carryover from those post-season meetings is during practices. Not saying the Caps didn’t work hard between games the last three seasons. An NHL practice isn’t exactly a party. There are specific goals that Bruce Boudreau has for that day and a limited time – 90 minutes at most – to accomplish them. Just my opinion, but there seems to be an intensity, a focus to these early-season practices that wasn’t necessarily there all the time in previous seasons.
“You’re not directly doing it. But I don’t know if you’re questioning our work ethic in a way or not,” Caps forward Brooks Laich said. “For myself, I come to the rink and whatever the practice the coaches do something for a certain reason and whatever it is I’m going to try to practice as hard as I can. It’s important to get my work in. It’s important to our line to get our work in. And guys want to leave the rink feeling good. If you do things right in practice you’re going to get rewarded in games. That’s been the case so far this year.”
Fair enough. Again – not saying Washington’s players were just loafing through workouts in years past. You couldn’t finish atop the Eastern Conference two years in a row and make the playoffs four straight years if that had happened. But we can all agree there are levels of intensity.
The day before a game an NHL club is usually all business on the ice. It’s the days between when the mind can wander. The key for any team is to keep up a similar pace even with four or five days before your next game – all while avoiding burnout and having some semblance of fun. These guys are playing hockey for a living, after all. But when those stretches without games do hit the very best teams handle them properly. The Caps find out how they did tonight when they play at the Edmonton Oilers. Their last game was Saturday’s 7-1 win over Detroit at Verizon Center.
“Human nature is going to want to cruise and have some fun today and be sloppy and not work that hard,” veteran forward Mike Knuble said on Monday. “But the players – you got to keep your game sharp. You get three, four days off in the middle of the season in this league is like an eternity. You want to keep playing games and keep that game momentum going on the ice.”
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