Got Grit?

The games are going, the drama is back, and I couldn't be happier. It's been such a long hockey starved summer for me with life and obligations keeping me from hitting the ice myself in the off season.

With every play and whistle my emotions are running high to low. Friday it ended on a low point. Saturday the night had me smiling from ear to ear and tonight I look to the rest of the season as a much tougher slug fest than the last. With the tough win over Ottawa, it's hard not to think of the East in general as being a much rougher place to play than it was.

With most of the teams feeling upgraded in some way or another it's hard to not think that the boys in red will have a much tougher gauntlet to run through the regular season, and for what it's worth, I believe that can only benefit where they want to go in the post season. With more close and hard fought games with teams that are learning to reign the run and gun style of the Caps in, there will be more chip and grit from all sides of the team coming out. Something that's already started to show its face in the last game against the Devils and continued against the Sens (albeit with less frequency).

Carlson stepping up two games in a row to dig into the scrum and protect his mates. Both times losing his lid in the mix. John Erskine getting in hard on the body and making the Senators pay down low each time they touched the puck after his stint in the box was a nice way of saying the penalty wasn't going to deter him from playing rough. Green stepping in the ring. Bradley laying one out showing he hasn't skipped a beat. You don't have to watch long to see that team toughness has stepped up to a new level this season and that they won't be standing off and I couldn't be happier to see it.

It's going to be interesting to see how things progress through the season as the team hits their stride and line chemistry kicks in and tweaks are made. I just hope they keep that hard nosed attitude front and center.

Dev. Camp Scrimmage and Fisticuffs

Getting to Kettler at around 10:00 this morning, I knew my wife and I were going to have trouble finding a seat. I didn't quite expect things to be as jam packed as they ended up being though. Standing room at the top of the bleachers was at a premium, but somehow, we found a niche to fit into and planted our feet to watch the already in progress game with a constant flow of people shuffling along behind us.


The game went about as I would have expected with a good fast pace, some sloppy play on occasions, and a few sparks of raw talent. The competitive nature of the guys on the ice was never in question with checks being finished heavily and open ice being a near no mans land across the blue lines from time to time as someone gets caught head down by a beast of a defender. With that competitiveness in full swing, the whistles would get chippy as players would stand up for their temporary teammates down in a scrum from time to time with some players even coming to fisticuffs during the game. Not one, but in fact two fights broke out in rapid succession around halfway through the second period. Luckily, I had my camera set for video for just such an occassion!

Finley vs Pisano:


Della Rovere vs Bruess:


My apologies for the first video, but apparently my camera isn't keen on zooming and auto-focus during video recording.


I remember hearing about a fight during the Blackhawks dev camp that ended up with a player injured and out of the camp earlier this week. I thought to myself 'how stupid can these kids be to fight during a camp?', but my point of view has quickly tempered. Watching Bruce Boudreau's video from OFB, and then actually witnessing a game in progress where players squared off, my understanding expanded. It's the nature of hockey that you quickly take up for even temporary teammates, take exception with a play, a hit, trash talk, and make your will known. This also shows those higher up in the organization that you are willing to make that sacrifice for your team. As seen the few times the Caps players squared off this past season, the fans love the guys who step up and square off for their teammates.