Caps new captain will be unveiled tomorrow

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

Got this in the inbox this afternoon.

"Tune in to Caps Report THIS WEDNESDAY at 2 p.m. for an exclusive interview with the new captain of the Washington Capitals."

I am guessing, Clark, Zubrus or Sutherby

Hoping Sutherby or Clark. Would also like to see Clymer

EDIT: Clark named caps captain (say that 3 times fast)

Right wing Chris Clark will serve as the Washington Capitals’ new team captain, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today at Ashburn Ice House in Ashburn, Va. Clark, 30, becomes the 13th captain in franchise history.

“Leadership is not a sometime thing or a come and go thing,†said McPhee. “It is an all-the-time thing. Chris Clark has all-the-time leadership qualities. He is a leader in the mold of one of our all-time favorites, Dale Hunter; a quiet man off the ice, a cantankerous, ultra-competitive player on the ice.â€

Clark, a South Windsor, Conn., native, is entering his seventh season in the NHL, his second with the Capitals. Clark established career highs in goals (20) and points (39) in his first season in Washington, leading the team with a career-best +9 rating and 110 penalty minutes. His goal total was tied for third on the team and doubled his previous career high. He posted his 100th career point on March 12 and recorded his first career hat trick on March 18.

A 6’0â€, 200-pound right wing, Clark was acquired from Calgary on Aug. 4, 2005, with a seventh-round draft choice in the 2007 Entry Draft for a seventh-round choice in 2006 and a sixth-round choice in 2007. He has 55 goals and 55 assists (110 points) in 356 games in his NHL career and was part of the Calgary Flames team that reached the Stanley Cup finals in 2004.

Clark, who played college hockey at Clarkson University, represented the United States at the 2002 International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship.

Clark has also been very active in the Washington, D.C., community. He serves as the Capitals’ spokesperson for the Cause Gift Pack Drive, which provides comfort items for soldiers recuperating from wounds and injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also participates in the Garth Brooks Teammates for Kids Foundation and was a guest instructor at a local elementary school during Teach for America Week last year.

The Capitals open their 2006 training camp Thursday, Sept. 14, with physicals and media availability at Verizon Center (closed to the public). Their first on-ice session is Friday, Sept. 15, at the Ashburn Ice House beginning at 10 a.m. All on-ice sessions are open to the public and free of charge.

I loved what clark brought to the table, and think he will make a great captain, as my initial post suggested, I was rooting for clark or sutherby, Good stuff

[Meathead 0]

I do think the goalie rule is good but in this situation I would like to see the goalie rule waived. Kolzig is definatley captain material, especially on such a young team like this.

[hockechamp14 0]

is there a reason they made the rule that a goalie can't be captain?

[Chadd 916]

is there a reason they made the rule that a goalie can't  be captain?

Goalie can't cross the red line to talk to the ref. Just because he doesn't wear the C doesn't mean he can't be an important leader.

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

I do think the goalie rule is good but in this situation I would like to see the goalie rule waived. Kolzig is definatley captain material, especially on such a young team like this.

Every player/coach and executive, to a man this year said that olie was the real leader on the team. That he provides the experience and leadership, sometimes quiet, sometimes vocal, but he has the complete respect and attention of the players and coaches alike.

I think Sutherby is a great leader. I have liked him for the C for a while now. He is young, plays hard every night, will drop the gloves to protect his teammates too.

Also, last year at training camp, Ovey seemed to spend a lot of time talking to him about the drills and such, and he also led drills for some of the young prospects.

I am a big sutherby fan. On the caps, my favorite players are in this order.

1. Semin

2. Ovey/Sutherby

3. Clark/Olie

4. The rest of them

6999. Brashear (hated him so much as a flyer that I find it hard to like him now, even though he offers protection)

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

I'm liking the Clark for captain, this little nugget from the caps report

When asked what kind of a captain he's be, Clark talked about the captain in Calgary when he first came up, Dave Lowry, and said he really liked his style. He said that whenever a rookie or new player came to the team, Lowry would be the first guy to shake his hand in the locker room and the first to invite him to lunch, to make sure that the guy felt like part of the team. Clark has apparently already started in this manner, since he said that when Brian Pothier was driving down from Ottawa and passing through the Boston area, Clark asked him to stop by for a visit, even though they didn't know each other, and Pothier did. Clark said he wanted Pothier to know someone on the team before he arrived in Washington.

Very captain like, and the best part about it, it happened before clark knew he was going to be captain, just a great team guy.

Nice

[RadioGaGa 162]

Who's wearing the "A's"?

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

Who's wearing the "A's"?

Haven't heard yet. I think one will definately go to Sutherby, and depending on whether or not they go with 2 or 3 A's, I can see the others going to any combination of Zubie, Clymer and Ovey.

I can't see them having 4 A's, but stranger things happened.

Clymer is being played in D during training camp, so if he makes the move full time, I expect they will have him as an A to lead the backline, so then would be Ovey, sutherby or zubie to get the next.

I am going out to training camp, maybe not to monday, will get more info then

[Viking#9 0]

It could be ovey for an 'A' in NHL 07 they have him wearing one

[Allsmokenopancake 0]

Good Article from Mike Vogel's blog today(caps senior writer)

http://dumpnchase.wordpress.com/

From the time he arrived in Washington last summer, Clark has been captain material. I’m a packrat, and hard drives being so darned spacious these days, I don’t have to make choices about what to keep. I keep virtually everything. Here’s an excerpt from a preseason postgame (got that?) notebook I scrawled after the Caps suffered a sound 4-0 beating at the hands of the Buffalo Sabres on Sept. 21 of last year:

Won’t Back Down – Chris Clark stands 6-foot-0 and weighs 200 pounds. Sabres’ left wing Andrew Peters, who has admitted to using steroids to bulk up from 224 to 247 pounds in the summer of 2003, is listed at 6-foot-4 and 247 pounds. But anyone who has seen Clark play knows that his motor is always running, he won’t back down from anyone and he is a good teammate.

Midway through the third period, Clark displayed those qualities for the home folks at MCI Center. Peters plowed the Capitals’ Miroslav Zalesak into the boards from behind, and then leaned his bulky frame down on the prone winger just for good measure.

Seconds later, Clark hopped over the boards and went right after Peters, challenging him and getting the better of the Buffalo bully in a bout at the Sabres’ blueline. Clark incurred a minor for instigating, a major for fighting and a 10-minute misconduct for his efforts.

His deeds did not go unnoticed in the press box or on the Caps’ bench. After the game, Washington coach Glen Hanlon made a point of citing Clark’s actions.

“The key in the whole game for me,†said Hanlon, “and I don’t want it to go unnoticed, was what Chris Clark did. Part of our thing here is we have young players and we are building on physical play and team spirit and team unity. That’s one of his strengths. He went and challenged one of the toughest guys in the league. It really wasn’t his job, he just went and did it. It made it worth the drive from my Piney Orchard home.â€

The fight with Clark was Peters’ second of the night; he tangled with Washington’s Stephen Peat at 3:46 of the second period.

A few things stand out here.

First, it was a preseason game. And it was over, 4-0 for the other guys. It wasn’t Alex Ovechkin who got ragdolled. It wasn’t Mike Green, or Chris Bourque or Jeff Schultz or one of the Caps’ other high profile prospects. It wasn’t Dainius Zubrus, or Jeff Halpern or Olie Kolzig or one of Washington’s key NHL players. It was Miroslav Zalesak, a low-level summer free agent pickup, a longshot to crack the roster, and a guy Clark – himself a newcomer to the organization – barely knew.

None of that mattered. What did matter was that Zalasak’s sweater was the same color as Clark’s, and that kind of activity wasn’t going to be tolerated or accepted. That’s old time hockey. Like Eddie Shore, Dit Clapper and Toe Blake. And that’s the kind of guy you want wearing the “C†on your team’s sweater.

Clark is not a rah-rah guy, and he will never be mistaken for Mark Messier. But he has passion and he plays with passion. His team might be down 5-1 in the first or up by a goal in the last minute of the third, but you’ll never be able to tell which it is by watching him on the ice. Watch him light up and get animated when he’s talking about something he is really passionate about – his family, his parents, the Red Sox, an errant Tim Wakefield knuckleball, the Hartford Whalers, or being present at the induction ceremony when Cam Neely was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame last fall. He has that passion, that fire, particularly when he is on the ice.

He grew up with the Calgary Flames, playing on a Calder Cup champion team at Saint John of the AHL in 2000-01 and moving all the way on to Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals with the Flames in 2004. He has been where the Caps hope to be going, and can help show them the way.

Like almost every player who is traded for the first time, it took Clark a while to get over the shock of being sent from Calgary to Washington last summer.

“It’s tough,†he admits. “Guys go to different teams and you get different outcomes. You can go to a different team and all of a sudden, you’re not playing. But I’ve been fortunate. I come to a new team and things have stepped up. It was greener on the other side of the fence, I guess for me. This has been a great organization for myself. Now we want to take the personal out of it and step towards hockey and team and getting everybody going and making this a successful year. When we start doing that we’ll have the fans behind us and we’ll have everybody in this town behind us.â€

He’s got a lot of people behind him already. Sail on, Sailor.