And here we go...

The first Nats spring game is today vs Georgetown at 12pm. The young guys are the focus of the lineup- Rendon, Harper, Purke, etc as it should be.

Also today is the introduction of the new catch phrase of the season- "Natitude." I say that with the full expectation no one will ever say "natitude" out loud, but it's a solid concept and after the Redskins and the Caps, I could use a little chest-thumping, alpha male, primal, hunt down those wins like a wounded mammoth across the windswept plains of the outfield demeanor in my life these days.

Sports Bog has the details, especially this one that made me giddy and my wallet weep silent tears:

The team has started introducing players to the new campaign, asking them to design t-shirts that express their own particular Natitude. Drew Storen has already come up with his concept, featuring the phrase “Attention fans, the bottom of the 9th has been canceled.”

LOVE. I will be saving my pennies for when that shirt becomes available, and it better be available and not like Michael Morse's last season when every game it was "I think some are coming in on Friday" in every team shop at the stadium.

It's getting closer. April 5 doesn't seem too far now.

Bookends of Awesomeness

The future is now. At least for a couple weeks, because I don't see Bryce in the Opening Day lineup just yet, but since Zim has scored his nice long contract this isn't going to be novelty for long.

Because I Can

 Happy spring feelings continue as the weather gets warmer here in DC for a spell and the Nationals PR Dept was kind enough to post these on twitpic with handy HTML embedding codes attached. The water and the trees, Tyler Clippard and Brad Lidge, Wilson Ramos and Jesus Flores (the top of his head at least). I am a glass of lemonade away from contentment.

Pitchers and Catchers Report

 "It's today! It's today!"

 I feel like running around yelling that like the kid in the Stuart Little movie. (not usually a fan of mice sailing ships but Hugh Laurie is awesome in that)

 So many have already reported early and the pictures, like this one make me giddy with springy anticipation! Drew and Clip and the backs of people's heads! The momentum that carried the fans and the team doesn't seem to have let up over the winter and now there are new pieces to fit into the system and I feel like as each new name that's announced to have arrived in Viera is like adding to a living baseball card collection- we've got Werth and the Zimmerman(n)s and Lidge and Lombardozzi and when will we get Ramos and Harper and Morse? The complete set should be in by Friday with a workout on Saturday.

Mark your favorite calendar for MASN's first TV broadcast on March 4 at 1:05pm vs. Houston.

O Frabjous Day, Callooh! Callay!

Disclaimer: In this post there are pictures of me. As much as I'd like y'all to assume I am six feet tall and gorgeous, the truth is I spent more time on chocolate peanut butter ice cream this summer than running. My skates are sharpened and I'm working on it but pictures of cool people are going to be compromised for now by my goofy face and overpadded abs..

So I'm behind on sorting out photos and summaries from practices last week, but yesterday I headed out again to Kettler. I staked out a spot on the bench side, near the media fishbowl and consequently saw Tariq El Bashir, the Washington Post writer, walk past and I had to say hi and mention that I tweeted him before. He might have been lying when he said he remembered that, but what can you do. Awesome event #1.

Plenty of banging up against the boards that I tried to capture, but the focus was a bit slow.

Since I was on the end with the press conference room and it was uncharacteristically empty, I stayed to the end to try and get Mathieu Perreault's autograph on a puck for my dad. It was a long shot, but why not try. Luckily, it worked. He was who the woman next to me was waiting for as well, and she called him over. He signed the puck and took a picture with it for me. Awesome event #2.

On the way out, right by the door, were Alan May and Craig Laughlin. I know I interrupted their conversation but they were very cool about it. I need to work on my social skills. I mentioned that I had been wondering which shirt I should buy in the shop- May, Laughlin or Sylvain Cote. Right away they said not Cote, and I said I liked him and thought he was cute when I was in high school. Then they joked about which to get, that Laughlin's mom was the only one who bought his. I showed them the picture of me and Alan from the RMNB party in April and they agreed it was a good shot.

I then said I needed a photo with Craig for my collection, and Alan May took the photo. The first one was sharp but my mouth was open. The second one was blurry but better than nothing.

Craig wandered off, though let me mention that the whole time I was getting half hugs and shoulder touches from him. Very nice. So it was me and Alan and I mentioned this blog. He said the title was catchy.

In case he does remember it, hello Mr. May. I apologize for the amateur nature of the whole blog. I'm working on it. He had things to do so he went one way and I went another. Awesome event #3.

I remembered I did want to check out the shirts in the shop so I headed back that way and Craig Laughlin was there again. I told him our picture was blurry and he said we'd have to take another, but continued on his conversation and then Joe Beninati came in and I was reluctant to speak to him again since I sounded like such a fool the first time. They headed up to the media event upstairs and I went ahead and purchased a May shirt because he had a conversation with me, I tend to agree with his evaluations on tv and twitter and I felt like it.

Caps Camp, Day 6

Thursday, I headed back out to Kettler. There were already two pre-season games (losses) on the books- Baltimore was blamed on bad ice, the sort of ice that only affected one team apparently as Nashville scored two goals... and I heard no outside comments on the Columbus game so, yeah. This day was the first I saw Tomas Vokoun. He was out first with the goalie coach warming up.

Then the others wandered in to stretch out.

Once the practice got going I noticed a few things:
Ovie almost hit MoJo straight in the face on a wide shot. That was a bit scary.
Vokoun was unstoppable low, but anything mid-range or higher seemed to get past, especially on the glove side.
The lines were not sharp, passes were off.

At one point I noticed Joe B. talking to someone in the press room fishbowl, and I am 99% sure it was Calle Johansson in for the alumni game.

Washington Capitals Training Camp, Day 3

After a weekend of baseball, it was time to head over to Kettler on Monday and check out the first weekday of Caps camp. For some reason I didn't think they'd use up both rinks so I brought my skates along and dressed for the possibility of landing on my rear end. So I felt less than my best when Caps TV announcer Joe Beninati walked by. He is always dressed up. I ended up saying nothing of substance and then apologized for saying nothing of substance so I never said anything of substance even though, of course, two minutes later streams of intelligent observations and questions came to mind. So tack on another tongue-tied, less than impressive meeting with a local celebrity to my list.

Another lesson learned- don't leave your ipod on the rink wall because Matt Hendricks was so happy he scored he jumped against the glass and down it went to the luckily for me, carpeted floor. Mathieu Perreault also felt the need to toss a puck to the glass at the level of my face. I have been a fan of his for a while now, but I may have to reconsider.

By now most of the people I saw playing in Group B have been cut, but then they were working hard:

Just before they wrapped up, Group A started on the Capitals Rink so I moved over there. Schultz made his way from B to the locker rooms through the main door right in front of me, towering in his skates. Then Perreault, Hanson, Joel Ward and Braden Holtby decided to cut through the center doors but had to wait for a break in action.

A shot of Braden Holtby for the Holtby's Honeys Twitter/Tumblr:

The big names were in this group:

First close-up shot of DJ King for the year.

I don't know why, but he is my favorite. Maybe because I'd be a fighter too. Probably because he has a lot of hustle and energy in practices and never gets the chance to play regularly and I hate when people get screwed over for no real reason.
Wednesday addition: Alan May singled him out for his hard work in the first pre-season game. I was glad to see that.

The goalie on the near end of the rink was Philip Grubauer. I was impressed with him during the rookie camp and he seemed to be holding his own just as well against the big guys. He had a strong glove and the only shots that got past him for the longest time were by DJ and Ovie high and stick side.

Does Sasha care? Honestly, I don't know.

 I think the main question is, does Boudreau care? That one I'm still working on.

Caps Rookie Camp Day 4

I can say I've now been on the ice with Bruce Boudreau.

It's not something I'm going to have on my gravestone or even mention to many people, but I can say it and it won't be a lie.

The plan had been to catch a little practice, skate, then watch the scrimmage, but upon arriving at Kettler Capitals Iceplex, the rookies were on the "public" rink. It was a nice change, almost 360 degrees of right on the less-scuffed glass viewing. I found myself a spot and took a few shots.

As unexpected as that was, the real thrill was walking through and looking up and seeing Assistant Goalie Coach Olie Kolzig up on the balcony. If I had a better camera you'd know right away that's him to the left of the exit sign in the picture below, but in 2009 it was a nice model...

Since the scrimmage part of the camp wasn't scheduled until forty five minutes later and the team taking over the public rink meant that open skate was being held on the Capitals rink, I figured I had time to get my laps in before the day ended. So I laced up my pink laces on my ancient Bauer skates, while thinking I probably got them before Ovi even started school, and headed off to where the big boys skate.

Who knows how many laps I actually did because I was so distracted checking out everything from the new perspective, I know I lost count several times and picked the lower number every time I forgot. The ice felt nicer but it was good to see they also had a dark and bumpy patch right where the zamboni comes in just like on the other rink, so those of us on the other side aren't the only ones who have to deal with that. I was peeking in the press conference room, down the hall behind the bench, into the press room where Katie Carrera and Tarik El-Bashir of the Washington Post were working. I tweeted later that I wanted to wave to them but I felt like it would be too loserific, but Tarik actually answered and said I should have. Oh well.

At my 37th lap, I gave into my loser self though when Coach Kolzig walked down the bleachers right by me. He stared like I was an idiot, just as I figured, but I didn't care. Lap 38 and Coach Woods skated across to the door behind the bench. On lap 39, Coach Boudreau did the same. Just as well that we weren't intersecting because I've been feeling less than generous towards him lately.

Cameras and Cold Stone- Ballston must be Coach's favorite place to be.

Everyone seemed to be coming off the ice at the same time. I caught the players headed off as I was packing up my stuff.

I hung around a while to see if everything was truly over or if it was just a break, and found out that the scrimmage part of the day had been greatly reduced and tacked on to the end of practice. I had been too slow and missed it. However, on the elevator down, Coach Evason came in and then saw Boudreau again in the food court.

I had been prepared to watch and see if anyone was clearly breaking out from the others, but truthfully I didn't know any of them past Eakin and Orlov and Grubauer, so I probably would not have contributed much. Regular camp starts Saturday which will be jam packed so I will swing by and check it out on Monday with my trusty little red camera.

Washington Capitals Rookie Camp- Day Two

Monday marked the second day of the 2011 Washington Capitals Rookie Camp. The day before, captain Alex Ovechkin joined the team for drills. Monday, he was seen observing from the office windows above the rink with GM George McPhee, and other Caps, including Mike Green, DJ King and Mike Knuble, were seen on the far side of the bench speaking to those on the ice.

 -Mike Knuble watching practice

In a change from regular season practice, mainly because I'm sure you couldn't tell the players without a program, the skaters helpfully had their names on the backs of their jerseys.

I stayed on the close end of the rink, so I was not able to watch the other goalies. Phillip Grubauer, who stayed on the right side seemed to be impenetrable for the first third, had a weak glove side in the middle part but then came up strong again.

There will be a scrimmage Wednesday before the group travels to Philadelphia to play the Flyers rookies Thursday night. The main pre-season training camp begins on Saturday.

-Bruce Boudreau, preparing to half-assedly coach the next generation. No need to adjust on the fly during drills, so no worries today!