I'm a little late to the party on this one but I'd be remiss if I didn't say something about the Caps first round draft pick this year, Swedish centre Marcus Johansson. Here's some video (in Swedish no less!)
I wasn't so sure about this pick when the Caps made it. Personally, I liked Carter Ashton better, since he was a big guy who could play the wing. I hadn't heard of him being on anybody's radar in the first round, but by all accounts he's your typical Swedish centreman: around six feet tall, good playmaker with solid defensive skills, nothing flashy. The good news is that Johansson played in the Swedish Elite League (maybe the top pro hockey league outside the US) as an 18 year old, which is good, and Caps management liked his performance at the World Junior Championships this year. We'll probably see Johansson in Hershey in 2010-11 I would think, since Swedish players tend to take an extra year in the Elite League before coming over. Hopefully GM George McPhee knows what he's doing with this one.
OK, winding down the homestretch here. Again, if you need to be brought up to speed, here's Part 1 & 2 of this look back at the Capitals 2006 Draft. Scrolling down would be a lot faster though. Without any further ado, Part 3
:09 - It's Draft Day for GMGM and the staff heads down to Vancouver's GM Place for the day's festivities. I'm sure they will be hearing the cries of the carrots. Yes, the cries of the carrots because tomorrow is harvest day and for them it...is...the..holocaust.
:40 - Inexplicably GMGM has been TOLD by Penguins GM Ray Shero that Shero will be taking Jordan Staal #2. Does this happen in any other sport? Where GM's will tell each other who they will pick? This doesn't even happen in my fantasy football draft. Although that's mainly because most of my fellow GMs need about 5 beers to know who they will take. GMGM has also guessed that Chicago at #3 will take Jonathan Toews, so the Caps will get the man they want, Nicklas Backstrom at #4.
1:10 - The best part of the NHL Draft: Commissioner Gary Bettman taking the stage to a chorus of boos. Bettman, quick on his feet, comes back with "It's always good to be in Vancouver!"
1:45 - GMGM tells his head scout that when the Caps turn comes up, he's going to go over to Boston (who hold the #5 pick) and try to extract an extra pick out of them to move up to the Caps position.
2:07 - Moving ahead, St Louis takes Erik Johnson #1, Staal goes #2.
3:00 - Right in the middle of this, GMGM's son calls him to find out who the Caps are taking. GMGM sounds like he's ready to go "Shut up will ya, I'm trying to pick!" just like I do at my fantasy drafts. GMGM: "I really like this guy, I think he's better than Staal." I'd say GMGM was right on the mark there.
3:40 - As he said he was going to do, GMGM goes over to Boston's table and makes his trade offer: flop the 4th pick for the 5th pick with Boston throwing in an additional pick for the Caps troubles. My only thought here was that GMGM was thinking either the Bruins would offer something big or to make the Bruins think the Caps would take Kessel. Boston's guy says thanks but no thanks.
4:09 - Toews goes to Chicago, putting the Caps on the clock. Hey, it's Ovie Time! GMGM informs Ovechkin that Swedish centre Nicklas Backstrom is their man. GMGM also tells Ovie that Backstrom is "The guy you ran into at the Worlds," which could mean that Ovie checked him really hard or to remind Alex that Backstrom was the guy who arranged for him to meet those 4 Swedish puck bunnies after the game.
4:31 - Just when that's all been arranged, Boston's guy comes over and wants to take GMGM up on his offer, flipping the 4th and 5th picks and giving the Caps the 37th pick. Boston wants Backstrom now. It's at this point that everybody starts referring to Backstrom as "The Swede," like he's "The Cooler" from "Road House." GMGM decides to Pull A Mason* and reject the deal but not before making Boston twist in the wind a little.
GMGM: "They want The Swede. So what do you want to do?" Caps Head Scout: (mumbles something that can pretty much be interpreted as "Fuck No!") GMGM: "I know, I'm just trying to make it look like we're doing something here."
See that's what I love about the NHL Draft over all the others. The team scouts, owners and GMs are all at tables together, so there's the opportunity for subterfuge like this.
GMGM to Scouting Guy: "Did I ever tell you you're looking marvelous. (not said) You know, when I go up to a woman the first thing I want to know is what her head would look like on a stick." Scouting Guy: "You watched that movie, didn't you?"
5:58 - GMGM tells Boston's guy, "He's getting cold feet. He's going to take The Swede."
6:01 - Dirty Al Koken informs us that the Caps have their man. Gee, who could it be???????
*- "Pulling A Mason" is in reference to my buddy Mason who once in fantasy baseball proposed to make a trade with me: I'd send him outfielder Scott Podsednik in exchange for outfielder Andre Ethier. We had agreed to this trade but I told Mason to give me a couple days to put it together. Just like I said, a couple days later I send him the trade. He rejects it. Dude rejected the trade that he offered me.
On my travels through the YouTubes I came across this little item that aired on Comcast SportsNet in the DC/Baltmo region: A 30-minute behind-the-scenes look at the Washington Capitals 2006 draft. The Caps granted CSN unprecedented access to the team's draft process. I'm glad someone out there managed to post it to the YouTubes, so glad, I decided to keep a little belated running commentary. The show is broken down into 4 parts, so I will post in four parts. Here now, is Part 1:
:20 - Comcast SportsNet host Al Koken welcomes us to beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia for the 2006 NHL Entry Draft. Two notes: 1) I REALLLLLY want to go to Vancouver one of these days and 2) You have to love the Einstein inspired hairdo that Koken is rocking. Koken has been working for CSN (and its forerunner Home Team Sports) for so long that a number of years ago they tried giving him the nickname "Smokin'" Al Koken. It was highly ironic, considering no one besides Mrs. Koken would consider him "smokin'." It's sort of like Harry Shearer's character in "Wayne's World 2" being named "Handsome Dan." I am informed by my buddy Pat, a huge Redskins fan, that on "The Doc Walker Show" Koken is known as "Dirty" Al Koken. I like that name. Dirty Al Koken sounds like some leecherous old man who stays up until 3 a.m. eating Cheetos and watching YouPorn.
:59 - CSN sets the stage of where the Caps are at this point, starting with the 2004 drafting of Alex Ovechkin and taking us through Ovie's rookie season, which included "The Goal" and ended with him capturing Rookie Of The Year honors.
2:16 - Dirty Al interviews Caps General Manager George McPhee (heretofore known as GMGM) before the NHL Awards ceremony. GMGM wields the charisma of Ted Bundy and speaks in the same matter-of-fact tone. He looks like the last thing he'd rather be doing is talking to Dirty Al.
2:59 - Ovie says "I'm so nervous" at least four times in 2 seconds regarding his speech after winning ROY honors. I think he was nervous. And reason #572 why you gotta love Ovie: "I want to play hockey right now. Give me puck, Zubby (then teammate Dainius Zubrus) give me puck."
4:12 - Dirty Al then sets up the draft order. The Caps will be picking fourth behind St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Chicago. The top prospects include defenceman Erik Johnson and forwards Jordan Staal (of the ubiquitous Staal clan), Jonathan Toews (pronounced Tay-ves), Nicklas Backstrom and Phil Kessel.
4:43 - End of the segment where Dirty Al breathlessly tells us "Where anything can happen. And usually does." He's either talking about the NHL Draft or a video he just saw on scatlovers.com.
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