I saw Mike Green in the mall after the Caps wrapped up their season-ending meeting at K-Plex in Arlington and he said he was looking forward to having a full summer to train for the first time in a few years after those deep playoff runs with Hershey. Well, his time back home in Calgary is on hold for at least a little while longer.
Green has been added to Canada's roster for the IIHF World Championships, which starts next week in Quebec City and Halifax.
According to this story , Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin, Sergei Fedorov and goalie Simeon Varlamov are all on Team Russia's roster. Ovechkin said the other day that he wasn't sure he could play because he needed to insure his pending 13-year, $124 million contract. Rick DiPietro did not play for Team USA last year because of similar insurance concerns. Bruce Boudreau also said Ovechkin had been playing with an unspecified injury, so he will also have to be healthy enough to play in the tournament.
I would expect Nicklas Backstrom to be on Sweden's team, and Michael Nylander might even be an option, although he said he was focused on trying to play for the Caps when I talked to him the day of Game 7 against the Flyers and didn't want to talk about the Worlds. Milan Jurcina could also be on Slovakia's entry if he is healthy enough to play.
Also, I am at Mellon Arena for Game 1 of the Penguins-Rangers series. While the "white-out" thing looks cool, I do have to the say the Caps "red-out" was more impressive because the fans did it on their own. Passing out t-shirts, like the Wizards did for Game 3 last night and like the Penguins did tonight, cheapens it a bit to me. But that is just me.
Comments (4)
The Flyers did the same thing for their playoff games too - they handed out orange T-shirts. I know because I asked the Flyers fans wearing them when they came to Washington. I feel the same way -- it kind of seems like a big TV marketing campaign rather than a display of genuine fan fervor. Especially when NBC analysts at the Verizon Center would say dumb things about not everyone was in red. I think they kinda missed the point.
Big congratulations to Mike Green for making the Canadian roster. He deserves it.
Posted by RandyD | April 25, 2008 11:58 PM
Corey, according to SovSport, Tretiak found the sponsors to pay for insurance; Ovechkin will play for team Russia. Hopefully the injury is not serious... :-(
http://alexovetjkin.blogspot.com/2008/04/tretiak-found-insurance-money-ovechkin.html
Posted by tj | April 26, 2008 1:17 AM
Oh, and Huet will play for team France
Posted by tj | April 26, 2008 1:44 AM
It ain't just you--it really is more impressive if the fans do it on their own.
Thanks for the updates, Corey--we'll all be grateful if you can keep 'em coming during the off-season.
Posted by Jim H | April 26, 2008 1:45 AM