Dmitri Orlov's North American Debut

Me, my sign, and Dmitri Orlov (photo by Ian Oland, thank you)

Being a Spitfires fan for the past few seasons, I tend to follow former Spitfires in their careers. Adam Henrique, one of my favorite Spitfires, as well as former Spitfires captain Harry Young, were drafted by the New Jersey Devils during their time in the OHL. Both players aged out of the CHL this past season, and were assigned to the Albany Devils out of training camp.

When I saw that the Hershey Bears were playing the Devils on a Saturday at Giant Center, I bought second row tickets several months in advance.

Imagine my surprise when a week before the game, the news broke that the Capitals' 2009 second-round draft pick Dmitri Orlov was on his way to Hershey, and was expected to make his debut on the day the Bears played the Albany Devils.

Being an Orlov fan, I set about making a sign in Russian to welcome him to Hershey. He saw the sign during warmups and smiled and nodded to me, and as the game began, I put on my proverbial blogger hat and watched Orlov very closely as he made his entrance into the AHL.

It definitely was like watching a superstar in the making. Despite spending his entire career to date on Russian ice, which is larger than North American ice, Orlov didn't miss a beat and seemed completely at ease. Paired with veteran defenseman Patrick Wellar, the two were very aware of each other despite speaking different languages.

Orlov was remarkably composed and didn't many mistakes. He spent time on the power play, on the second unit, where he showed off his booming shot from the blue line. One of those attempted shots led to a Steve Pinizzotto goal -- Orlov got the secondary assist on the PPG for his first AHL point in his first game (the next day, he'd follow it up with a primary assist on a Dmitri Kugryshev goal).

Coach Mark French was also impressed with Orlov's ability to seamlessly mesh into the Bears lineup. Though obviously concerned with Orlov's shaky grasp of the English language, French insinuated that in the short-term, it wouldn't get in the way of his play, as he "seems to have a decent hockey sense" and French said he was "impressed" with how Orlov played.

Capitals General Manager George McPhee agreed, telling reporters, "We got a report from someone that was at the game who said Orlov's first period the other night was the best first period he's ever seen from a 19-year-old in the American Hockey League... We're pretty high on this player."

Today, Orlov made the switch from PTO to ELC, signing his first contract with the Capitals. Given his work ethic and performance thus far, he's well on his way to a successful North American career.

 

Video highlights of Orlov's debut are here.

Video of Mark French's postgame remarks is here.

Partying with the Bears

Note: This blog post is pretty much purely fluff. I just wanted to share my experience of the Bears Cup Celebration and some of the funny things that happened. Also, I'm barely conscious due to lack of sleep from this very event.

After watching the thrilling conclusion of the Calder Cup Finals on Monday night, after the tears of happiness subsided, news came out that the party would be Tuesday night, 7:00-10:00 PM. In my stupor, I suddenly thought, "I have to be in Hershey tomorrow!"  So I reserved a Zipcar, printed out directions, and went to bed thinking thoughts of that shiny Calder Cup being passed around the ice of the Giant Center.

The problem? I work a 9-5 job and wouldn't be able to leave early. The second the clock hit 5:00 PM on Tuesday, I bolted out of the office. Three hours of infuriating traffic and some speeding later, I arrived at the Giant Center around 8:00 PM (free parking when it's usually $7? BONUS!) I entered the floor and found a swarm of people (as I learned later, estimated to be about 5,000) on the covered ice surface. I was able to track down my friend Kathryn, waiting for Karl Alzner's autograph. I'd missed the presentation/speech part, but was just in time for the autographs. I slid into line with Kathryn.

Alzner, much to my dismay, had shaved completely, and there was no trace left of the once-glorious lumberjack beard.

Before:
 

via DC Sports Bog

And *sob* After:
 

Next stop for me? Cody Eakin. A short line led to a very excited me nabbing a picture with the flame-haired Canadian. But here's him with a small child.

I was continuing to pass by Michal Neuvirth's table (his line was too long for me to wait in) and he is one of the guys who chose to keep his stunna shades on. Probably because his eyes were glazed over from how much he'd had to drink.

Steve Pinizzotto and Alexandre Giroux were sharing a table, and it was the next place I headed. I already have Giroux's autograph (courtesy of last year's Caps Convention), so waited in the line for Pinner. While some guys like Roo and Bryan Helmer opted for shaving their playoff beards into handlebar mustaches...

Pinner decided to go... a different route...

Yes, those would be stripes shaved into Pinner's beard.

I decided that with that look, Pinner strongly resembled a late-1990s AJ McLean, of Backstreet Boys fame:
 

Next... the time had come... for Keith Aucoin. A shockingly short line meant I thankfully didn't have much time to panic, though by the time I got to him I was still shaking like a leaf. He happily signed my jersey, which features his name and number, and I had enough time to snag a picture with him. One of the best quotes of the night was courtesy of Coiner. I wanted Coiner to sign on his numbers on the back of my jersey (the numbers are brown so a black Sharpie would not have worked), so Coiner reached over to grab the silver pen in front of tablemate Andrew Gordon. It had run dry (thankfully I had bought silver Sharpies that day). As I dug the pen out of my purse, Aucoin jokingly said of his linemate:

"I can't count on him for anything!"  

As with Alzner, Aucoin also shaved off the glory of his playoff, um, mutton chops.

Tablemate Andrew Gordon had a significantly longer line. We soon found out why. Gordo was having a conversation with everyone. By the time I got to him, he confessed to me that he really had to go to the bathroom (being as the guys had been drinking, several of them kept hopping over the boards and sprinting off to use the restroom). I found it hilarious that Gordo decided to share the status of his bladder with me.

By that time, there wasn't a whole lot of time left in the party. I sprinted to Chris Bourque's line, who was trying to drive people from his long line into tablemate Simon Ferguson's nonexistent line (ribbing Ferguson in the process). Bourque was sporting a Red Sox shirt and his MVP trophy was sitting on the table in front of him. Bourque also was gracious enough to take a picture with me.

There were about 10 minutes left, and I noticed that Zach Miskovic had no line.  Signed and picture (and absolutely kicking myself for not chatting with him about growing up in the Chicago suburbs, as both of us did). Braden Holtby's line was looking less than 10 minutes long. Signed and picture. I resisted asking him to be a part of my "Why Does He Do That?" feature regarding the famed "Holtbyisms."

After autographs were over, I made my first visit to the Bear's Den with tweeps Natalie (who shared her celebration experience with The Hockey Chronicles) and Kim, then hit the road, and finally got home around 2:15 AM. It was a stellar evening, and well worth the less-than-5-hours of sleep. Congratulations to the Hershey Bears, Calder Cup Champions for the 11th time.

(Autographs are, clockwise from the top left corner, Grant McNeill, Karl Alzner, Cody Eakin, Chris Bourque, Zach Miskovic, Andrew Gordon, Braden Holtby, Boyd Kane, and Steve Pinizzotto. And of course the back features Keith Aucoin.)

Final Note: Unless otherwise noted, all photographs in this post were taken by me and are my property.

A Caps Fan's First Visit to Chocolatetown

 

all photos by ME!

Up until this weekend, I kind of felt like a bad Caps fan. I had never before made the trek to Hershey to see the Bears play in person. Sure I've seen many of them play before – I did attend a day of development camp in the summer and of course have seen some of them when they're called up to the Caps, but I'd never seen all of them play together as a team. One of the disadvantages of not having a car.

I had been to an AHL game before. In fact, my very first professional hockey game was a Chicago Wolves game. It was live hockey game love. I honestly can't remember who they played (it was maybe 7 years ago) but I remember the excitement. The arena was alive and the crowd was electric. I credit that game for my first budding interest in professional hockey.

I follow the Bears of course, but only in a limited capacity since I'm too poor to pay for AHL Live, so I rely on Twitter for the most part. So you can imagine my excitement when a bus trip down to Hershey was offered. On Saturday, I hopped on the bus with 20 Caps fans and prayed for Holtby to be in net. We turned into Giant Center a little over two hours later, and just judging by the sheer amount of people, I knew it was going to be good.

Was it ever. Check out the picture below of Mathieu Perreault that I took during warmups. He'd just scored on Bacashihua during a warmup drill. It ended up being oddly prescient.

In the Bears' 9-2 win over the Bridgeport Sound Tigers, Mathieu scored the first goal for Hershey, and over the course of just two periods, scored three more (including one successful penalty shot). Greg Amadio got into a fight (and kind of lost). Chris Bourque scored, and Steve Pinizzotto (rocking a full face cage due to facial bone fractures) racked up four assists. American Hero John Carlson had a number of great hits, as well as an assist. Braden Holtby faced 24 shots and saved all but two. I got to see the magic that is the Bears' top line of Andrew Gordon, Alexandre Giroux, and Keith Aucoin (the line ended up with 11 combined points on the night). Andrew Gordon earned a new nickname from me (affectionately, "Funshine Bear"). The hockey game had everything – outstanding goaltending (by Holtby), a hat trick, a penalty shot, a fight, and over 10,000 screaming fans. Even Coach Boudreau was there!

So, when's the next bus to Hershey?