Michael and William Nylander. (Photo credit: Scanpix)

Michael Nylander appeared in only parts of four seasons with the Washington Capitals, but he’s remembered by fans both for his play and the way he left the organization. The talented Swedish center played on the early 2000′s Capitals teams with Peter Bondra, Olie Kolzig, and Jaromir Jagr. He also helped mentor Nicklas Backstrom in a second tour with the team from 2007-2009.

But after signing a four-year $19.5 million contract to be the top center of the Caps in 2007, Nyles tore his rotator cuff and was never the same. With the Capitals near the top of the salary cap and Nylander unhappy with his role, they loaned the Swede to the Detroit Red Wings organization in 2009-10 (who then assigned him to the Grand Rapids Griffins of the AHL) and then to the Florida Panthers during the last year of his contract in 2010-11 (who later assigned him to Rochester). Nylander, who broke his neck 7 games into his stint with the Americans, then continued his career in Europe the next season in the Swiss National League A.

Since then, the 40-year-old Nylander has returned to his native home of Sweden to finish his career in the second-tier HockeyAllsvenskan. And for a good reason.

On Tuesday, for the first time ever, Nyles and his 16-year-old son, William, played together on the same team, Sodertalje SK (and even skated on the same line). This is the same William who could be seen skating at Kettler Capitals Iceplex after his dad finished practice with the big league team.

After signing Michael early on in January, Sodertalje SK recalled his son William from their under-20 squad a few weeks ago. The younger Nylander, however, could not make his long-awaited professional debut until Tuesday due to a shoulder injury.

In almost a perfect storm for Caps fans, Sodertalje SK and the Nylanders took on Filip Forsberg’s Leksands IF.

The league-leading Leksand won 5-3 to spoil William’s debut. Forsberg scored a goal, but the best moment however was when William Nylander scored his first pro point, an assist, after skating a full circle around Leksands IF’s offensive zone. Sound familiar? William, ignoring his dad wide open in front of the net, instead passed to Johan Jonsson who scored on a shot from the point. Sorry, dad.

Will’s assist can be seen at the 30 second mark. Forsberg’s goal can be seen at 1:00. (Video credit: HockeyAllsvenskan)

Not surpsingly, Nylander’s son is a highly-touted prospect eligible for the 2014 NHL Draft. The Hockey Writers had him rated in their top 20.

We’re pretty sure William will remember this day for the rest of his career.

Sodertalje SK fans’ “Welcome Nylanders” sign. (Photo credit: HockeyAllsvenskan)

Additional reporting by Ian Oland.

Photo credit: Toni L. Sandys of the Washington Post

Editor’s note: To get you properly revved up for the season, each member of the RMNB crew will take a longing look back at some of our favorite goals from days gone by. You can call it nostalgia or cheap summer content, but it’s really a reminder: WINTER IS COMING.

Seeing a Steve Konowalchuk hat trick live with my dad and brother made me fall in love with hockey. Joe Juneau’s jamshot past Dominik Hasek made me wildly jump up and down as a teenager. But Alex Ovechkin’s first career playoff tally is my all-time favorite NHL goal.

Here’s why.

Way back at the beginning of the 2007-08 season, being a Caps fan wasn’t such a fun thing. Sure, the team had young prospects in Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin. But the organization was coming off three dreadful seasons in which they finished dead-freaking-last in the powerhouse Southeast Division. Mix in a lockout, watching GMGM trade away all of my favorite players from childhood (Bondra, Oates, Gonchar, etc.) and– just in general– the Jaromir Jagr experiment, and it had been a really awful ten years since the Caps made their first trip to the Stanley Cup Finals.

’07-08 didn’t start off much better. In fact, things got worse. Way worse. In those early months, the team looked completely lost, winning six of their first 21 games. The rebuilding Capitals were actually the worst team in hockey. I had my doubts in Ted Leonsis’s plan.

On Thanksgiving Day, Coach Glen Hanlon was mercilessly fired, and Hershey’s Bruce Boudreau was called up to turn things around. And turn things around he did.

The Capitals overcame injuries to key players like Michael Nylander and Brian Pothier during the year, and won 11 of their final 12 regular season games to edge the Carolina Hurricanes for the Southeast Division title AND the final playoff spot in the East. Mike Green led all NHL defensemen with 18 goals. Alex Ovechkin, who was serenaded by the Verizon Center crowd with M-V-P chants at the end of the year, scored 65 jaw-dropping goals.

I was at about 25 of those home games that year as a fan and the Capitals were truly the NHL’s Cinderella story. I had never experienced one of my favorite teams having the best player in the league. I never thought in a million years that the Capitals would recover and make the playoffs. Verizon Center also became the place to be. As the year went on, the building got louder and louder. It almost seemed like every night you were going to a rock concert or some kind of awesome party where everyone there was your long-lost friend. When tickets went on sale for the first round, I nabbed two upper bowl seats to Game 1 where the Capitals took on the Philadelphia Flyers. I was really excited…

But then things kinda went wrong. The team looked off in the first forty minutes. Most of the players, such as Nicklas Backstrom, had never even experienced an NHL playoff game before. “I was so nervous when I had the puck the first two periods,” said Ovechkin after the game.

The Capitals were staring at a 4-2 deficit coming out for the third period. Things looked awfully bleak. But just like every game towards the end of that year, the Capitals flat-out willed themselves to victory.

Mike Green scored a Bobby Orr-eque goal two minutes into the third. 4-3. Five minutes later, MG52 blasted a rocketship home, this time on the power play past a helpless Mathieu Biron. The tally also resulted in this iconic photograph, too. 4-4.

And then after ten tense minutes of play with the score tied, Alex Ovechkin did his thing:

All I remember from the goal was jumping up and down frantically and bear-hugging my friend Roebuck. I high-fived the two gentlemen in the row below me. They were two friends from Scotland (they were wearing kilts) visiting DC for the weekend, taking in their first ever hockey game. Then someone from the row above fell on top of me, knocking me leg first onto the concrete. It resulted in the worst bruise I’ve ever had. I hugged that guy.

“It is amazing in sports how great moments follow great players,” Caps coach Bruce Boudreau said to reporters after the game. “They just seem to be in the right place at the right time. If you are a star baseball player, it seems like you are coming to bat with the runner on second base. Those are things that happen.

“For his first playoff game, he finished it off OK.”

There are a lot of notable things that happen in life, all of which you try to remember. Not all of those moments stay with you though. However, I remember this night as vividly as if it were yesterday. And after some reflection, it probably wasn’t because of the goal or those Scottish guys. It was because of the context surrounding it. My favorite team was really good. I believed deep down in my heart that my favorite team could overcome any and all odds. My favorite team could and – at the time I believed – WOULD finally win a Stanley Cup. Also, after many years of the Verizon Center being empty, people were coming out in droves to support the team. Boy, those those were really good feelings.

Since that year, I’ve been eager to see what this team will do next. I believe in Ovechkin. I believe in this collection of core players.

So with Opening Night one day away, I keep thinking this:

Maybe this is the year.

Sure, maybe it was stating the obvious when we said the second-line center the Caps should target is Matthew Lombardi, but it’s more than that. If we look at the numbers, I think he is the ONLY viable option in free agency.

Luckily our first line center is set in stone for the next decade. You may have heard of him; he’s kind of a big deal. But then there is quite a drop off:

Under contract are Michael Nylander and Brooks Laich. The team will pay Nylander’s $3 million salary next season but will make sure it doesn’t count against the salary cap by assigning him to Europe (again) or sending him to Hershey, leaving just Brooksy.

There is RFA Tomas Fleischmann, who, if you ask his agent, is comparable to Montreal center Tomas Plekanec. So, thanks, but no thanks.

GM George McPhee has said the Caps do not plan to re-sign center Brendan Morrison, a UFA.

That leaves Eric Belanger, who despite being an UFA is “still on the team’s radar.”

So, at center we have Backstrom– possibly Belanger– and Laich, who may be better suited to LW.

If we look at Goals Created for Belanger, we see he created 14.3 goals in 77 games. Or .7 per 60 minutes of ice time. That’s our benchmark. I am not alone in thinking Belanger is at best a #3 center, so any option the Caps consider has to be an improvement over Belanger – or they should simply sign Belanger and hope for the best.

With Plekanec and Marleau off the table, the free agent options become:

Vinny Prospal, who created 19.9 goals last season, and Saku Koivu, who created 18.2 goals. Both will be over 35 years old next season, and the stats on centers over 35 are not encouraging:

From 1987-88 to 2009-10, there have been only 35 centers, aged 35 or older, who have played more than 50 games, had 15+ goals and 30+ assists in a season – the average stats for a second-line centerman. That’s fewer than two players per year!

Olli Jokinen (16.6 goals created) & Matt Cullen (16.3) are only slight upgrades to Belanger– leaving Matt Lombardi, who created 18.4 goals and at 27 years old is just now entering what could be the prime of his career.

Have a better option? Let us know in the comments.

http://www.behindthenethockey.com/2010/1/19/1185179/taking-a-beating-league-leaders-in

“We all know who the big hitters are, but have you ever wondered who gets hit the most?”

Looking only at roads hits to remove some of the scoring bias, Stephane Robidas (191) and Douglas Murray (187) are the guys who have gotten hit the most over the last two years.

Recently departed Capital Michael Nylander is 6th in getting hit ratio, having dished out just 7 hits while taking 53 himself. No Caps were amongst the top 19 in hit ratio, with Trent Hunter leading the pack there (153 hits, 63 hits against).

With the high-powered offense, there isn’t a ton of need for Washington to be overly physical.

http://hockproject.blogspot.com/2010/01/save-percentage-adjusted-for-penalty.html

While save percentage may be one of the better stats for goalies, it still doesn’t take into account the quality of the shots faced. That issue can be ameliorated a bit by adjusting for how well and how often goalies face the penalty kill.

“As of now the top ten goalies in SV% with at least ten games played are:

1. Ryan Miller .936
2. Tukka Rask .930
3. Jimmy Howard .928
4. Jaroslav Halak .927
5. Mikka Kiprusoff .926
6. Henriq Lunqvist .926
7. Peter Budaj .925
8. Evgeni Nabokov .925
9. Seymon Varlamov .924
10. Tomas Vokoun .924

What I’m going to do though is make an adjustment for the Shot Quality effect on the PK, and thus make an adjusted SV% for that situation; here are the top ten in that stat:

1. Ryan Miller .941
2. Seymon Varlamov .941
3. Peter Budaj .938
4. Jimmy Howard .937
5. Tomas Vokoun .937
6. Mikka Kiprusoff .933
7. Henrik Lunqvist .932
8. Martin Brodeur .932
9. Tukka Rask .931
10. Evgeni Nabokov, Jaroslav Halak and Ilya Bryzgalov .930″

Varly hasn’t done particularly well on the penalty kill (.844 SV%), so when making an adjustment for that he vaults up to virtually the top of the rankings. Now if he could spend more time on the ice, that would be fantastic.

http://www.behindthenethockey.com/2010/1/14/1250611/the-nhls-best-even-strength

Hawerchuk “estimated the expected number of goals that each player should have scored each year based on the locations of the shots he took – because rebounds are high-percentage shots… only looked at initial shots to assess pure shooting” and then compared to the actual number of goals scored. Ilya Kovalchuk was easily tops, having scored about 51 more goals than would be expected. The Capitals’ two Alexanders were 7th (Ovie, 27 more goals) and 12th (Semin, 19 more goals). Nice to have a couple of sharp-shooters like that on one’s team.

http://www.puckprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=426

The Western Conference has been stronger than the Eastern Conference this year:

“Through last weekend, in head-to-head matchups between Eastern and Western teams this season, the West has won 70 in regulation and 16 more in overtime or shootouts, compared to the East’s marks of 47 wins in regulation and 17 in overtime. In those games, the West has outscored the East by a total of 44 goals and outshot them by 155 shots…

While the worst team in the NHL, the Carolina Hurricanes, has an address on the East Coast, even the better teams in the Eastern Conference have trouble with the top Western teams: of the 42 East-West games between the top eight teams from each Conference, the West has won 29, the East just 13.

This is not to say that the Eastern Conference is without elite teams. The New Jersey Devils may be the most complete team in the NHL, the Washington Capitals have the most explosive offense, the Buffalo Sabres have the best goaltender and the Pittsburgh Penguins are the defending Stanley Cup champions. But of the three teams that can lay claim to being at the head of the class at the halfway point of the season, two reside in the West, with the Chicago Blackhawks and San Jose Sharks joining New Jersey.”

Despite having to go through the tougher competition, the Blackhawks are still the team with the best odds to reach the Stanley Cup Finals.

"Team       Odds
Blackhawks 31%
Devils     29%
Capitals   21%
Sharks     19%
Sabres     16%
Canucks    15%
Flames     11%
Penguins   10%

“Ultimately, you have to beat the other conference’s top team to win the Cup and the two favorites both reside in the West. Both the Blackhawks and the Sharks would be favored in a head-to-head matchup with any Eastern team, while the Canucks (predicted to pass over the Avalanche in our projections) and Flames would be underdogs to the Devils and Capitals, but favorites against the Penguins or Sabres.”

(Almost) anything can happen in a short series, and being one of the top few contenders for the Cup is about as good as any team can reasonably expect.

Winger Alexander Semin has agreed to a one-year contract extension, GM George McPhee confirmed to me moments ago. Semin, who is in the final year of a two-year contract, would have become a restricted free agent July 1.

He will become an unrestricted free agent after the extension expires in 2011.

Does this setup an opportunity for the Capitals to actually resign Semin to a long-term deal next year? The Russian Machine thinks so. Remember, the Capitals still need to have the flexibility to handle Michael Nylander and his cap hit on the roster next year if something unforeseen happens, and this 1 year contract essentially buys them time.

Plus, it further allows the team to make sure this is an investment it wants to make. And with someone as enigmatic as Semin, this is smart. We applaud GMGM. Now let’s get Nicklas Backstrom signed to a 15 year deal!!

Update: It is a one year 6 million dollar deal and George McPhee said that Semin preferred the one year pact. McPhee also said that he’s trying to keep the team together and is interested in locking him up long term. Also, interesting perspectives: Puck Daddy Editor Greg Wyshynski and Capitals Beat Writer/Translator Dmitry Chesnokov say the Capitals have a two year window to win the Stanley Cup. Reading into their answers it makes me feel like a KHL Russian Team may make a serious run at Semin to get him to return to his native country once he’s a free agent next year.

Though the Russian Machine firmly believes that George McPhee and Bruce Boudreau are mostly to blame for this bad relationship – meaning they bought expensive goods they never really needed in the first place and then played “hardball” when it officially backfired – we’re happy to see the hard-headed Nyles still has some pride left in himself and wants to continue playing hockey while collecting a weekly paycheck most of us don’t make in a year.

Look we get it. The Caps proved they could play without Nylander in 2007-08 when he was out almost the entire season with a rotator cuff injury. And we also get that when Nylander was healthy, he had one of the worst plus minuses on the team. But George, why did you give him a no-trade clause? Can you or someone in the organization please explain that?

Now some of you may say, “Hey, we had to get arid of Nyles because he basically ignored what Bruce coached him to do.” Okay, maybe that’s fair. If you don’t get what I mean, check out the dry-erase board graphics below the jump:

Boudreau’s philosophy

Notice Bruce wants his players to attack.

Nyles’s philosophy

And Notice Nylander likes spinning in circles

Moving forward, you might be wondering what the Russian Machine is excited about now? Well, what we’re really looking forward to is the soap-opera-like press conference tomorrow with Capitals GM George McPhee in which he tries to completely throw the player he begged to sign here under the bus with a statement he already memorized 3 months ago. Oh man, can’t wait. Then it’ll be Nyles turn to rip the organization, and potentially air dirty laundry about Bruce Boudreau and how he mishandled him. Awesome.

Then the Capitals PR Staff can twitter about how unfair Nylander is being and defend Bruce Boudreau by saying “I wouldn’t question a former Jack Adams Winner,” which might I add is never really a good defense of anything. Yes, he’s a good coach, but even good coaches can make mistakes – like putting a rusty Mike Knuble on the first line after a three week layoff and irritating our second best player. (Yes, we saw Sasha cursing at Brooks Laich after Laich threw a play offsides by maybe 35 ft)

Then maybe – if we’re lucky – we’ll get a Ted’s Take post where Ted Leonsis tries to be fair to both sides and says “as an organization this is something we just had to do.” True, but it still doesn’t explain the no-trade clause.

So what does this all mean? Absolutely nothing for this year. The Capitals lost Chris Bourque because of the Nylander contract situation which I noted previously on another wonderful website, and then got him back from the Penguins earlier this week in a waiver claim. The real gain is next year and beyond where they need to resign restricted free agents Alex Semin and Niklas Backstrom. Both players are due hefty pay raises and will be a huge part of a potential Capitals Dynasty – well, if it ever happens.

So to recap, the fan in me is really excited about this like everybody else. Why? Because the stakes were very high. Realize the mortal people in our organization made a mighty big mistake, realized it, and fixed it. And it might have bought us enough Cap Space to win a Stanley Cup in the not so distant future. Давайте Праздновать!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!