2012 first-round pick Tom Wilson absorbs a big hit. (Photo credit: Chris Gordon)

Day two of Caps Development Camp took place today, with timed tests for the prospects in the morning and a scrimmage in the afternoon, but it was what was said off the ice that was most interesting. Olaf Kolzig talked about a possible lockout, Stan Galiev talked about gaining nearly twenty pounds, and Max Iafrate brought us the distressing news that his father now listens to rap music.

Connor Carrick had the quote of camp however, explaining what Adam Oates’ first day as coach was like. “He’s nervous, we’re nervous, everybody’s nervous so nobody’s nervous.” Somebody put that to music, we’ve got a new hit for Carly Rae Jepsen.

In regards to the scrimmage, Team Red avenged Team White after their 3-1 loss yesterday, and won today, 2-1. Australian Nathan Walker scored the white team’s lone goal, while the red team’s two tallies were scored by Aaron Gens and David Vallorani.

RMNB’s Chris Gordon was there to capture all the action. Check out his photos below the jump.

Photos of Day Two’s Scrimmage

Tom Wilson disses out a hit.

Stan Galiev waits for a faceoff.

New top pick Filip Forsberg battles for the puck.

Forsberg goes for a ride.

Bears coach Mark French delivers some instruction.

Wilson with the puck.

Larry Courville, the head coach of new the Caps’s new ECHL affiliate, the Reading Royals.

Goalie prospect Steffen Soberg.

Garrett Haar speaks to the media.

Forsberg watches from the bench.

2012 draft pick Chandler Stephenson (white) fights for the puck.

Wilson carries the puck out of the defensive zone.

And plays some defense.

Caps GM George McPhee watches the action.

Wilson leaves the locker room.

Oates barking some orders.

Galiev watches the action from the bench.

Wilson has a laugh on the bench.

Thomas Di Pauli waits for a faceoff.

Chandler Stephenson looks on.

Olie Kolzig talks after the sessions.

Photo by Chris Gordon

Olaf Kolzig is announced to the Hershey crowd as the Eastern Conference's Honorary Captain. (Photo by Laura G.)

On Monday, the AHL formally inducted four new members into its American Hockey League Hall of Fame: Maurice Podoloff, Larry Wilson, Harry Pidhirny, and Mitch Lamourex. Foster Hewitt Award-winning broadcaster Mike Emrick was the master of ceremonies, while Caps’ head coach Bruce Boudreau served as the keynote speaker.

Among the honorees at the event was former Capitals great Olaf Kolzig. Kolzig, in Hershey to serve as the Eastern Conference’s Honorary Captain at the All-Star Game, was recognized for his six stellar seasons in the AHL. Olie backstopped the Rochester Americans to the Calder Cup Finals in 1993 and won the championship with the Portland Pirates in 1994, where he was also named playoffs MVP.

After the induction ceremony concluded, I caught up with Kolzig downstairs at the media luncheon in the Hershey Theatre. With the rare opportunity to speak to a childhood hero, I asked Kolzig about the Capitals’ run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998, the playoffs meltdown last year, and why he reunited with the team after their messy divorce three seasons ago.

Q. What does it mean to you to be named one of the Honorary Captains of the AHL All-Star Game?

A. Well for me personally, when you get asked to do something like that it’s a special honor because people recognize what you did. And I’ve never been a player that boasts about myself or pats myself on the back. When other people recognize that and invite me to an event like this, it’s very special. And to have it in Hershey, where it’s such a historic city– not only obviously with the chocolate but with the franchise itself– it’s probably one of the most prominent franchises in all of hockey.

Q. How did you first find out about the honor?

A. You know what, I was actually invited to last year’s event in Portland. Byron Dafoe and myself were both invited. But I had committed to a Disney cruise with my family, and my kids would have probably disowned me if I would have blown that off. So I was really thankful that [AHL President] Dave [Andrews] called me again and invited me. And It’s almost more special that it is in Hershey. I won a championship in Portland. But when you talk about the AHL, you talk about the Hershey organization.

Q. I wanted to ask you also about the fact that this year we’ve noticed that you’ve been around more Capitals events. What was the catalyst for that?

A. I was asked by [Capitals Team Services' Manager] Ian Anderson, way back in – I want to say – July or August to attend the Capitals Convention. Whatever differences I had [with the Capitals] wasn’t going to keep me away from the fans. The fans always treated me well there. And I thought: “You know what? Time heals all wounds. Let’s move on.” At the end of the day, you know, I’m going to be known as a Capital, not a Tampa Bay Lightning or a Toronto Maple Leaf. I’m a Washington Capital. Like I said, it’s unfortunate that things happened the way they did, but we’ve moved on. I went to the convention. I saw the team at the Winter Classic. So hopefully I’ll be more and more involved with the alumni stuff.

Q. Was it nice to see guys like Bonzai again [at the Convention]?

A. It was fantastic. Anytime you see your old teammates like Bonzai– I saw Michal Pivonka, I saw Sylvain Cote, I saw all those guys, and I actually had dinner with Joe Reekie that night– it’s great. Those are the guys you played with. Those are the guys you went to the final with. And you have such great memories. It’s just good to sit down and talk about the old days.

Q. The Capitals haven’t made it past the second round of the playoffs since you backstopped the team to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998. What was the magic with that team?

A. You know what: I don’t know. I just think anytime in the playoffs, everything just has to go right for you. Ask the Capitals last year. They just didn’t have that killer instinct. Game five they could have snuffed out Montreal’s hopes, but they allowed them to get a 2-0 lead, they allowed them to feel good about themselves, and they allowed Halak to get back into it. Next thing you know, they lose in seven. It’s just– it’s a fine line. And for us that year, we were pretty much healthy. All the top teams that finished ahead of us, had all gotten eliminated, and you know what… Ron Wilson being our coach really made a big difference that year. Because in the past, in past years, the team would be up 3 to 1 in a series, and find a way to lose. I remember us being up 3 to 1 against Boston– and nobody wanted to admit it– but everybody in the back of their mind was going, “Well, here we go again.” And Wilsie found a way for us to think differently. And even though we lost game five, we came out and won game six and we thought, “this is our time.” We finally got the monkey off our back. We beat Ottawa. We had a great series against Buffalo– especially the Joe Juneau goal in Overtime– which was probably my most memorable goal as a Capital. It’s unfortunate that we lost four straight to Detroit, because I thought we were a better team than them. But I think deep down we maybe as a team didn’t believe that we could beat them. Just that little bit of doubt I think might have been the difference in the series.

Q. After you spoke, [the AHL] put up a video presentation of you, and they showed a fight between you and Dafoe.

A. The Dance.

Q. Yeah, the dance! Were you aware that that was going to happen?

A. I had a little bit of a feeling. I know they aired it last year when Byron was there in hopes that I was going to be there, too. But I’m glad they allowed me my chance to give my side of the story. So it’s just one of the comedic times of my career and it was just an odd thing to see two goalies go at it, but not really go at it. Two best friends… it’s just a great story of mine.

Q. You were a fan favorite because of your intensity, so that was really great to see.

Q. What can we look forward to from you? We you know you did the Winter Classic stuff for NHL Live a few weeks ago.

A. You know what, I actually really enjoyed those two days doing that. People had always told me that I’d do a good job in television, and I really didn’t know that I would. And they invited me to do it because they didn’t really have anybody to give the Caps perspective. And there were a ton of people from Pittsburgh that were there and so they invited me to do it. And I really thought about it, and I went, “why not?” And I had a blast. So I don’t know if that’s going to be something that will happen more in the future, but I know they were happy with what I did. But right now I’m focused on my junior team. Right now we probably have the best Americans team, that the franchise has ever had right now. And we’re in a battle. We have another month and a half to the season to be there working with the goalies and then we’ll see what happens.

Q. Have you spent most of your time on the West Coast since?

A. Yeah. Pretty much all my time. We moved back up there from Florida, and I’ve been in Tri-cities full-time.

Rumors, and for us Caps fans – despair, fill up most of the downtime until we wait for the puck to drop again in October. Some of us speculate on which UFA will be (re)signed, some of us debate hotness of hockey players with or without teeth and some of us debate who’s sweater should hang in the rafters of The Phone Booth.

Olaf Kölzig spent 16 years as a Washington Capital — including six appearances as their goalie in the playoffs. He owns many of the franchise’s meaningful goalie records (GP, W, SO, Pts, SVs and SV%). Should the Caps honor the now-retired Kölzig by hoisting his jersey to the Verizon Center rafters?

As you would expect, Ted Leonis got this question almost immediately after Kölzig announced his retirement, and posted in his blog:

He was an all-time great for our franchise. He is deeply respected and beloved by all of us but I simply request that we all have the luxury of time. We all need to gain perspective.

Let’s take a look at which jerseys are already retired by the Caps and then see if Olie the Goalie deserves his jersey among them.

The current honorees:

Will Olie's #37 someday join Langway, Labre, Gartner and Hunter up in the rafters?

#7 Yvon Labre. Labre scored the first-ever home goal for Washington and was the team’s captain from 1976–78. Labre is on the Caps career leaderboard for PIMS (#8).

#5 Rod Langway, captain from 1982–93 and also the “Secretary of Defense.” Langway is a HOFer, won the Norris trophy twice with the Caps and was a 6 time All Star. The Capitals competed in the postseason in every one of the 11 years that Langway was with the team. Some credit him as being the franchise’s savior. A no-brainer.

#32 Dale Hunter. Hunter litters the Caps leaderboard – and not just for PIMs (1st): Games Played (4th), Goals (T-9th), Assists (3rd), Points (4th). He was also the captain from 1994–99.

#11 Mike Gartner, HOFer, seven time All Star and on The Hockey News’ list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players (#89). #2 in Goals, Assists and Points for the Caps franchise. It took Gartner 10 years after his retirement to get his number retired.

Oh, the good ol' days.

Clearly, Kölzig is the best goalie ever for the Capitals. His 18,013 saves are about 12,000 more than 2nd place (Don Beaupre) and his 301 wins are the most for any Washington Capital goalie. He also owns many of the franchise’s meaningful goalie records (GP, SO, Pts and SV%).

Kölzig was a fan favorite. In 2004, the Capitals held a vote for fans to determine the top 30 players in the franchise history to celebrate their 30th season in the league. Kölzig’s 2,038 votes led all players.

In the 1997–98 season Kölzig led the Capitals to the Stanley Cup Finals. In the playoffs, he became only the tenth goalie in NHL history to record four shutouts in one postseason. The Caps were swept in four games by the defending champion Detroit Red Wings.

Kölzig also has the distinction of being one of four goaltenders to play a scoreless period during an NHL All-Star Game, having done so at the 2000 All-Star Game. He also played in the 1998 All-Star Game, in which he made 14 saves on 17 shots. His 2000-01 campaign is the only one that would also come close to an “all-star-type season.

In 2000, he won the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goalie after going 41-20-11 with a 2.24 GAA and five shutouts.

So, what do we have?

Out of the four jerseys retired by the Capitals:

Three were captains. The first thing that jumps out at me is that three of the four honorees were team captains.  Because Kölzig was a goaltender, he was never allowed  to officially hold that title, but there was rarely any doubt who led the team especially in the latter stages of his career. Remember, there was a time when Steve Konowalchuk, Jeff Halpern & Brendan Witt held the distinguished honor.

Two are Hall of Famers, one of which is on the list of the 100 Greatest Hockey Players ever. Kölzig played in an era that also had Richter, Brodeur, Hasek, Roy and Belfour, so he was never regarded as one of the best goalies ever in the NHL, and I am not so sure he is even a HOFer.

None were Cap “lifers.” Kölzig spent 16 years with the Caps, and during that time, he was a very good NHL goalie, which is why he holds most of the meaningful franchise records a goalie can have for the Washington Capitals.

It’s a tough call. I think there is pressure from fans, more for sentimental reasons than for Kölzig’s body of work on the ice. Longevity certainly is something to be lauded, but it also provides a longer period of time for people to become endeared to an ideal. Kolzig is a fan favorite for sure, but outside of the Vezina Trophy season of 2000, I think retiring his jersey would be more for a PR move than for his contributions on the ice.

Semyon Varlamov and Michal Neuvirth will ultimately provide the “perspective” Leonsis spoke about in his blog post, but either way, I don’t think Kölzig should hang among Labre, Hunter, Langway and Gartner.  

Regardless, he sure was one good actor.