Peter Bondra holds up the 2002 World Championships’ trophy.

By beating the Czech Republic 3-1 in the second semifinal of the World Champs, Slovakia earned the right to play Russia, who defeated Finland earlier Saturday, for the gold medal. The Slovakians have won the Worlds once, in 2002, when they upset Russia in the final. Capitals legend Peter Bondra scored twice in that game, including the game winner with less than two minutes left in the third period of play.

Video is below the jump.

Peter Bondra scores the late game-winning goal to give Slovakia its only World Championship… so far. Check out full highlights, including another Bondra goal.

With that last goal, Bondra also won the goal-scoring race. Also in top-10 were then-Caps Ulf Dahlen (fourth) and Jaromir Jagr (tenth). Six Capitals who played in the World Championships that year, including Steve Konowalchuk, Joe Sacco, and Todd Rohloff, who played for Team USA.

Former teammates congratulate Hunter as his number is retired. (Photo credit: Linda Spillers)

Back at Piney Orchard, only a handful of fans would come out to watch the Capitals practice– usually just the locals.

One day– a million years ago, my brother and I were sitting in the stands watching Mike Eagles and Steve Konowalchuk take an optional skate before leaving the ice. A few moments later, we heard someone cursing nearby. “F%$#ing thing!” the voice boomed.

We looked over to see Captain Dale Hunter, in sweats, fuming at a vending machine. He had put in fifty cents for a pack of Peanut M&M’s. The bag spun, but it stayed on the coil.

At first he was calm. He pounded on the window with restraint. Then he stood on his toes and swayed the machine back and forth, trying to get the candy to fall out. He cursed under his breath and glared acidly at the machine, considering what to do next.

Then he gave the vending machine an uppercut.

Nothing.

If you don’t know him, that’s how Hunter does things. He expects perfection. If he doesn’t get perfection, he can be a vicious S.O.B.

Eventually Hunter gave up. He got some coffee from the concession and walked out.

Dale Hunter was one of my heroes growing up. When I inspected the vending machine after he left, I noticed the scar where he punched the glass. Each time I’d visit Piney Orchard after that, I touched the glass. That story– that moment— was mine, but now I’m sharing it with you. A tiny moment from a player who is larger than life.

Yeah. It was kinda like this, but Ted Leonsis and Alex Ovechkin swore a lot less:

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.

Why do I get you? Well, because I’m a hockey addict too. My parents get it (when I used to live at home, I’d yell at them if they didn’t have the Caps game on during dinner), my girlfriend puts up with it (no dates on game days) and my roommate worries about me (he frequently asks “did they score or is there a dead body in your room?”)

So how did I get to this point? Let’s go back in the Way Back Machine. Like every other kid who loved sports, I watched SportsCenter every morning religiously before getting on the bus for school. And generally, I’d be excited about the NBA highlights, the NFL highlights and kinda get bored by the hockey highlights which were – let me add – always shown at the end of the show. I seriously remember having an inner thought as an 8 year of “Who is Pierre Turgeon and why does his name sound so funny?” I didn’t really get what a hat trick was, I didn’t understand the fighting, and it just seemed like a boring sport to watch. And don’t even get me started on the weird standings point system. The Patrick Division? Two-Line Passes? What the hell? Admittedly it was a hard sport to learn as a youngster.

This all changed when one night I came downstairs to find my older brother Brandon watching a Capitals game in October 1995. At the time, I was a scrawny 11 year old who looked up to my brother – 3 years my senior – for everything. I remember sitting there beside him having trouble finding the puck along the boards while guys would forecheck. It kinda made my brain hurt. But I kept watching because my brother was. At some point, I don’t remember when, I saw this Big #24 guy (who ended up being Capitals legend Mark Tinordi) crunch another player hard (and I mean hard) into the boards behind the goal. “WOAHHHH!!!! THAT’S AWESOME!” I screamed. “Isn’t that a penalty?!” I asked my brother. “Nope, that’s legal in this sport.” Instantly I was intrigued.

After all these years that’s all I remember of the first NHL game I watched, a huge Mark Tinordi check. But after that night, I started watching more and more. So much more that my parents took notice. On Christmas Day 1995, after my brother and I opened all our gifts by the tree, we got to our stockings. What’s inside you ask? Capitals tickets with my dad and brother to go see them play the Rangers on January 6th!! What was my reaction? Kinda like this.

Sadly I don’t remember much of that Capitals game beyond the fact that a few minutes before the second intermission, I left my dad and brother and went down to the lower bowl of the USAir Arena. This was after Steve Konowalchuk scored two awesome goals 44 seconds apart. As the players walked back towards the locker room I yelled “Kono, are you going to get a hat trick?” He came up to me, gave me a high five and said “You bet I am!”

Excitedly I ran back up to my seats and told my brother and dad. I couldn’t believe an athlete just talked to me!! My brother and dad were skeptical it even happened. They remained skeptical until Konowalchuk scored his third goal of the night in the third period and I jumped up and down screaming “I told you so!! I told you so!!”

The Caps ended up tying the Rangers that game 4-4, but that didn’t matter. The point was that after that small gesture by Steve Konowalchuk, it made me feel such a huge connection to the team.

Since then, I’ve tried to watch every Capitals game on TV during the season, go to as many practices as I can and go to as many games as I could afford. I’ve been to 11 straight Opening Night games at Verizon/MCI Center. I have 7 different Caps player jerseys. I have a booklet full of autographed cards which includes two leaflets full of Peter Bondra autographs.

And so now, naturally, it’s time to take the obsession to the next level: a hockey blog.

After my success with Matt Wieters Facts, I thought it was the right time to bring together an extremely talented and diverse group of writers including musician and information architect Peter Hassett, Carroll County Times Features Writer Brandon Oland, and Camden Crazies blogger and resident Russian Translator Daniel Moroz to bring you another entertaining look at the NHL’s most interesting and dominant team. Expect to laugh and be intrigued. That’s for sure.

Anyways, if you remember yourself crying and having a sleepless night over a horrible playoff loss or tearing up all your Detroit Red Wings trading cards and throwing them in the toilet because you’re so upset that they beat your favorite team in the Stanley Cup Finals, then this blog’s for you. And even if you haven’t done any of that, this blog’s for you anyways. I hope you enjoy our content in the months to come. Please follow us on Twitter, and if you’ve got the time, tell us how you fell in love with hockey below in the comments!