RED ALERT: Alzner ready for home coming

Mark ButerbaughDec 18, 2009

redalert Leave it up to Dan Snyder to interrupt and screw up our Caps coverage. He had to steal the spotlight for a day.

Caps embark on a West Coast back to back, starting tonight in Vancouver. Caps face off at 10PM against the Canucks. Then the Caps head to Edmonton for a 10PM face off against the Oilers Saturday night.

You may recall the brutal boarding hit against Mike Green on Tuesday night, well, Greenie is OK and Colorado’s Davis Koci was not suspended for the hit. Koci said his intent was not to injure Green. However, the NHL may very well suspend Koci, they just have not done so as of yet.

Both Green and Shaone Morrison are set to play tonight.

Jose Theodore will be in the net tonight. Semyon Varlamov has practiced and taken shots and is ready to return, but it is unclear whether his return will be this weekend or next week.

Karl Alzner is back in Washington and excited that his opportunity to stay is based on his play rather than his salary cap hit. And he is excited about facing Vancouver tonight, his home town, without different thoughts and superstitions and drama.

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“My mind is a lot more clear,” the 21-year-old said. “I don’t think about routine, stuff behind the scenes, being sent down. I just worry about playing hockey and enjoying myself. Because of that, I’m a lot more relaxed on the ice.”
There was a time when Alzner had to arrive at the rink precisely at the same time before each game. He would tap his stick on the ice 88 times during the national anthem. Mistakes made in the first period still bugged him in the third because he believed the miscue, no matter how minor, might give the coaching staff enough reason to send him back to the minors.
Even before suiting up Friday, Alzner’s homecoming provided him with some lifelong memories. Wednesday night, Alzner and some of the other young and/or inexperienced Capitals hosted the team for the annual rookie dinner, a rite of passage in the NHL. He didn’t want to divulge any details, but he said he called his credit card company ahead of time to warn them of an impending “expensive” expenditure.
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Don Cherry may be anti-Russian, but Vancouver is excited about hosting the great player in hockey. [Read more →]

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