With a long offseason and summer league kicking off, I explore life as a beer league center -- and get some help and tips form the Washington Capitals themselves.
ROCKVILLE, M.D. -- Being around the Washington Capitals for the last five years, I've become completely immersed in the world of hockey culture, and it's been a double-edged sword as I've taken the ice myself.
It's a good thing because, as a mediocre beer-league center like me, taking in NHL action daily and seeing the approach to the game gives you a whole new perspective. On the flip side, my teammates have to listen to my hockey lingo, bench chatter and unrelenting energy that I'm sure no one wants to hear after being pumped 7-0. But I digress.
All of that, though, combined with the long offseason, gave me the inspiration to start a weekly write-up and fun column. Over this past year, I broke down the Xs and Os of the game with the Capitals while also discussing the basics and culture within the game, from scrums to skating to what makes a good captain.
So, let's get to it; here are the adventures of your typical beer league center (me, the captain of the HNA's Ghost Pirates), featuring help from the Capitals and other NHLers. And one subject I wanted to chat about: where the net-front scrums emerge and the art of "chirping," or a nice word for trash talk.
Yes, I wear the "C," but given my limited skillset making me the gritty crash-the-net forward and my wind-up toy personality, I never stop talking during games. Ever. And, as is the case in hockey, last-ditch efforts to crash the crease lead to some chatter in front, which then turns into a chirp.
Of course, it's all clean fun at the end of the day, which is usually followed by banter or post-game hangouts between our teams in the lobby or parking lot of the rink.
As Washington's players explained, the scrums in front usually arise out of... well, nothing.
"Just two people standing next to each other. Sometimes, that's all it takes," John Carlson laughed.
And that's exactly it. When you're on the ice, an instinct takes over. On offense, it's crash the net and pick up the trash. Of course, that led to me receiving a nice little sucker punch in Game 2 of the season.
At the other end, it's the opposite: someone's in your crease, and you automatically (well, if you're me) go to clear it out. I don't tell myself to glide over and tell a guy crashing the net to "get the heck away from my goalie;" it just happens.
For Matt Irwin, there's many more reasons for the net-front scrums, from frustration boiling over to battles for pucks. But usually, protecting the goalie is among the biggest reasons.
"Whether it's a late whistle and they're trying to find a loose puck, they poke the goalie or sometimes it's just initiating with us d-men trying to keep them away from our goalie and box it out, and they don't like it," Irwin said. "That's all part about playing hard and being hard to play against."
Former Capitals defenseman Matt Niskanen told me a few years back that you also need to keep your eyes open.
“It can get a little nasty, and not everybody’s going to be your best bud out there. It can get a little cutthroat,” Niskanen said.
“You remember who’s hard to play against, who’s got a mouth on them, and sometimes it’s just over and done when you say something, you battle, then it’s over," he added. "With other times, there’s kind of where you write the guy’s number down and put it in the bank. You look for an opportunity to get them back.”
When it comes to the chirps, at the NHL level, there's not really too much talking. At the end of the day, they're little moments that mainly involve stick lifts and pushing and shoving rather than chatting.
"A lot of times, there's not even a lot of talk. It might look like there is, but a lot of the time, it just feels like stick work."
"It's kind of useless, in my opinion," Carlson said of chirps.
Former Washington goalie Pheonix Copley also mentioned that he just stands there and waits, not getting involved. He's now with the Los Angeles Kings.
"Whatever happens happens," he smiled.
When players do have something to say, though, there are players on the roster who can dish it and players who can't: Trevor van Riemsdyk said Tom Wilson probably has the best chirps. The ranking of worst belonged to former Capitals Daniel Sprong and Jakub Vrana. And personally, my chips rank maybe like... a 4.8/10.
In those instances, though, the gloves can come off from time to time, as seen with Rasmus Sandin this past season and more. Fighting is all part of an unwritten code and a different story from your casual scrums.
There's an obligation to stick up for your teammates, as well as obligations to answer the bell, settle arguments or put aside bad blood that's lingered from game to game. And once it's over, it all goes back to normal.
Note: My all-time fights record is 0-1. I got slew footed and easily taken down immediately after dropping the mitts. No one was injured.
“It’s something that just kind of happens within a game and you can laugh it off after. You’re not really going to hurt each other. That’s what I’d say is probably the biggest thing with any fight. There’s probably instances where there’s a little more animosity behind it,” Beck Malenstyn explained. "Two of you have been going at it for a while, and that’s just going to kind of settle the score."