Washington Capitals

This season, the Caps have been doing "Chalk Talks" with various people. These are question-and-answer sessions held before the game (at 5 p.m.), and last night Tarik El-Bashir hosted. They're for season ticket holders - we split season tickets with a group of people, and we had the tickets to last night's game, so we were able to go to the talk as well.

I think the Chalk Talks are new this season; we've been in the ticket group for quite a few years now, and this is the first we've heard of them. I'm sure we would have at least heard of them before now if they had been happening before.

(In case you're not sure who Tarik is, he's a former Caps beat reporter for the WaPo, and is now on TNT covering hockey. He played hockey through his teenage years, but he knew he was not going to be going pro in hockey when he was 17 or 18.)

Extremely interesting chat. He told us a couple of his favorite stories. I'm going from memory, so I may have goofed on some details. I added a few personal notes in brackets.

• His first major scoop was the Ovechkin contract signing in ~2008. Apparently he got a tip from a reporter in Toronto, who may have been tipped off by an agent. Note Ovi had fired his agent a few months before, and his mother negotiated the contract instead, so it's possible the spurned agent is the one that alerted the reporter. Tarik witnessed the signing by looking in the windows at Kettler. Ted Leonsis was annoyed, because they were planning to announce it at the season ticketholder event later that evening, but Tarik scooped them. Ted laughs about it now, though, and apparently also tells the story from his point of view.

• He was first to interview Bruce Boudreau after his firing. Bruce wanted to wait ("It's Dale Hunter's day, let him have it"), so he told Tarik to come to his house the next morning at 7 with coffee and donuts [which seems very on-brand for Bruce]. When Tarik arrived, Bruce answered the door in dressy clothes, which got Tarik's attention, but Bruce said he was going to visit his mother. And that's how Tarik missed out on the scoop that BB was interviewing with the Ducks. Later, Bruce said, "What was I going to tell you? They hadn't fired Carlyle yet!" [I think it was Carlyle, but I'm too lazy to look it up, and it doesn't matter for the story.]

• He also got an interview with Olie the Goalie after his last game with the Caps. Tarik noticed Olie taking his name plate off his locker after the game, but he was busy getting the story of the Caps loss at the time. Later he got to interview Olie directly about leaving DC and was first to get the full story. His editor said, "Great story, but you need to call GMGM and get his side of the story."

There were a few questions.

• Someone asked about Wilson's punishment. He agreed Wilson deserved punishment for his action, but Tarik noted that another player [whose name escapes me] committed a two-handed slash earlier this season that resulted in just a $5k fine. He actually called it "The Wheel of Justice" and wished that Player Safety was more consistent.

• Some talk about up-and-coming players, LaPierre and Miroshnichenko. Great things to say about both, but Miro in particular he was impressed with - even late in the game in that loss to Toronto, Miro was working hard and engaged and upset at losing that way.

• Carbery - he noted that part of what makes Carbery so good is that he has excellent communication skills with the players. He will tell them exactly what they need to do to improve or get more ice time or whatever, and the players really appreciate that, and when Carbery talks, they listen. Carbery is also extremely smart, Tarik noted. If the team gets into the playoffs, he thought Carbery should win the Jack Adams award [he noted he doesn't have a vote on that award].

There was a question about the turnaround that led to the following two answers:

• He talked about Ovi's turnaround - and no, he has no idea what happened either. He joked that maybe riding a camel centered Ovi's mind [I assume Ovi was on vacation somewhere riding camels over the all-star break]. And the power play is suddenly firing on all cylinders, likely in part due to Ovi. The power play is suddenly the best in the league over the last 5 games at 44% [note this was before last night's festivities].

• Lindgren has stolen something like 8 games for the Caps. This is an actual statistic - I forget the math but it's something like high danger chances minus the final score. Kuemper has been struggling, but Lindgren has been a star.

He mentioned another interesting statistic. Unfortunately, I forget what the statistic was. It may have been goal differential. But no team has ever been below -10 and still made the playoffs, and the Caps have a good chance of being the first. It was just another piece of evidence of how incredible the turnaround is.

They gave away some signed pucks - Strome and Carlson IIRC, and they gave away a signed Ovi stick. Random drawing for everyone who was there.

Tarik knows the game so well. I've been watching for ~15 years, and I learned a few things from him. He's an excellent speaker, too, which isn't surprising given his position, but he handled the audience Q and A very smoothly too.

The talk finished up around 5:45, so you have time to walk around and hit the food stands, not all of which were quite ready for customers at that point.

It was a great experience. If you ever get the chance to go to one, take it.