Brett Leonhardt had a pretty typical game day - he put some footage of coach Bruce Boudreau on the Washington Capitals’ Web site from his cubicle in the afternoon, did a pregame podcast, went to Noodles & Co. for dinner and was in the locker room after the game recording more interviews.
Oh, and the 26-year-old Web producer also had his first experience as an NHL player.
Thanks to an improbable set of events, Leonhardt was the team’s backup goaltender during warmups and through part of the first period Friday night in a 5-1 pummeling of the Ottawa Senators at Verizon Center.
Brent Johnson made 32 saves in his fourth straight stellar start, and the Caps welcomed back two vital components to the lineup in defenseman Mike Green and Sergei Fedorov from injuries. Both players had great games in their returns - Green had a goal and two assists, and Fedorov added three helpers.
But they were all overshadowed by two goalies suiting up for an NHL game for the first time.
“It is every dream come true,” Leonhardt said. “Growing up in Canada, it was always my dream to play in the NHL, but when you don’t get drafted when you’re 18 and you don’t get a look after college with free agency, you just figure you’re never going to play in the NHL. It was very just surreal - it was a blur.”
After Jose Theodore tested out his hip flexor injury at Friday’s morning skate, he decided he couldn’t dress, which set off a crazy day. The Caps recalled top goaltending prospect Simeon Varlamov from Hershey of the American Hockey League to take Theodore’s place.
The problem was that the Bears are currently in Texas on a road trip. Varlamov was in net for Hershey in a 3-0 loss to San Antonio on Thursday night, and was on a plane Friday afternoon from Houston to Reagan National Airport. But he was unable to arrive in time for the start of the game.
Enter Leonhardt, who has practiced with the team a few times when one of team’s two normal netminders did not skate. The Caps signed Leonhardt to an amateur tryout contract and received permission from the NHL to have multiple backup goaltenders.
“Just another day in the hockey business,” Caps general manager George McPhee said. “This was a little different than most. This is what is really neat about our business and really terrifying about our business. You just never know what you’re going to get when you get to the rink in the morning.”
Leonhardt, who at 6-foot-7 would have matched St. Louis’ Ben Bishop as the tallest goalie in league history had he been put in the game, played four years of Division III college hockey - two at Oswego State and two at Neumann (Pa.) College. Leonhardt, whose nickname is “Stretch,” and Bishop, who played at Maine, are the tallest goalies to win an NCAA game.
Leonhardt joined the Caps organization last December after graduating in 2007 from Neumann. Orginally from just outside Toronto, he was drafted by the Kitchener Rangers of the Ontario Hockey League but never played in a regular-season game for them to preserve his NCAA eligibility.
“Oh [crap] - no, I loved it,” Green said. “I thought it was great. I was hoping he’d be on the bench the whole game. We give him a hard time when he skates with us in practice, but tonight was awesome for him.”
The whole saga made Varlamov’s first game in an NHL uniform a secondary story. Varlamov, a first-round pick by the Caps in the 2006 draft, said he received a phone call about 9:30 a.m. CST from Alex Ovechkin letting him know that Theodore was hurt. About 30 minutes later, Varlamov got the official call to the NHL.
The 20-year-old Russian is 10-3-0 for the Bears this season, and his 2.34 goals-against average is seventh in the league. He landed at Reagan about 6:40 p.m., where teams services manager Ian Anderson picked him up and drove him to the airport. They arrived at Verizon Center at 7:16 p.m., and he replaced Leonhardt, who wore No. 80, on the bench at 7:23 p.m. with less than 11 minutes left in the first period.
“This is one of the happiest days in my entire life,” Varlamov said through an interpreter. “It was a chaotic day. I didn’t know I was going to dress up [for the game]. Only when I got here to the arena did I find out.”
Green missed 11 games with a bruised shoulder, and Fedorov had been out for 16 of the past 17 contests with a sprained ankle. He originally injured his ankle against Carolina on Nov. 6 and returned against San Jose on Nov. 22 but hadn’t played since.
Alex Ovechkin scored a pair of goals, Brooks Laich had his first tally in 11 games and Alexander Semin had his first since returning from an upper body injury. In all, it was a dominant effort despite all the distractions.
“We didn’t know if we had a goalie, but the team responded well,” Green said. “It didn’t faze us, which was good.”
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