Glen Hanlon News

"My tasks are different from those of a [Steve] Yzerman. On our team, the coach nominates the roster." -- Sergej Gotcharov, Team Belarus GM The biggest change for Team Belarus at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver is not likely to be the composition of the roster on the ice.

Glen Hanlon coached the Washington Capitals before being fired in November 2007.

SCENE & HEARD: As a former sales and marketing exec with International Management Group and Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment, Tom Mauthe appreciates what it means to the Canucks to have Alex Ovechkin in town.

It was one of the hockey world's most unlikely success stories: A national team from a politically unfriendly former Soviet republic bonded strongly with its North American coach and overachieved through a belief in one another and its on-ice system.

For secondary hockey powers like Belarus, there is not nearly as much talent from which to choose for the Olympics as there is for medal contenders such as Canada, Russia and Sweden.

The most famous and successful club team from Belarus is Dynamo Minsk. When the Kontinental Hockey League was created in the former Soviet Union, it expanded the former Russian Super League to incorporate entries from all the major former Soviet republics.

The day of his first signing, Bruce Boudreau is already learning today's unfortunate truth about pushing books -- and newspapers, for that matter: Our crawl-line culture is so averse to spending time with the printed word that we end up glomming onto the most titillating item while sailing straight past the journey.

Even before 400 copies of 'Gabby: Confessions of a Hockey Lifer,' sold quickly at Kettler Capitals Iceplex on Saturday afternoon, as the long autograph line for the Capitals coach and his co-author, Tim Leone, snaked inside the team's practice facility, the buzz wasn't about the incredible tale of how a career minor leaguer ended up coaching the game's most breathtaking player in Washington.

"Several years ago the Belarussian team began the difficult path to the top," Hanlon said.

Couch Bruce Boudreau wishes he could get inside the heads of his players, some of whom go "brain dead." Their owner, Ted Leonsis, recently said they played like spoiled teenagers.

For the past four seasons, the world's best hockey player has performed in Washington. As a member of the Capitals, Alex Ovechkin has won a scoring title, led the National Hockey League in goals twice and been named MVP two years in a row.

The prize he's expected to deliver, though, has so far eluded him.

This could be the year that changes. Surrounded by the best supporting cast since his arrival, and likely the most talented lineup in the franchise's 36-year history, expectations have never been so high for the gregarious 24-year-old Russian or the Capitals.

When Washington Capitals general manager George McPhee decided Jay Leach would not return next season, he and coach Bruce Boudreau needed a new assistant.