Garin Bjorklund turned heads in his preseason debut for the Washington Capitals on Sunday and in more ways than one.
The goaltender prospect relieved Logan Thompson in the second period and made saves on all 15 shots he faced, closing out the team’s 5-2 victory over the Boston Bruins. He also stopped all five Bruins attempts he faced in a practice shootout afterward, which was won by Capitals’ centerman Hendrix Lapierre in the fifth round.
“I think Garin was excellent in his first ever NHL action in an exhibition game,” Capitals head coach Spencer Carbery said afterward to reporters.
Bjorklund’s performance at TD Garden comes after he helped lead the South Carolina Stingrays to the best record in the ECHL last season. The 23-year-old, Calgary, Alberta native went 21-4-3 with a 2.02 goals against average and .927 save percentage.
Bjorklund also got attention in the game for the jersey number he was wearing, which is not typical for a goaltender: no. 68.
For a while, in fact, those digits would have potentially garnered outrage in the early 2000s.
The only player in Capitals’ history to wear 68 in an NHL game was legendary forward Jaromir Jagr who played in Washington from 2001 through 2004. The Czech winger was acquired in a trade on July 11, 2001 from the Pittsburgh Penguins by then GM George McPhee and then signed to a seven-year, $55.44 million contract extension months later in October.
Jagr was expected to take the Capitals to new heights and make them a Stanley Cup contender every year, especially after being named NHL MVP in 1999 and winning five Art Ross Trophies as the NHL’s leading point-scorer with the Penguins. Instead, the Capitals scuffled and a sulking Jagr never scored more than 36 goals or 79 points — well below his heyday in Pittsburgh. The Capitals pulled the plug on Jagr in January 2004, trading him to the New York Rangers and beginning a rebuild which led them to winning the NHL Draft Lottery and picking Alex Ovechkin first overall in the 2004 Draft.
“My years in Washington, it wasn’t great years,” Jagr said in 2022. “I wanted to be the best and it just didn’t work out. Right now I still can’t apologize to the fans in Washington enough. I try my best but it just didn’t work out.”
He also added in a silly Instagram post, “After 18 years we should look the positive way. If I would play very good , you would never had a chance to draft OVI. And you would probably didn’t win the cup [in 2018]😀👍…….. you welcome😎”
What once might have been thought of as heresy now has a bit of a cool factor as time has healed most wounds and Jagr has become one of the most likable and respected players in hockey. Jagr continues to play at age 53 for the Kladno Knights, a Czech team he owns in his hometown.
“It was a lot of fun to play in that rink and wear that jersey for the first time,” Bjorklund said. “It was exciting, a lot of fun.”
