Tag Archives: Arturs Irbe

Olie Back in the House!

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I am so pleased to welcome back Dave Prior as our chief goaltending coach. He is a real talent and very experienced in helping young goaltenders to develop. I would also like to thank Arturs Irbe for his remarkable stint as a goaltending coach for us as well these last two seasons.

I am so very excited to welcome into the coaching ranks Olie Kolzig. Olie is an all-time great Washington Capital. He is a man of high integrity, skill and experience. He took us to the playoffs on so many occasions; helped us to get to the Stanley Cup Finals; won a Vezina Trophy; and will help inject very high levels of competition into our goaltenders and our team in general!

Olie is back. We are happy and thrilled and he and Dave will team to be a great tandem of coaches for our young goaltenders. This is a smart move by our team and it will be great to see both Dave and Olie at Kettler Capitals Iceplex for Development Camp in July.

Arturs Irbe

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Kudos to our new goalie coach Arturs Irbe, a man who is very passionate and involved with the art and science of goaltending.

Arturs is deeply involved with creating physical and mental habits for our goaltenders. He is very focused on excellence and on communicating and teaching the ins and outs of this set of crafts to all of the goaltenders in our entire system.

He has been a breath of fresh air for us, highly energetic and global in his approach. He speaks many languages. He has our players’ respect and is a really fun person to be around. Arturs was a great NHL goaltender and he is emerging as a really talented coach now as well.

Check out this article on Japers’ regarding goaltenders and the Olympics. It is a very astute analysis.

Thanks Dave – Welcome Arturs

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David Prior, our longtime goaltending coach has decided to retire from the Washington Capitals. He will be missed. He was a quiet leader; a strong voice with our goaltenders; and a longtime mentor to Olie Kolzig. I like and respect Dave and respected his decision to get off of the road and spend more time close to home. What I respect even more though was his willingness to help us find his replacement coach and to help us interview and find the right person for this new day and age in the NHL.
 
Thanks to Dave’s great work, we landed Arturs Irbe as a coach. He is filled with present day knowledge of the league. He speaks Russian; has had great success in the NHL; and he wants to mentor our goaltenders through out our system. He will be respected by all. He has a great personality and he is fierce in his desire to help us build great strength in goal for the short and long term.
 
I am very happy with this hire. Thanks Dave for your great contributions to our team. Enjoy some time with the family. You will be missed and welcome Arturs Irbe to the team and to our community. Go Caps!