Beagle on the scent of Stanley Cup
Capitals’ unsung fourth-liner worked hard to get his first sniff at an NHL title
At the end of his sophomore season with the NCAA’s University of Alaska Anchorage Seawolves, Jay Beagle needed some assistance from his father Al.
More specifically, he needed a job. He needed an opportunity to prove he could play at the pro level.
“He played (in Anchorage) for two years and then he decided college wasn’t for him, so he phoned me and he said, ‘Dad, you’ve gotta find me a team,’ ” said Al, a proud hockey parent — ditto for his wife Sue — and longtime operator of an auto-repair shop in northeast Calgary.
“So I was calling East Coast league teams. I just phoned them and said, ‘Hey, I have a kid who is in college and he’s not going back next year. So he’s looking for a place to play this spring.’
“I got him a tryout with Idaho (of the ECHL) and they wound up winning the Kelly Cup. So that was pretty good. He goes to a team that wins the championship. And then he got scouted by Hershey and then he got scouted by Washington.”
Now 32, Beagle is one of the many reasons the Washington Capitals are still playing this spring, deadlocked with the Vegas Golden Knights in what is now a best-of-five series for the right to sip from the Stanley Cup.
Beagle certainly isn’t among the headliners on a roster that features the likes of Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Braden Holtby, but the fourth-line centre has been one of those unsung heroes so crucial to a deep playoff run.
The local lad — a graduate of the Simons Valley minor-hockey association, winner of the 2003 Telus Cup as a member of the MidgetAAA Northstars and later a standout for the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Calgary Royals — was the first forward to hop the boards as the Capitals killed off a five-onthree power play during the third period of Wednesday’s Game 2 in Sin City.
With his squad still clinging to a one-goal lead and on the verge of swiping home-ice advantage with a 3-2 victory, Beagle played 1:55 of the final 2:17.
Game 3 is slated for Saturday at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
“He puts in twice the effort and twice the work as everyone else,” teammate T.J. Oshie told the Washington Post earlier this month.
Echoed Capitals head coach Barry Trotz in that same feature: “A guy that is not scared of work. He’s not scared of preparation. He’s not scared of giving his all every day.”
If not for that willingness to outwork both friends and foes, Beagle likely wouldn’t be on the big stage, wouldn’t be oh so close to having his name engraved on hockey’s historic hardware.
His improbable journey to the NHL might have dead-ended in Anchorage or perhaps in Boise, Idaho, where his late-season looksee with the ECHL’s Steelheads in 2007 turned into a run to the Kelly Cup.
Perhaps the Calgary product would have peaked in Hershey, Pa., home base to both the chocolate empire and to the American Hockey League’s Bears. There, he helped the Capitals’ farm team to back-to-back Calder Cup crowns in 2009-10.
In the NHL’s salary cap era, with fourth lines often filled by the young and cheap, Beagle is now in his seventh full campaign with the Capitals.
“Of all the players I’ve had, and I’m a player agent also, he’s probably one of the best at fighting through adversity,” said Doug Hergenhein, Beagle’s bench boss for a two-season stint with the AJHL’s Royals, now nicknamed the Mustangs. “The route he’s gone wasn’t easy. He’s done it the hard way and, boy, I’ll tell you, I’m very proud of him. It was a tough road, but he worked hard. He is one of the most coachable kids you could ever ask for. Great kid, good family and just a workhorse. And it shows.”
Beagle has so far contributed two goals and four assists in 20 contests this spring. The stats don’t tell the whole story. With the hard-working centre, they never have.
“What you see with Jay Beagle in the NHL right now is exactly what we saw at the collegiate level. He’s really carved out a niche for his position and he’s got valuable components in order to win hockey games,” said Dave Shyiak, Beagle’s coach at the University of Alaska Anchorage and another guy who was working the phones in an effort to find a professional employer for the undrafted pivot.
This must have all seemed so farfetched when Al was cold-calling ECHL squads in 2007.
Derek Laxdal, then skipper for the Steelheads and now Calder Cup-bound as bench boss of the AHL’s Texas Stars, consulted one of Beagle’s former college teammates. The feedback was positive.
When Beagle arrived in Boise, Laxdal became convinced he had big-league chops.
“I was down there to watch the playoffs and Derek’s wife comes up to me and she says: ‘I’ve gotta get Jay’s autograph because he’s going to make the NHL,’ ” Al said. “I just kind of laughed, like, ‘Yeah, sure.’ I was pretty oblivious to all of it, I guess. I was just having fun with what he was doing.”
Still is.
“You know what happens, I think, is your kid is in the NHL for so long that you kind of get used to it,” said Al, whose boy has now totalled 553 big-league appearances, including 82 post-season skates. “And then people say, ‘Oh, that’s awesome!’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I guess it is.’ You can kind of take it for granted and then when they get in the playoffs like this, you’re thinking, ‘Whoa, this is the Stanley Cup final.’
“It kind of wakes you up again. This is really something else.”
The route he’s gone wasn’t easy. He’s done itthehardway and, boy, I’ll tell you,I’mvery proud of him.