Capitals Roman Hamrlik, Joel Ward and Assistant Coach Dean Evason

To Visit Thurgood Marshall Elementary School

 ARLINGTON, Va. – Washington Capitals Roman Hamrlik, Joel Ward, assistant coach Dean Evason and mascot Slapshot will visit Thurgood Marshall Elementary School in Washington, D.C., at 1:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 15, the Washington Capitals announced today. Hamrlik, Ward and Evason are participating in the Capitals Hockey School program. The trio will be directing a floor hockey session in the school’s gym with 50 first- through fifth-grade students.

The Capitals adopted Thurgood Marshall Elementary School – a largely minority school for preschoolers through fifth grade - this season. During the summer Caps forward Matt Hendricks along with 125 Caps fans helped get the school ready for the new year by planting a garden, weeding and cleaning up the grounds, painting murals, classrooms and exterior doors, putting together a robotics table for the school’s robotics program, creating welcome signs, putting together goody bags for the students and helping teachers organize classrooms and prepare the school for the first day of classes during the D.C. Public Schools Beautification Day.

 Hamrlik, Ward and Evason will participate in a question-and-answer session with the students and lead a skills demonstration. They will guide the students through several drills focusing on stickhandling, passing and shooting. Both Hamrlik and Ward will demonstrate each skill and call on student volunteers to demonstrate what they have learned. The clinic will conclude with several students participating in a brief scrimmage with Hamrlik on one team and Ward on the other. Following the clinic, the Capitals will donate a set of street hockey equipment to the school.

 This will be the 10th Capitals Hockey School visit this season. The Capitals host two Hockey School visits each month between September and May and donate street hockey equipment to each participating school.

 This is the fifth consecutive year the Capitals have conducted their Hockey School program. The Caps have hosted more than 50 clinics and reached more than 7,500 students in the past four years. Hockey School is a free program, designed to be both instructional and interactive, with the goal of exposing students to floor hockey while teaching proper hockey technique. Each school will receive an official Capitals Hockey School banner to display in their school year-round.

WHO:            Washington Capitals Roman Hamrlik, Joel Ward, assistant coach Dean Evason and mascot Slapshot

WHAT:          Teaching students several drills focusing on stickhandling, passing and shooting as part of Caps Hockey School

WHEN:         Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2012

                      1:45 to 3 p.m.

WHERE:       Thurgood Marshall Elementary School

3100 Fort Lincoln Drive, NE

Washington, DC 20018