As we witnessed this season, most of the pieces of the next great Washington Capitals teams are already in place and merely need to ripen alongside each other for the next several seasons. The one notable exception is defenseman Karl Alzner, who spent this past season with the Calgary Hitmen of the WHL.
Alzner was Washington’s [...]
Ex-Caps defenseman Yvon Labre, whose No. 7 sweater hangs from the rafters of Verizon Center, is back behind the bench. Labre was named as the coach of the 16-and-under Baltimore Stars for 2008-09.
Congrats to Yvon, and to the lucky kids who will be learning the game from him.
The NHL announced today that Alex Ovechkin is among the three finalists for the NHL’s Hart Trophy, awarded annually to the league’s most valuable player. Ovechkin has already claimed the 2008 Art Ross and Maurice Richard Trophies, and is a likely finalist for the Lester Pearson Award as well.
Pittsburgh’s Evgeni Malkin and Calgary’s Jarome Iginla [...]
Team Russia got a big-time injection of top level forward talent today when a trio of Capitals forwards signed on for the 2008 IIHF World Championships.
Alex Ovechkin, Alexander Semin and Sergei Fedorov were added to Team Russia’s roster today, as was Nashville forward Alexander Radulov.
Russia opens preliminary round play with a date against Italy on [...]
There are plenty of folks out there who don’t need any additional reasons to root against the Philadelphia Flyers in their Eastern Conference semifinal series against Montreal. Here’s another one anyway.
Washington owns Philadelphia’s second round choice in the 2008 NHL Entry Draft. The sooner the Flyers are out, the higher that pick will be. [...]
The second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs begins tonight. If you look at the first round stats, you’ll see Alex Ovechkin’s name prominently featured among the league leaders in several playoff categories.
He is tied for second in scoring with nine points, tied for second with four goals, and tied for the league lead with [...]
Like a tequila hangover, the pain of that particular Game 7 loss will be felt beyond the morning after.
It takes me an hour to get home after home games, and I always listen to music on the i-Pod during the ride. After Caps wins, I listen to the “Caps win” mix. After losses, I pick [...]
On the second Philly goal:
Explanation on Philadelphia’s second goal at 9:47 of the second period – Washington’s Shaone Morrisonn plays the puck and Philadelphia’s Patrick Thoresen lays a legal body check on Morrisonn. No Philadelphia player makes contact with Washington goaltender Huet (Rule 69). This play is not reviewable.
A series this dramatic and compelling with this many storylines deserves to go the distance, and so it does. A few hours from now, Washington will host its first Game 7 Stanley Cup playoff game in nearly 16 years, and it will attempt to win its first Stanley Cup playoff Game 7 in more than [...]
It was important for the Caps to come out with a strong first period in Saturday’s Game 5, and they did. It was probably their best period of the series. They outshot the Flyers 12-4 and outhit them 22-9. Washington also held Philly without a shot for the final 15 minutes of the frame, but [...]
