Results tagged “capitals”

Welcome back, Captain Clark – with a little help from his trusty sidekicks Alex and Semyon, of course.

Tonight the Capitals came from behind to beat the Florida Panthers 7-4. With Alex Ovechkin and Mike Green among a slew of injured players, Mike Knuble put up four points to spark the win. The total tied his personal best, from Valentine's Day, 2003. Asked what it was like to be a leader on this team, Knuble calmly dismissed the assertion. "It's just one game," he said, talking up the importance of hard work over a long season.

Heat 93, Wizards 89: It was the Dwayne Wade show at the Phone Booth last night. When Wade was on the court, he poured in 40 to lead all scorers; unfortunately for the Wizards, they couldn't transplant their very good play for the short periods of time when D-Wade was on the bench to when he was playing. Gilbert Arenas had 32 to lead Washington, and Brendan Haywood and Caron Butler both chipped in double-doubles -- although the three were an ugly combined -34 in plus/minus. Statistics aside, it just wasn't enough to overcome Wade, who was hitting key baskets all night. With back-to-back games against two of the league's five best players, the Wizards will probably be relieved to see mega-star-deprived Indiana next on the slate. Oh, and Mike Miller picked up an injury to his arm -- but as Dan Steinberg notes: what's new?

So there you have it, Redskins fans. Dan Snyder apologizes that his team has made your Sundays miserable for the better part of two months. He "feels bad" for you. He's "embarrassed." Here's the man many people are attributing with lead one of this town's biggest cultural institutions to a slow drive into irrelevance, telling you he's sorry.

Sometimes, when you have as much talent as the Caps' roster, you get in your own way. Despite coming in on a six-game winning streak, facing a team that was 2-4-5, a hefty 40-28 advantage in shots, and a solid performance by Jose Theodore, the Capitals lost 4-3 in overtime on Friday.

Wizards 102, Mavericks 91: Something tells me that the Wizards are going to be a real interesting team this season: new coach, a whole host of new players, and old players returning with the grudge of last season's epic failure hanging over their heads as motivation. But for whatever reason, the Wizards' hopes seem to always rest on the back of Gilbert Arenas. And man, the old Gilbert was back last night: dishing dimes, driving to the hoop with strength and finesse, and reminding us of that guy whom you could have made an argument for as the best fourth quarter player in the league three years ago. Gil had 29 points and nine assists in the Wizards season-opening 102-91 win on the road in Dallas. Of course, it wasn't all Agent Zero -- new boss Flip Saunders has stressed defense during the offseason, and Washington held the Mavs to only 39% from the field. Andray Blatche, Randy Foye, and Caron Butler also chipped in double digits. Dirk Nowitzki (and his long hair) paced Dallas with 34.

Capitals 5, Thrashers 4: Last night's game between Washington and Atlanta was a tight affair for the first thirty minutes. It was at that point that the Caps unleased an offensive fury, the likes of which hasn't been seen since that glorious day when I mastered the unstoppable wraparound glitch in NHL '95 for Super Nintendo. Jeff Schultz, Matt Bradley, and Chris Clark all scored in one minute and 22 second span in the second period -- and Washington needed them all, holding off Atlanta's late surge to win 5-4 on the road. In a matchup of two of the league's most prominent scorers, Alex Ovechkin's team topped Ilya Kovalchuk's, although Kovalchuk scored twice and the Great Eight was held pointless for only the second time this season. Ondrej Pavelec certainly had a bad night between the pipes for the Thrashers -- not only did the Caps smoke five past him on only 14 shots before he was pulled, but Schultz's goal was on a simple clearance attempt from 85 feet away which took an incredibly fortuitous hop into the back of the net.

In a contest of teams built from the ground up by the two best general managers in Washington Capitals history, the Caps beat the Nashville Predators 3-2 last night at the Verizon Center. The two men -- former GM David Poile and current GM George McPhee -- have worked together in the past, when Poile made the best offer for his disgruntled former employee, Brendan Witt. Right now, the Capitals enjoy a 4-0 winning streak over their former boss' squad, the last three of those wins coming in overtime.

It was the Mike and Mike show goal-wise at the Phone Booth on Monday: Mike Green scored his first goal of the season, and Mike Knuble had a goal and an assist. But after those tallies staked the home team to a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period, the Caps stumbled, eventually losing in a shootout to the New Jersey Devils.

Red Wings 3, Capitals 2: There is no denying the the Washington Capitals might be the most talented team in the NHL. But all that talent means little if it isn't deployed with a little bit of discipline. Because of a couple of sloppy penalties, the Caps dropped their third straight game after a promising start to the season. With defenseman Mike Green in the box on a hooking call late in the third period, Detroit's Thomas Holmstrom took a pass from Pavel Datsyuk and fired a wrister over Jose Theodore's pad side to put the Red Wings into the lead for good. The Wings were typically snippy defensively, working hard to back-check against the Caps big guns; as a result, Washington's big Ovechkin-Backstrom-Semin combination was held to but one assist -- in comparison, the trio had produced an incredible 29 points in the first four games of the year. Matt Bradley and Brendan Morrison lit the lamp for Washington's tallies.

• Flyers 6, Capitals 5: As someone who spent some formative years in the late 1980s and early 1990s, there's plenty of things about the current NHL which really don't resonate with me. No teams in Quebec and Winnipeg. A two-week break in the middle of the season for the Olympics. Only three players in the last two seasons reaching 100 points. But while the first two are more complex issues, at least the Capitals are bringing that heyday of NHL offensive play, the one that I fondly remember, back. Coming into the game, the Caps boasted the top four scorers in the league. And sure, they may have lost in overtime to Philadelphia on Tuesday night in a matchup of the two teams which, along with the Penguins, have to be considered the favorites in the Eastern Conference. But this is the kind of game that was straight out of 1991 -- 11 goals (including seven in the second period), 12 power plays (four of which ended in goals), 78 combined shots, and offensive superstars all over the place. Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin -- harkening back to speedy goal scorers like fellow Russians Pavel Bure and Alex Mogilny -- both had two goals, but were outshined by Philadelphia's Mike Richards, who netted his second career hat trick. It was the kind of game that brought this observer back to the days when 6-5 games in the league were the rule, rather than the exception, and hockey was dynamically entertaining. Maybe it was Peter Berg's excellent Gretzky-to-L.A. documentary which got the juices flowing (a must see, by the way), but it sure feels good to come back to a league where scoring lots of goals is, once again, chic.
• Wizards 101, Grizzlies 92: Who says the NBA preseason can't be exciting? The Wizards had two buzzer beaters, and Caron Butler had a big time flush (or so I'm told), as Washington won it's first exhibition game of the year against Memphis in Richmond. The first quarter was a positive sign, as Agent Zero had seven of his ten assists and both Antawn Jamison and Butler were in double figures in the first fifteen minutes.

Capitals 4, Bruins 1: It's been a rough few months for D.C. sports -- a summer of futility at Nationals Park, the Wizards' dreadful season, Georgetown missing the tournament, the Redskins losing to the Lions, and so on, and so on. Will the Capitals be the messianic force that leads us out of the dark times? If they play like they did last night in Boston all year, then they might just be such an answer to those prayers. Washington bossed the game against a pretty decent Boston hockey club last night, looking even better than the team that many thought could go all the way last season. Already up 2-0 after two periods, the Caps scored twice in the opening two minutes of the third period to put things out of reach. It was a fantastic game for the team's top offensive talent, as Alexander Ovechkin (two goals and an assist) opened his 2009-10 account with a big deposit, as did Nicklas Backstrom (three assists) and Alex Semin (two helpers). But the Caps also flexed their considerable muscle on the power play -- Brooks Laich scored twice with the man advantage -- as Boston looked undisciplined; a too many men on the ice penalty led to Laich's opening goal. All in all, it was a romping victory for a team which many are counting on to put something positive back into this town's sporting consciousness.

By Eli Resnick and Elisabeth Meinecke With another hockey season upon us – the opening faceoff in Boston is mere hours away – it's time for the DCist hockey crew to look foolish and guess what the Caps will do this year. We'll take a wide turn of the stories heading into tonight's opener, offering our prognostications on the season to be along the way.

The Pittsburgh Penguins claimed Chris Bourque off waivers today.

• Dodgers 7, Nationals 6: Did you know that, as of last official count, there were 96,548 Americans who had lived to be 100 years old? You know, I hear that when an American turns 100, they get a letter from the President, thanking them for staying alive and paying taxes for so long. At the same time, there have been a large number of major league baseball teams who have lost 100 games in a single season. I'm pretty sure that such examples of the suckiest bunches of sucks that ever sucked don't get a letter from the President, at least not the one who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Yes, instead of being celebrated, these squads inherit one of two difficult to swallow legacies: either they are written off as hardball experiments gone wrong and forgotten or remembered as terrible abominations, a stain on the fabric of the American pasttime. Only time will tell which category the 2009 Washington Nationals -- the newest member of this ineptitude brigade with Thursday night's loss -- will be lumped in. One thing that is certain? No one will shed a tear after this centenarian season passes away.
• Rangers 3, Capitals 2: Jose Theodore let one slip with 1:10 left, and the Caps dropped this exhibition their second-to-last tune up before the season begins. Keith Aucoin and Alexander Semin scored for Washington.

The Caps' roster may be leaner (six cuts Tuesday trimmed the roster down to 36) but it showed some serious muscle offensively and defensively in a 6-2 preseason win over Chicago Wednesday at the Verizon Center.

Nationals 5, Dodgers 4: I've got to be honest, I thought that I'd be talking all about the number 100 in this space tonight -- the Nats have looked especially poor as of late and were stuck on 99 losses. I mean, there's been no question since, well, May or so, that this team would lose 100 games. Eventually, I'd have to write about it. So, color me surprised that particular post will have to wait until another day (probably tomorrow). The Nationals can savor one more day as a non-member of the 100-loss club, defeating the Dodgers with a walk-off sacrifice fly by Pete Orr. For a team that has such a terrible record, the Nats once again confirmed their penchant for resilience -- it was the 27th come-from-behind win this season. He didn't get the win, but starter Ross Detweiler was solid, if unspectacular, allowing the Dodgers to three runs in nearly six innings. And I get to write about 100 after all: with his three-run homer in the sixth, Ryan Zimmerman not only broke up Chad Billingsley's no-hitter, but he also eclipsed 100 RBI on the season; Zim and Adam Dunn are the first pair of Washington franchise (that is, from 1969 on) hitters to both eclipse that figure in a single season.

• Middle Tennessee State 32, Maryland 31
  Southern Mississippi 37, Virginia 34
  
  These are not typos, I swear. Sorry, Cavs and Terps fans -- it might be time to pack it in until hoops season kicks off. In other scores, #13 Virginia Tech dramatically beat #19 Nebraska after going 91 yards on two plays in the final minute of the game and Georgetown (yes, they have a football team) lost.
• Fever 81, Mystics 74 (OT): The Mystics' season came to an end after losing a decisive Game 2 to Indiana on the road. The Fever sank Washington thanks to a 17 point advantage from the free-throw line and Tamika Catchings' 24 points and 16 rebounds. While the loss ended the Mystics season, they can at least say they went out with a good fight against a team that was almost unbeatable at home during the regular season. Crystal Langhorne highlighted for Washington with 15 points and 10 boards.
• Mets 3, Nationals 2: Man, this one was a snoozer which had some fans questioning the sanity of the manager; appropo for two teams whose fans have endured two of the more star-crossed seasons in recent memory. On the positive end: Adam Dunn earned his 100th RBI of the year, a pretty good number for a guy that seemingly nobody else wanted to sign in the offseason.

• Mystics 79, Fever 88: The Mystics let their first playoff game of the 2009 season slip away in the fourth quarter, as the Indiana Fever -- who had the best regular season record in the Eastern Conference -- outscored Washington 32 to 21 in the final period. Leading the scoring for Washington with 18 points was Crystal Langhorne, who was named the WNBA's Most Improved Player of the Year on Thursday. The Mystics will travel to Indiana for Game 2 in the best-of-three series (Game 3, if needed, will be played in Indiana). Overall, the teams looked surprisingly well-matched -- they had the same 3 point shooting percentage, the same points in the paint (36), and committed almost the same amount of turnovers, though the Fever had a slight edge on the boards and at the line.
  
  For the people watchers, Alex Ovechkin was reportedly celebrating his 24th birthday by watching the Mystics play at the Comcast Center. Of note: Ovie is younger than almost 75% of the Mystics' roster.
• Capitals 4, Sabres 3: Speaking of Capitals, the local hockey outfit won its first exhibition game of the preseason over Buffalo. A Brian Pothier tally with a two-man advantage in overtime was enough to settle matters, but Alexandre Giroux, Mike Knuble, and Jay Beagle also scored for the Caps. Semyon Varlamov played the entire game in net and looked good through the first two periods, but then allowed three goals in the third.
• Phililes 4, Nationals 2: The Nats got five innings of solid work from Ross Detwiler (0-6), but the bats went quiet once again, only pushing across two runs against the Phils combo of starter Cole Hamels (10-9) and always volatile Brad Lidge. Hamels struck out 10, and had a perfect game going until the sixth inning.

There was no lack of big names on the ice for the start of Capitals training camp Sunday, but everyone was talking about the one guy who wasn't skating -- veteran center Tomas Fleischmann, who spent all last season with the Capitals after yo-yoing on and off their roster for the previous three. Fleishmann was diagnosed with a blood clot in his leg (a deep vein thrombosis) this summer, and is out of contact workouts until the first week of the regular season.

Rejoice, hockey fans, for the season is almost upon us. On Monday, head coach Bruce Boudreau led some of his charges out onto the ice, as Caps rookies started working off summer rust Monday during the first day of the team's rookie camp at the Kettler Capitals Iceplex. The team spent the morning working through on-ice drills and receiving pointers from the coaching staff, including head coach Bruce Boudreau.

• American League 4, National League 3: Hey, it's a Nat at the All-Star Game! (Not that it was anything to write home about.) Washington representative Ryan Zimmerman -- seen above coolly acknowledging all twelve people at Busch Stadium who realized that Washington actually fielded a major league-level baseball team -- entered the game in the top of the the fifth inning, replacing David Wright at third base. Zimmerman almost got into one in the bottom of the fifth, but just got under the second pitch he saw, flying out harmlessly to A.L. center fielder Josh Hamilton. Obviously unsatisfied with the length of his first trip to the plate, Zimmerman swung at the first pitch he saw in his second at-bat, weakly popping out to right. As far as I could tell from the television coverage, Zimmerman had nary a truly meaningful ball thrown or hit to him in the field -- although at one point, I think I caught an unfocused glimpse of Zimmerman in the background as Derek Jeter ran past him at third. So, you know, there's that.
  
  As if the fact that our rep's jersey doubled as an invisibility cloak on the field wasn't bad enough, Barack Obama also went out of his way to diss the Nats during his half-inning in the Fox announce booth. (C'mon, Mr. President -- that's just low.)
• Wizards 96, Cavs 93 (Summer League): The Wiz beat Cleveland in NBA Summer League play last night. From what I've ascertained, wins in the Summer League are even more meaningless than wins in baseball spring training games, but hey, far be it from this writer to complain about the Wizards winning anything. For the truly obsessed, Sports Bogger Dan Steinberg is hanging in Vegas for the week (man, what an awful locale for an assignment), so he's all over the scene.
• Caps Schedule Out Today: On a slightly more interesting note, the Capitals released their preseason schedule yesterday; the regular season schedule comes out today. When's Crosby coming to town? There's payback to be had.

In case you didn't believe us when we said yesterday that Alexander Ovechkin was becoming "the guy" in the Washington sports scene, consider this: President Obama had high praise for the Caps star in a speech he delivered at Moscow's New Economic School this morning.

Rapper, producer, and D.C. Ambassador Wale made an appearance on ESPN morning-squawker First Take this week to talk hockey -- or as he calls it "professional wrestling, minus the professional wrestling" -- and heap some much-deserved praise on Caps star Alexander Ovechkin.

Going into the Caps' opening round playoff series with the Rangers, hockey writers across the country said the key matchup would be Sean Avery on Alex Ovechkin. The Rangers' Avery has made a name for himself as one of the most annoying people in hockey, if not in all of sports. The Capitals were thought overmatched, but the fans, like a seventh man with a vile temper, came through.

The NHL regular season came to a close this past weekend. The Washington Capitals finished with a 50 win, 108 point season—their best finish ever—culminating in their second Southeast Division title in a row. Their mark was good enough to earn the second seed in the Eastern Conference behind Boston. Along with the Bruins, only San Jose and Detroit of the Western Conference enter the playoffs with better records. As the two seed in the East, the Caps draw the # 7 New York Rangers for a first round Stanley Cup Playoff series that begins tomorrow evening at the Verizon Center. Game 2 is an afternoon affair this Saturday.

The Washington Capitals have played in the Southeast Division since it was first created in 1998. It's about time they start to really care about some of the other teams in it. On Saturday night, the Carolina Hurricanes made a big play to get noticed when their captain, Rod Brind'Amour, grabbed the back of Alex Ovechkin's head and pushed the Capitals superstar, face first, into one of the metal poles holding up the glass around the rink.

Wednesday was the NHL trade deadline; this is the time of year when teams expected to contend for the Stanley Cup traditionally make big splashy acquisitions of nearly-washed up superstars desperate to make one more push for a championship. This year the Washington Post thought the Caps might try to pick up Chris Pronger. Some New York City media thought the Caps had tried to acquire Bill Guerin. We thought the Caps should go after Jay Bouwmeester. Instead the Capitals did nothing.

Canadian television personality Don Cherry grabbed some press this weekend for saying that Alexander Ovechkin celebrates his goals with too much exuberance. Cherry said he favors the Canadian way. Don Cherry is famous for making inflammatory statements while wearing suits in which Elton John would not be caught dead.

It's not often in professional sports that the home team has the chance to keep the best player on the visiting team after the game, but that might be the case this afternoon if the Capitals can make the right impression on the Florida Panthers. Panthers defenseman Jay Bouwmeester is an emerging star. He plays defense well, passes the puck well and scores goals. All year, Florida has tried to secure a long-term contract to keep him in a Panthers uniform. But this week, the Panthers' general manager said he is actively considering trades for the All-Star.