When the NHL named Alexander Semin its First Star of the month for October, we chided our media colleagues for paying more attention to Alex Ovechkin's visit to his sick grandfather. Yes, Ovechkin won all four of the NHL's trophies for scoring leaders and most valuable players, but that was last year. Why, we asked, was the best player of October 2008 any less exciting than the best player of 2007-2008? Ovechkin, of course, just......

Sports Business Journal writes that the Washington Capitals are launching a new television show. The show will be produced by the team and will provide biographical information about players, coaches and fans, and will be chopped down into short segments to show online and during games. Pardon us, but doesn't the team already produce short biographical video segments to show online and during games? Perhaps the actual story is that there is finally enough of......

Caps left wing Alexander Ovechkin is back in the spotlight today. The NHL named him its second star of the week. Last week, of course, Alexander Semin took over the NHL's scoring lead for the second time this season, and Ovechkin was among the first to suggest that his teammate would make a good MVP candidate this season. Ovechkin was beaten for first star voting this week by his own linemate, sophomore center Nicklas Backstrom.......

Last night, Alexander Semin chipped in two goals and three assists to blow out the Carolina Hurricanes at Raleigh and help the Capitals take sole posession of first place in the Southeast. With 15 games played, Semin leads the NHL in points (27), goals (13), and game winning goals (3). Often misconstrued as a "shoot-first" player, Semin is fourth in the NHL with 14 assists. Just as often considered a defensive liability, Semin currently leads......

Coming into this hockey season, Brent Johnson was even more of an afterthought than usual. After leaving Johnson in the press box to watch games and leaving him on the bench to watch practices at the end of last season in favor of Olaf Kolzig and Christobal Huet, the Caps replaced those two aging starters with former NHL MVP Jose Theodore. Johnson battled through training camp to regain his NHL backup job against a couple......

In the 1990s, Brent Johnson was a terrific starting goalie for the St. Louis Blues. He led a good team, stopped the shots he had to stop and won more than he lost. He set a (since broken) playoff shutout record. At that time, the Capitals had a great starting goalie of their own named Olaf Kolzig. Towering over other NHL goalies of the day at 6'3", Kolzig wore the nickname Zilla with pride, even......

Yes, earlier this week the Caps blew out the Vancouver Canucks by a score of five to one. Yes, they set a team record by only allowing their opponent to take ten shots in that game. But that doesn't mean the Caps are a great team this year, because, as the Vancouver Sun reports, the Vancouver Canucks "weren't, obviously, ready." No. The real test of greatness for the Washington Capitals will be, as it has......

The Caps look good this year. Not only have they kept together a team that made the playoffs last year and added a celebrity goalie, but their starting left wing is now the spokesman for a major East Coast discount beauty shop chain. Sure, Alexander Ovechkin scored a beautiful goal last night after he forechecked effectively and got ready for a brilliant pass from Alexander Semin. That will happen plenty of times this year. Today's......

Former Republican Senate staffer Kellie Boyle has put together a website called "Hockey Moms for McCain-Palin." The LM&O marketing consultant worked with a friend on the web site, which launched today. Boyle, a longtime Republican campaign volunteer, told ABC News that the organization is "pure grassroots," and unaffiliated with the national campaign it is named after, supports, links to and extensively quotes. Boyle also told ABC that her son, presumably a local youth-hockey player, gave......

Last spring the Washington Capitals made headlines as they pulled off an 11-2 run to make the playoffs, and Alex Ovechkin broke the all time record for goals by a left wing and earned himself his first Hart Trophy and Lester B. Pearson Award as the league's most valuable player. Just to show that these headlines were not lost on the local broadcasting community, Washington Business Journal reports today that the Caps have now scored......

Usually at this time of year the Washington Capitals are a distant memory and an icy dream in the warm hearts of their fans. Today, though, we watched 14 likely team members (12 returning Capitals plus Karl Alzner and Jose Theodore) practice together at Kettler Capital Iceplex. This unusual level of commitment is a positive sign for a team on the rise. Even better, we are pleased to report that Caps captain Chris Clark looks......

Mike Green came to terms with the Capitals today on a four-year, $21 million dollar contract to play ice hockey. In my first post on DCist, all the way back in October of 2006, I described a hard-fought match between the Caps and the Avalanche that reached its climax when "Green, the Caps star minor-league defenseman, who is expected to show signs of someday belonging in the NHL by the end of this season,......

In the column of news that we could have told you months ago, the Capitals have agreed to a long-term contract with coach Bruce Boudreau, who led the team to win 37 of 61 games after taking over midseason. This is the kind of first-season coaching record that will have Caps fans forgetting the triumphant debut of Bruce Cassidy. In the department of news we've been telling you for weeks, Nicklas Backstrom has been officially......

It's over. Last night, the Caps lost game seven in overtime to the Philadelphia Flyers. They will now face the dreaded eighteen hole golf courses of McLean, and their own personal workout regimens. Led by the season-long heroics of Alexander Ovechkin, Mike Green and Olaf Kolzig, the team came back from 14th in the East at New Years to third place in the East with home ice advantage in their first playoff series in five......

Last night the Caps went to Philadelphia, gave up two quick goals and then scored four of their own to tie up their best of seven playoff series at three apiece. Tonight they face the Flyers at home in the Phone Booth for the tiebreaker. Last night's game showcased the Caps' two biggest talents, with Alexander Semin and Alexander Ovechkin each contributing two points. Semin set up Nicklas Backstrom for the team's first goal, before......

It is a great time to be a Caps Fan. We've seen media coverage of the guy who brings his trumpet to the games and the rock bands who have sung the team's praises. Today we'd like to take the time to check in with a different kind of superfan. A kind of superfan you, as a blog reader, may be able to identify with. Today's superfan is one of the leading alltime posters on......

Friday night the Caps open their first Stanley Cup Playoff series in what feels like twenty-thousand years against the Philadelphia Flyers. The first six games of the series have all been picked up by national television stations. The team's meteoric rise to the playoffs has even inspired a heavy metal theme song. What makes this the most anticipated Capitals playoff series ever? For one thing, there is a great symmetry between the opponents. The Capitals......

First of all, let's remember that the Capitals would be nowhere right now without Jeff Halpern. The Bethesda native, lifelong Caps fan and former Caps captain scored with five minutes left on Saturday night to help the last place Tampa Bay Lightning beat the Carolina Hurricanes. The Hurricanes were apparently still reeling last night, when the Capitals crushed them 4-1 at Verizon Center. The Caps played a tough, physical game. Alexander Semin and Alexander Ovechkin......

Professional hockey players come from all over the world. They come from South Africa, Canada, Kazakhstan, Norway and there is even one from Washington, D.C. Well, okay, two come from the Washington area. Jeff Halpern from Bethesda signed with the Capitals as an undrafted free agent in the 1990s. When the Caps declined to sign him two years ago, he joined the Dallas Stars, who have him in a five-year, $10 million contract. That leaves......

Ovechkin flipped the puck high in the air, spun around in a circle and then batted the falling puck like a baseball. Chris Osgood easily stopped the absurd shot, but the event was judged on style points....