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......

Last night, Washington D.C. provided a strange setting for a hockey game. With fans wearing shorts and the ice surface taking a beating, the Capitals beat the even-warmer-weather Carolina Hurricanes on the strength of Alexander Semin's two goals in the final three minutes. The Caps did not hold a lead until the final 11 seconds of the 60 minute contest against the Southeast Division leading Hurricanes. The Hurricanes scored on their first shot against Brent......

When Alexander Semin takes the lead league in points, with 14 in eight games, it is almost news. When Sergei Fedorov matches Alexander Mogilny's record for NHL goals, it is news. When NHL MVP and ESPN presidential nominee Alexander Ovechkin takes the day off to visit an ailing relative, it is multinational front page headline news. The Associated Press covered Ovechkin's day off. The Vancouver Sun covered Ovechkin's day off. Ovechkin and Pittsburgh Penguin......

The Washington Capitals signed NHL MVP Alexander Ovechkin to hockey's first hundred million dollar contract last season, so the Capitals once again boast the league's leading scorer. Welcome back fast-skating, obscenely talented left winger Ovechkin, who likes to warm up for games by playing soccer in Crocs, falls to the ice with joy when he scores, and ignores jellyfish postings when he goes for a swim. Even casual fans know by now that the......

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......

Photo by Eli Resnick. Written by DCist staff writer Eli Resnick. Last year, the Caps had three goalies with respectable records: Christobal Huet, Olaf Kolzig and Brent Johnson. This summer, Huet and Kolzig left as free agents and the Caps signed former Most Valuable Player Jose Theodore. This year, so far, the Caps' current and former goalies have similar numbers, as follows: Player Games Wins Losses Goals Allowed Team Huet 1 0 1 4 Chicago......

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......

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......

Eli's recent Caps update reminds us that tonight is the start of tryouts for the Capitals' much maligned Spirit Squad. As you may recall, hockey fans were outraged when the Caps first advertised for the squad, causing owner Ted Leonsis to say that revenue was the main reason the squad was created. Over at On Frozen Blog, the OFB Team posts this update on the current shape of the Squad:The squad has experienced quite a......

Just yesterday, the first reader question Hockey News columnist Adam Proteau answered about the entire NHL came from a Caps fan frustrated about the lack of information about Brian Pothier's recovery from a serious concussion. Pothier missed the second half of last season and all of the playoffs, and was believed close to retirement. But one frustrated fan wanted to know for sure. You've got to love the quick and thorough response to an online......

As the Capitals make international headlines by signing free agents, local hockey players and fans are just as interested in the future of D.C. native Stephen Werner. The first locally born player ever drafted to the NHL, Werner played with the Washington Little Capitals until he made the unlikely move to playing at UMass. Now, as he rises up through the minor league ranks, Werner's struggle to play a game from the Canadian tundra at......

The Washington Capitals announced last week that they've signed Sergei Fedorov to a $4 million contract for the coming season. Citizens State Bank, a Michigan financial institution, announced today that they are suing Fedorov for $2 million in unpaid loans. Fedorov, who won the Hart trophy as the NHL's MVP in 1994, has made a lot of money in his time. He once earned $12 million dollars for writing his name. He's widely considered to......

Everywhere from here to Vancouver, hockey fans are jumping up and down and screaming over the Caps' new Spirit Squad. The Caps posted a want ad on Saturday and by Sunday team owner Ted Leonsis had publicly responded to fan outcry. Leonsis reassured fans that the Spirit Squad will be tastefully clad and perform in a manner that won't offend anyone. Meanwhile, in addition to this public assurance, A View From The Cheap Seats......

The Capitals have agreed to terms on a one year contract with former MVP Sergei Fedorov. Fedorov has won three Stanley Cups while playing center, wing and defense. He has also been voted the NHL's best defensive forward. He reportedly had many contract offers from teams throughout the NHL and Russia's new KHL, but he took a 33 percent paycut from last season to stay with the Caps for $4 million. This could have something......

Jose Theodore signed a two year, $9 million contract to play for the Capitals yesterday. Theodore brings a lot of great accomplishments and a lot of question marks to the Capitals. Last year in Colorado, he took turns losing the starting goalie job with younger disappointment Peter Budaj. Still, Theodore is the answer on paper to many of the Capitals' questions. NHL free agency started yesterday--the time when veteran players who have finished their......

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,......

They may measure two inches shy of a collective 19 feet tall, but the first three Caps picks from this weekend's NHL draft stand on the shoulders of giants. With two picks in the first round and their first of two in the second, the Caps brought in players with strong connections to franchise history, tying the team's future to its past. The Caps traded up to the 21st overall spot to pick Anton Gustafsson,......

Alexander Ovechkin receives a key to the city from D.C. Council Chairman Vincent Gray and Mayor Adrian Fenty. Photo by Lateef Mangum, courtesy the Mayor’s Office. Alexander Ovechkin received a key to the city this afternoon on the steps of the John A. Wilson Building. Several hundred fans, downtown office workers, and gawking tourists were on hand to revel in the success of the Washington Capitals star left-winger. He had just returned home from......

Photo of Alexander Ovechkin by ctankcycles Alexander Ovechkin completed a sweep last night of the NHL's four biggest awards. Ovechkin was named the player most valuable to his team by the NHL's players and professional writers alike, winning the Hart Trophy and the Lester B. Pearson Award Ovechkin had already, of course, won the Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy, for leading the league in goals and the Art Ross Trophy for leading the league in......

Tonight is the NHL's annual awards show. Alexander Ovechkin, who has won both of the NHL's scoring titles, is nominated for both of the league's most valuable player awards as well. Two other Capitals could be honored tonight. Bruce Boudreau is up for Coach of the Year, and has a slim chance. Nicklas Backstrom is nominated for Rookie of the Year, but the honor is predicted to fall upon Chicago's Patrick Kane. Ovechkin's fellow nominees......

It's far too early to report an actual relationship, but we got a kick out of this anyway. A brand new blog honestly titled Hot Leader Celeb reports, in questionable English prose, that Alexander Ovechkin is seeing a woman named Lena Lenskaya. This is based on a picture of the two of them standing next to each other at a party. We're sure our readers will agree: if you stand next to a girl......

Happy Washington Capitals Week, everybody. Today at 10 a.m., the D.C. Council presented Caps owner Ted Leonsis with a resolution honoring his NHL club's amazing mid-season turnaround and return to the playoffs. For the rest of the week, Washington will honor its Capitals by being happy about them. What can you be happy about? Well, for starters, it's the end of the Jagr era. Although aging superstar Jaromir Jagr stopped playing for the Caps in......

Alex Ovechkin, the NHL's 2006 rookie of the year, has already won 2008's Art Ross trophy and Rocket Richard trophy as the league's top point scorer and goal getter. Now he's finally been named a finalist for the Hart trophy as the league's MVP. Ovechkin, meanwhile, is waiting to join the Russian national team for hockey's World Championships. The team, of course, would love to have him, but it's taking some time to find insurance......

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......

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......