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 named one of the three finalists for the Calder Trophy as the NHL's rookie of the year.

To continue telling you the news in advance, Boudreau will soon be nominated for the Jack Adams trophy as the NHL's best coach, because the team had lost twice as many games as it had won when he took over, and he did a good job of turning them around. Our commenters have already pointed out that neither Backstrom nor Boudreau will win these awards, but the nominations are and will be great honors. We think Boudreau has as good a shot as any at the Adams, but we agree that, since Chicago's Patrick Kane led rookies in scoring, most Calder votes will go to him.

However, we also note that Kane came into a team with a shaky lineup and played on its first line all season, primarily so the team could boast about how great Patrick Kane is. Backstrom, on the other hand, had to prove himself better than high priced free agent centers Michael Nylander and Viktor Kozlov in order to play on the Caps' top line as the team pushed for and made it into the playoffs. While Kane started the season on the Hawks power play with Robert Lang setting him up for easy goals, Backstrom started out the season on the bench, and ended up earning the time to put up almost as many points as Kane by proving himself to be the best at setting up Alexander Ovechkin for easy goals.

Of course, Ovechkin, who has already locked up the Art Ross and Rocket Richard trophies for leading the league in points and goals this year, is still the favorite to win the Hart trophy as the league's most valuable player. We'll let you know when he does. Until then, we offer our congratulations to Mr. Boudreau and Mr. Backstrom, and wish them many years of continued success in Washington.