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......

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......

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......

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......

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......

Remember the beginning of this season, when the Caps were awful, and everybody was about to get fired? Then-coach Glen Hanlon famously summed up the pressure he was under by comparing his situation bitterly to a daring move in the early 1990s by the winningest coach in NHL history. He said, "When you’re Scotty Bowman, you put [Sergei] Fedorov on defense and you’re a genius. Now, when you’re Glen Hanlon if you don’t play the......

If the comments on last Friday's Caps Briefing didn't give it away, the Capitals don't get a lot of respect in other cities around the NHL. We had thought this changed in the last month when Alex Ovechkin led the league in goals and points, led the team into the playoffs, and became the consensus pick as the NHL's MVP. Boy were we wrong. Friday night the Caps overcame a two goal deficit and beat......

The Cherry Blossom parade will modify many downtown Metrobus routes this weekend. The parade starts this Saturday at 10 a.m. and marches on Constitution Avenue between 7th and 17th streets, and will force the 5A, 13, 32, 34, 35, 36, 52, 54, 66, 70, 80, P6, S2, S4 and V8 to alter their routes until about 1 p.m. If you plan on taking any of these buses tomorrow, you should expect delays. Metro also says......

A banner weekend, indeed. The Washington Capitals and Wizards clinched a playoff berth within 24 hours. This week we have another full lineup of Washington area sports, highlighted by a jampacked Wednesday night featuring three local teams playing home games in front of massive crowds. Our picks for this week are below. Go on and add your own in the comments. TUESDAY With all area teams taking tonight off, we suggest you clear your plans......

Tonight it's draft lottery time in the NHL once more. For the last four seasons, this has been the day that we Caps fans cross our fingers and hope that the team is lucky enough to get a chance at a player who will help them do better in the future. This year, though, Washington will not participate, because the Capitals have made the playoffs. The Carolina Hurricanes lost their final game to the Florida......

Alexander Ovechkin has raised the NHL's record for goals by a left wing from sixty-three to sixty-five. Incidentally, Ovechkin's sixty-fifth goal of this season was a crucial game-winner--and his second key goal of the night--in the game that put the Capitals in playoff position for the first time in months. Although the Caps opened the season tied with Ottawa for first place in the league, the team quickly fell off due to an ineffective combination......

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......

The Washington Capitals have won eight of their last nine games. Will they be able to maintain their run of form for the final three games of the season? The Caps sit on the edge of the playoffs, though they are on the outside looking in. Their three home games this week should give fans some of the more thrilling moments in recent seasons. What's more, there's plenty of other regional sports action on the......

Last night in Raleigh, North Carolina, Alexander Ovechkin broke a 1-1 tie half way through the second period with his 61st goal of the season. That's the most goals scored in one season by any Capital ever. It's also enough, with five crucial games left in the regular season, to give Ovechkin time to pass Luc Robitaille's all time record of 63 goals in a season by a left wing. More importantly, Viktor Kozlov scored......

While much of America is focused on the NCAA Men's Tournament, we are forced to turn elsewhere upon the elimination of our area's three teams. And come on, you know you aren't going to win that office pool your friend pressured you to join. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternative sports viewing options this week. Feel free to leave your own in the comments. TUESDAY The Washington Capitals just won't quit. They've been scrambling among......