Good morning, Washington. Nature stole the show this morning with her superb lighting and inspired acoustics. Meteorologists break the news that intermittent storms will continue throughout the day. Despite the rain, we have two days left to drink to our liberty, to avoid thinking too hard about the “invisible” security, and to try to find some charm in the prodigious crowds. more ›

Good morning, Washington. Finally, we’re liberated. The holiday weekend has arrived, and the District is boasting a slew of activities to promote patriotism and inebriation. But first, new research on how childhood Fourth of July celebrations affect adult political behavior. more ›

Yesterday, the Capitals traded for a pure fighter in D.J. King. more ›

We've just received confirmation that Michael Nylander cleared waivers today. That means that yesterday, the Capitals put the 37-year-old center up for grabs to any of the NHL's other 29 teams that wanted him. Today, they found out nobody did. more ›

The Capitals have signed restricted free agent forward Boyd Gordon to a one-year, $800,000 deal. Gordon received only a $40,000 raise over last season's salary, but he'll be an unrestricted free agent next season if the Caps can't work out an extension in the coming year. more ›

Last year, the Pittsburgh Penguins signed Brent Johnson, the steady, fan-favorite goalie who didn't quite fit into the Washington rotation. Today, at 9 a.m., the Washington Capitals announced they have signed former Pittsburgh Penguins backup goalie, Dany Sabourin. more ›

The Washington Capitals are the best team in the NHL's eastern conference, and the hottest in the league, only a few games removed from a franchise-record fourteen game winning streak. They have scored the most goals in the NHL by a margin of half a goal per game, and their defense is distinctly middle of the road. It's only fitting, then, that as they approach the NHL's 3pm deadline for trades in the 2009-10 season, they have added... two veteran forwards? more ›

For all the complaining Redskins fans do about their much-hated ownership, Caps fans have to feel lucky. How many team owners post whimsical invitations to the owners box to a random fan who happens to wear an astronaut costume? more ›

On a night when the Caps nearly came from behind to beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, the team did something else to help cement their identity as a D.C. institution. With 8:35 remaining in the third period, and both teams readying for a faceoff in the Capitals' defensive end, the team's sound crew played Chuck Brown's "Bustin' Loose" over the arena speaker system. more ›

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. more ›

After last night's 6-4 victory over Toronto, the season the Caps are undefeated and scoring two goals for every one they give up. They have been defensively perfect from the start of any match until they have at least three goals of their own. Superstars Alexander Ovechkin and Alexander Semin have scored three points in each game. Both Caps starting goalies have won. The whole team is playing well. Everybody is doing their job to a tee and the fans are going crazy. more ›

In the history of the Washington Capitals, only one goalie has carried the team to the Stanley Cup Finals. That goalie retired today, after a decade in D.C. and a brief curtain call with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Olaf Kolzig may not play in the NHL any longer, but Caps fans will always remember him as one of the most dedicated, team-focused players in Washington history. more ›

Okay, maybe it's not coming up. Maybe it's not tomorrow. Maybe it's not next year. Maybe it won't happen this decade, but someday, Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals will face Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins in the playoffs again. more ›

The Caps head into game seven of their epic playoff series with the Penguins at 7 p.m., so Chinatown is going to be a sea of red tonight. Drunk, yelling, fanatic red. At the same time, the annual Candlelight Vigil at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial, one of the main events of National Police Week, will begin at 8 p.m. on E Street NW between 4th and 5th Streets. The District Department of Transportation is rightly advising area drivers to stay the heck away from downtown tonight if at all possible. Spectators for both events are encouraged to take Metro. The Gallery Place/Chinatown station is right below the Verizon Center, and the Law Enforcement Memorial is above the Judiciary Square station on the Red line. F and E Streets NW between 3rd and 5th streets will both be closed to traffic tonight for the Candlelight Vigil. more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

As D.C. prepares to host college hockey's Frozen Four, the NCAA is discussing whether or not the ice will be, as the illustrious event's name indicates, frozen. Of course they'd like it to be frozen. That's the traditional condition of ice, especially for ice hockey. It's just not how it usually is at Verizon Center... more ›

Willie O'Ree came to Washington, D.C. yesterday to enjoy a hockey practice with kids at Fort Dupont Ice Arena. O'Ree was the first African American player in the NHL. more ›

Nicklas Backstrom is skipping the NHL's Young Stars Game because he wants a day off. The Caps' second leading scorer is sitting out a competition that pits second year players against rookies. Last year, when the Young Stars game featured only rookies, Backstrom competed. This year, many fans and analysts have asked why Backstrom isn't on the Eastern Conference All Star team. While it's nice that the NHL expanded the Young Stars game to include more developing talent, Backstrom deserves to appear on a larger stage. more ›

For all the criticism out there about Caps left wing Alexander Semin's fighting style, we'd like to point out that New York Rangers defenseman Marc Staal is equally bad at curl and drag fakes, nifty stickhandling moves and goal scoring. While the big lumbering defenseman may fight in a more traditional hockey style, we like Semin's originality in the above video from this weekend's Caps victory. Yes, Semin might be the first NHL player to attempt a series of overhand slaps, but he comes out on top. The supposedly tougher Staal has to hug himself for safety on the ground after losing his balance and falling over. What good is being big and tough in ice hockey if you can't stand up on ice skates? more ›

We all know the Capitals are known to rock a microphone. This year a few Caps prospects will get a little more exposure on the world circuit. Darren Machesney, the starting goalie for the Caps' top farm team in Hershey, will represent Canada in the Spengler Cup. Machesney has been in the Caps system since the 2005 draft, and has worked his way up from the South Carolina Stingrays to play for the Bears. The opportunity to represent his country, even if it's only in a Swiss tournament, is a testament to just how hard he has worked. more ›

Simeon Varlamov's long trip from Hershey, PA meant he didn't arrive in time to back up Brent Johnson when the puck dropped Friday against the Ottawa Senators. Instead, the Caps had to rely on team Web Producer and former Division III goalie Brett Leonhardt as their backup goalie for ten minutes of nail-biting NHL action. The Senators took every possible opportunity to try to hurt Johnson and get to Leonhardt, the only Division III goalie in the NHL this year. But once Varlamov got his pads on and joined the bench, the Sens stopped crashing the crease, as though Johnson had taken on the powers of Obi Wan Kenobi. Last night in Montreal, Varlamov showed exactly why. more ›

Last night the Capitals continued their domination of the once-mighty Ottawa Senators with a 5-1 win at home. Goalie Brent Johnson had fans asking "Olaf who?" as he held the Senators scoreless until the game's final minutes, stopping every shot and holding on to every puck that came near him. more ›

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? more ›

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. more ›

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. more ›

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 the NHL in plus/minus with a +17. more ›

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 of highly regarded European teenagers, and figured to start 20 games in Theodore's shadow, while possibly taking up a few new hobbies and obsessively rereading Dostoyevsky's seminal Notes from the Underground. more ›

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 getting it painted on the back of his helmet. Two years ago, Johnson came to Washington and became Kolzig's unquestioned backup. For two years he struggled unsuccessfully to shake that tag. more ›

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." more ›