In an interview yesterday, discussing the state of goalie development in Russian hockey, Caps superstar Alexander Ovechkin optimistically announced that Caps goaltending prospect Semen Varlamov will remain in Russia this year, playing with Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. This contradicted Ovechkin’s earlier optimistic prediction that Varlamov would challenge Olaf Kolzig for the starting job in Washington, which in turn contradicted Varlamov’s earlier announcement that he planned to play for Lokomotiv this year. Goalies take longer to develop than…

On Friday night The Hershey Bears were torn apart by Bulldogs in an embarrassing 3-0 home loss in game one of the Calder Cup Finals. After putting on a convincing impression of “the big bad wolf” in the Eastern Conference Finals, the Bears got burned at the beginning of the big dance by reclusive nineteen year old named Carey. Of course, the night’s events did not warp into a Stephen King novel. The Bears faced…

What’s that, reader? You thought the hockey season had come to a merciful end? You thought that Caps players like Mike Green, Jeff Schultz, Jakub Klepis, Eric Fehr, Alexandre Giroux, Dave Steckel and Frederic Cassivi had shown they belong in the minor leagues, and would now spend the summer playing golf and healing unspecified injuries? Well, smartypants, you got the first part right. All those Caps players do belong in the minor leagues, and…

Frederic Cassivi looked extremely confident in goal last night as he helped the Capitals maintain dignity through a three to zero loss at Toronto that could have been much worse. Cassivi preserved a scoreless tie with solid, calm, positional goaltending through twenty-three minutes of play in spite of receiving a dirty slash to the back of his helmet from notorious goon Darcy Tucker, who was immediately knocked to the ice by stalwart Caps defenseman John…