On Thursday, the NHL allows unrestricted free agents to begin negotiating with new teams. Players who have reached the end of their contracts and achieved the right combination of age and experience — usually guys over twenty-seven years old — can go play anywhere they want, for whatever someone will pay them.
Tampa Bay’s Ryan Malone recently lectured Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin on being more modest. Tonight, the Caps face the luckless Tampa Bay Lightning at Verizon Center. They will welcome Tampa coach Rick Tocchet, who suggested his team should have started fights with the Capitals in protest of Alex Ovechkin’s three-second celebration of his 50th goal of the season, which he scored in Tampa last week. Ovechkin put his stick down after the goal and mimed…
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…
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…
Professional hockey players come from all over the world. They come from South Africa, Canada, Kazakhstan, Norway and there is even one from Washington, D.C. Well, okay, two come from the Washington area. Jeff Halpern from Bethesda signed with the Capitals as an undrafted free agent in the 1990s. When the Caps declined to sign him two years ago, he joined the Dallas Stars, who have him in a five-year, $10 million contract. That leaves…
It’s been almost eighteen months since the last time a professional hockey game was played in Washington. Tonight, that streak ends, as the Capitals take to the ice to play their preseason home opener against the Buffalo Sabres. A lot has changed during the labor dispute. The NHL has been busy drafting rule changes aimed at encouraging offensive production. More significant, no doubt, will be the roster changes. Teams throughout the NHL have been…
And DCist blanks on telling everyone about the start of 2004 World Cup of Hockey last night. We plead Olympic hangover. But hockey fans have nothing to fear with 13 games remaining to satiate your hockey craving. Actually hockey fans, there may be something to fear with the probable delay of the NHL season, but we will get to that later. First things first. Tonight the United States takes the ice with Canada at Montreals…
