Ian Oland: Fearless Leader (Portrait by Anna Schmidt)

On Saturday, July 31st, Russian Machine Never Breaks will be hosting a party at The Front Page in Arlington to celebrate our first year together.  Now that the season is a half-forgotten memory, development camp has ended, and the hockey world produces practically no news throughout August, we thought this the perfect time to reflect back on the year.

The season had already begun when Ian floated past me the idea of starting a Caps blog.  Ian and I recognized one another as Caps fanatics. He, deeply possessed of ninja-like design skills and the marked success of Matt Wieters Facts, and I, renowned for a writing style one can describe only as masturbatory, thought ourselves a good match.

From the start, we had a goal: document the experience of a Washington Capitals fan.  For us, that meant writing about the team with the same passion and fun the team plays with.  We didn’t have any preconception of how people might react, of even if they would react at all.  Given the absolute absence of expectations for the site, we can say now that year one of RMNB has far surpassed our expectations.

Humble beginnings

Actually, It’s not that surprising.  Our ranks have been filled out by some serious talent.  Muscovite wunderkind, Fedor Fedin— all of 16 years old and bursting with Bieber-ian energy– joined RMNB to provide Russian cultural insight.  Since hopping on board, Fedor also joined the Russian news service, Voice of America, as a sports writer.  We’ve also got Neil Greenberg, our resident numbers guy and big-idea man, author of 5ive Hole and slinger of humor so dry it screams for vermouth.  Neil’s recently distinguished himself with a gig as hockey photographer for Washington Examiner.  Then there’s Kyle M., who masterfully covered Hershey’s championship season with his camera, going so far as to share the ice with the team during the Calder Cup celebration.   The most recent addition to the crew is Addison Huber, who authored one of our most popular posts and joined full-time after covering development camp like a seasoned professional.

We’re now a full-fledged blogging posse, constantly encroaching upon the line between our own disreputable bland of sportswriting and something dangerously close to respectable journalism.

This site is our site, and we include you in that statement.  We have something in common, you and us: a devotion to this team that inspires us.  In the heartbreak of the season past and in the promised victories to come, we remain bound to you, the sport, and this silly team we all love so much.

So check back over the next few days as we review the highlights and low points of the year just passed.  We’ll share with you our resolutions for next season, and we’ll even give you a peak at what’s going on at the party this weekend.

‘Cause let’s face it; it’s almost August, and there’s pretty much nothing else going on.