Scary moment early in Saturday’s game between the Capitals and Avalanche. As Alex Ovechkin prepped a hit on Gabriel Landeskog, he accidentally caught Marcus Johansson under the visor with his elbow. Johansson left the ice looking dazed, but returned to the ice for his next shift.
Johansson missed 14 games last season due to a concussion.
Photo credit: khl.ru
Former Washington Capitals goaltender Semyon Varlamov returns to the Verizon Center tonight for the first time since he was traded to the Colorado Avalanche on July 1, 2011.
While Varly told The Denver Post’s Adrian Dater that he was “so excited to be coming back,” he also faces a tough challenge in his former teammate and captain, Alex Ovechkin.
“In the NHL, I’ve never played against him,” Varlamov said to Dater. “I played against him one time back in Russia, when he played for Dynamo and I played for Lokomotiv. I’m looking forward to playing against him. It’s going to be a tough game, for sure. He’s a great player.”
The game Varlamov speaks of was actually during the lock-out last season on October 22, 2012. He fails to mention a few tiny details. Dynamo would win 3-0. And Ovechkin totally scored on him.
Photo credit: Kyle Mace / Sweetest Hockey on Earth
When head coach Adam Oates sent 22-year-old Nate Schmidt down to Hershey during training camp, he told the defenseman to “always be ready” for a call-up.
Tonight, the prospect will make his debut, filling in for an ailing John Erskine. He will become the third rookie to make his NHL debut for the team this season. Schmidt joins Connor Carrick and Michael Latta, who played in the Caps season opener against the Chicago Blackhawks on October 1st.
While Schmidt (who will be paired with Steve Oleksy against the Colorado Avalanche) told Monumental Network that he’s excited about his debut, he hopes he “got all the jitters out this morning” during the pre-game skate.
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin and Carolina Hurricanes forward Alex Semin are best friends off the ice. On it, um, not so much. Which is why last year, Sasha checked Sasha so hard, he had to adjust himself on the bench.
Thursday night, in the first Sasha Bowl of the young season, Ovechkin checked Semin in the face during the final minute of the third period to try and save a goal.
Photo credit: Alex Brandon
All week, nearly every writer in the Caps blogosphere seemed to write about Washington’s troubles at even strength. Despite being second in the NHL in points, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin was not immune from criticism. Five of Ovechkin’s six points this season had been scored on the power play. The Great Eight had only scored one five-on-five goal this season. That made people grumpy. Not good, Ovi. Not good.
Playing the Carolina Hurricanes on Thursday, Ovechkin left his precious spot in the left circle and combined with Steve Oleksy to score a dirty, even-strength goal. It was hockey beautiful.
Comcast Sportsnet sideline reporter Al Koken spoke with Washington Capitals assistant coach Calle Johansson during the first period. Koken wanted to know what the Caps franchise leader in games played thought of his new giant defenseman, Alex Urbom.
Apparently it was comedy hour or something.
Photo credit: Amanda H.
[Editor’s note: When Washington Capitals fan Amanda H. went to the Caps Season Ticket Holder party at Six Flags last year, she had Martin Erat sign a photo of Filip Forsberg. This year, she one-upped herself. We’ll let her explain.]
Martin Erat signs the toaster (Photo credit: @Komissarov95)
I had debated for a few days what I should get signed at the season ticket holder party. I have a ton of Caps stuff, but nothing really stood out to me, until about twenty minutes before I had to leave. Long forgotten due to the poor toast it makes (No, seriously it’s very bad toast, I have yet to find a setting that toasts most of the bread without burning the other half), my Capitals toaster sat on a shelf, not having been used in months.
Images of walking around an amusement park carrying a toaster danced in my head. It was too amusing to turn down. I have a suspicion those events might be slightly tedious so I felt like this might spice things up. At the very least it’d give me something to say to the players instead of just awkwardly standing in silence. I cleaned it up a little and tested to make sure the sharpie would actually stick. It did!
When my friend Alyssa and I arrived in the parking lot, I had a moment of doubt. Am I really going to go get a toaster signed? Why didn’t I clean it thoroughly beforehand? I figured that either way, this would be a great story and probably worth the effort. I went through security and the bag check. The guy checking my bag thought my toaster was pretty cool.
Washington Capitals fan/RMNB reader Sami took the photo of the night at Tuesday’s annual Caps’ season-ticket holder party at Six Flags America. You probably have already seen it. Eric Fehr tweeted it out, and both Tom Wilson and Connor Carrick retweeted it.
Sami, holding up her iPhone 4, took a front-facing photo of her three friends: Brenna (front row to the left), Zoe (second row to the left), and Danielle (second row to the right) as they rode the Superman rollercoaster. In the background, Caps players make silly faces. Braden Holtby looks apprehensive, Eric Fehr shows off his pearly whites, Tom Wilson gives an enthusiastic thumbs up, and little old Connor Carrick (who I trust was tall enough to ride this ride) manages to lean his head just above Fehr’s.
Study this photo. Look at it carefully. It has more layers than one of my website comp PSD’s (and no, I didn’t name the layers).
Danielle, who emailed us the group’s photos and kindly gave us permission to publish, was really excited. “It was really cool to see what happened to Sami’s photo,” Danielle wrote. “Because later on when we were visiting the players autograph tables, they knew exactly who we were from the roller coaster and mentioned that they saw the picture on Twitter.”
Tuesday was Zoe’s birthday. (Happy belated birthday, Zoe!) Danielle tells us that many players made a big deal about it.
The girls got autographs from Mike Green, Aaron Volpatti, Connor Carrick, John Carlson, Eric Fehr, Joel Ward, Marcus Johansson, and hahaha best Ovechkin.
Below are the rest of their photos from the night. Looks like a great time.
WOOOOO! (Photo credit: John Russell)
The Filip Forsberg/Martin Erat trade still elicits strong reactions from Caps fans. (Like I’m warning you now, you’re going to want to bring a hatchet into the comments below because this one’s gonna get gory.)
Adam Oates has put Erat — George McPhee’s 32-year-old, $4.5 million toy — on the fourth line where he averages under 8 minutes a game. For Caps fans already unhappy with the trade, Erat’s modest utilization had them grinding their teeth.
After Tuesday night, those fans are gonna need a mouthguard. Maybe dentures. Forsberg scored the first goal of his NHL career, a snap shot on the power play, during Nashville’s 3-2 win over the Minnesota Wild. Congrats, kid.
Clutch photo by @amandacastlee
A few years ago, I was at Karl Alzner and John Carlson’s kids press conference at the Caps Convention. I remember someone asking Alzner what the weirdest thing he ever signed was. A whip, he answered, because who even has a whip.
On Tuesday night, Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby had his own weird autograph moment at the Caps’ annual season-ticket holder party at Six Flags. Hotlby’s thing was cuter than Alzner’s though. Holtby signed a baby.
