RMNB | Russian Machine Never Breaks

Winter is Coming in One Day

Photo credit: Toni L. Sandys of the Washington Post

Editor’s note: To get you properly revved up for the season, each member of the RMNB crew will take a longing look back at some of our favorite goals from days gone by. You can call it nostalgia or cheap summer content, but it’s really a reminder: WINTER IS COMING.

Seeing a Steve Konowalchuk hat trick live with my dad and brother made me fall in love with hockey. Joe Juneau’s jamshot past Dominik Hasek made me wildly jump up and down as a teenager. But Alex Ovechkin’s first career playoff tally is my all-time favorite NHL goal.

Here’s why.

(more…)

By Ian Oland 12 years ago

0 Comment

Casting Call: Hockey Players, Hockey Fans, Guy Who Looks Like a Basset Hound

Are you a hockey fan or player in need of a cool story to tell people at parties? Then today is your lucky day. Our friends at Carlyn Davis Casting are looking for just your type for two upcoming commercial shoots.

Here are the deets:

Shoot #1

Hockey players, skaters and a goalie. Caucasian males between 20 and 35 years old.

Referee. Caucasian male between 35 and 45 years old.

You’re gonna have to be between 5’8″ and 5’11” and fit skate sizes around 10, 11, and 12. You must have excellent skating skills and hockey experience. You will be playing hockey players from the 1930’s, so a slender build is preferred.

Two slender males and one heavy (XL-2XL) male. Caucasian, between 5’8″ and 5’1″, 25 to 45 years old. You will be on the ice without skates, so you’ll need excellent balance and must be comfortable playing/running/sliding around without skates.

This is for a commercial shoot in Maryland (Baltimore, mayhaps?) one day between November 16th and 18th.

More after the jump!

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 12 years ago

0 Comment

Will Mathieu Perreault Make a Splash in 2011-12?

Photo credit: Greg Fiume

The hard part is over. Mathieu Perreault led the Capitals with five points in four preseason games and snatched the final roster spot from favorites Cody Eakin and Mattias Sjogren.

Last season he showed the ability to drive puck possession, finishing with the fourth best Corsi relative to the competition on the team, behind only Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and Alexander Semin.

Consistency, however, was a bigger issue. He earned all fourteen of his points in just nine of his 35 games played and wasn’t able to claim a center spot that was up for grabs.

(more…)

By 12 years ago

0 Comment

Video: Caps Prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov Scores Third-Straight GWG, Celebrates With Ovechkin-esque Leap Into Boards

After Traktor’s 4-3 victory over Barys Tuesday, Head Coach Valery Belousov revealed to the media that Evgeny Kuznetsov played sick. Belousov didn’t specify what type of bug Kuznetsov came down with, but with regulars Deron Quint and Raymond Giroux sitting out due to food poisoning, it was pretty easy to connect the dots.

(more…)

By 12 years ago

0 Comment

Getting to Know New Caps Right Wing Troy Brouwer

Photo credit: Chris Gordon

Over the summer, General Manager George McPhee started snatching players like a rabid mom snatching groceries on Supermarket Sweeps. In are gritty NHL veterans like Joel Ward, Roman Hamrlik, and Jeff Halpern. Out are fan-favorites like Matt Bradley and Boyd Gordon.

Beyond the discounted signing of Tomas Vokoun, there may have been no better addition to the line-up than the Draft-night trade McPhee swung with the Chicago Blackhawks in which he landed Troy Brouwer for a first-round pick. Brouwer, who signed an affordable two-year deal worth $2,350,000 per year on July 6, was part of the Blackhawks’ 2010 Stanley Cup Champion squad and is known in part for his physical, hard-hitting game. The 26-year-old right wing has also been a proven scorer at every level he’s played, tallying 20 goals in the NHL, 40-plus goals in the AHL, and 100-plus points in Juniors.

So with Opening Night only a few days away, what can Caps fans reasonably expect offensively from Brouwer? Also, how about some bizarre facts about Troy that only RMNB can dig up? Follow me past the jump to find out.

(more…)

By Ian Oland 12 years ago

0 Comment

A Primer to the Washington Capitals 2011-2012 Season

If you took a break from hockey after May 4th, when the Tampa Bay Lightning swept the Washington Capitals out of the playoffs, we completely understand. It was rough. But the new season is here, along with reasons for renewed hope. So in case you’ve been avoiding hockey in general and this blog in particular, we’ve prepared a primer to catch you up.

Here is everything you need to know about the Washington Capitals but were afraid to ask (2011-2012 edition).

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 12 years ago

0 Comment

Capitals 2011-2012 Season: Mark your Calendars

82 games makes for a long and dreary season, but some dates stand out. We’ve perused the calendar for the upcoming season and circled the ones you might want to keep in mind. If you find a date we’re missing, let us know in the comments.

Check out the full Capitals schedule on their official site.

Oct 8, Capitals vs. Hurricanes

Opening day, natch. The Capitals begin a six-month campaign to redeem themselves and scoar moar goals.

Oct 10, Capitals vs. Lightning

In the very first week of play, the Caps will face the team that knocked ’em out, including superstars Steven Stamkos and Martin St. Louis.

Oct 13, Capitals @ Penguins

It’s never “just another game” when the Caps make the short trip up to Pittsburgh and the unpronounceable Consol Energy Center.

(more…)

By Peter Hassett 12 years ago

0 Comment

Horse Named After Alex Ovechkin Gives Former Bullets Owner First-Ever Champion at 92

Horse Named After Alex Ovechkin wins Maryland Millions

Sylvia Heft poses with jockey Sheldon Russell and her husband Arnold Heft in the winner’s circle. (Photo credit: Karl Merton Ferron)

Craig Brownstein of PuckBuddys writes for Russian Machine Never Breaks.

Next to the Preakness Stakes, the middle jewel of the Triple Crown, the biggest day on the Free State’s racing calendar is a championship series for horses who claim a pedigree connected to Maryland stallion.

Eighttofasttocatch, the horse named after the Russian Machine, is shown here before the race. (Photo credit: Kim Hairston)

In its 26th renewal Saturday, the feature race, the Maryland Million Classic, was won by a runner who claims Russian ancestry. Eighttofasttocatch, a four-year-old chestnut gelding, was named after Caps Captain Alex Ovechkin. “Catcher” is a well-regarded race horse campaigned by Arnold Heft (an NBA ref back in the day), former co-owner of the Bullets who purchased the team along with Abe Pollin in 1964.

According to the official chart of the race, he dragged his feet a little bit in the early going, only to thunder down the stretch to win by nearly two lengths. He “gathered momentum leaving the half mile marker, moved to collar the leader approaching the stretch, kicked clear in upper stretch, responded to solid right hand pressure (a.k.a. the whip) leaving the eighth pole, drifted out slightly near the sixteenth pole and held sway.” That sounds an awful lot like the last half of the Caps 2010-2011 regular season and playoff run, all except for the holding sway part, of course.

(more…)

By Craig Brownstein 12 years ago

0 Comment

Winter is Coming in 8 Days

Editor’s note: To get you properly revved up for the season, each member of the RMNB crew will take a longing look back at some of our favorite goals from days gone by. You can call it nostalgia or cheap summer content, but it’s really a reminder: WINTER IS COMING.

I wasn’t always a huge hockey fan. My family were Hartford Whalers season-ticket holders, and they took me to an event down at the old Civic Center when I was 4. I would have gone skating but the goal siren frightened me away. I refused to skate and spent the rest of the night sitting on the bench with my hands on my ears. When I finally saw a game at age 12, I was an instant convert.

So: January 1st, 2011. The Winter Classic. Maybe the biggest game of the regular season and my first away from Home Sweet Verizon Center and in Pittsburgh, home of our nemeses. I wanted the win badly.

(more…)

By Rachel Cohen 12 years ago

0 Comment

Evgeny Kuznetsov: “I Shot, I Shoot, I Will Always Shoot”

At 2:20, Evgeny Kuznetsov's one-timer puts Traktor ahead of Torpedo for good.

Despite being sidelined for the most of the summer recovering from shoulder surgery, Caps prospect Evgeny Kuznetsov has had a great start to the KHL regular season. He’s tallied three goals on the year, most recently the game-winner in Traktor’s 5-2 victory over Torpedo, and has also scored two shootout goals which both pushed the White Bears to victory.

Traktor Head Coach Valery Belousov has brought Kuznetsov along slowly in the first couple of games, burying him on the third line and also limiting his minutes. That has not stopped the 19-year-old forward from being one of the most productive players on the team. He ranks second on the team overall in both goals and shots (25).

Sport-Express’s Alexey Shvetsov caught up with Kuzya after Wednesday’s game and the two discussed Traktor’s “disappointing” start to the regular season, the Lokomotiv tragedy, and Evgeny’s timetable on playing in Washington. RMNB’s Igor Kleyner has your translation below the jump.

(more…)

By Igor Kleyner 12 years ago

0 Comment