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Brooks Orpik inducted into his high school’s Hall of Fame

On October 13, Capitals defenseman Brooks Orpik was inducted into the Thayer Academy Hall of Fame. The news was first reported by Wicked Local Cohasset.

Orpik graduated from Thayer, a private school in Massachusetts, in 1998 after spending two years there. The defenseman earned All-League honors his junior and senior year, All-New England honors his senior year, and was chosen for the US U16 and U18 teams in 1996 and 1997 respectively.

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77 photos from the Caps Dog Calendar shoot featuring puppies, the Stanley Cup, and puppies IN the Stanley Cup

The happiest day of the Capitals regular season happened on Saturday when they participated in the annual canine calendar photoshoot. Partnering with Homeward Trails Animal Rescue, the guys posed with dogs up for adoption, as well as their own family-owned pups.

This year’s shoot was more relaxed, with each Caps player sporting their own style with a special guest: the STANLEY CUP! And what’s better than tiny puppies in the Cup? Not much.

Capitals players John Carlson, Brett Connolly, Nic Dowd, Lars Eller, TJ Oshie, Alex Ovechkin, Matt Niskanen, and Chandler Stephenson all posed with their own dogs. Nicklas Backstrom, Madison Bowey, Travis Boyd, Andre Burakovsky, Pheonix Copley, Christian Djoos, Braden Holtby, Dmitrij Jaskin, Michal Kempny, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, Devante Smith-Pelly, Jakub Vrana, Nathan Walker, and Tom Wilson took their photos with dogs available for adoption through Homeward Trails.

Since the calendar began in 2014, the Caps have raised almost $250,000 for Homeward Trails. A limited number of calendars will be available for $20 at the November 21 game against the Chicago Blackhawks. The calendar will be sold online and details will be announced at a later date.

While the official photos won’t be seen until the release, we hope these adorable photos will hold you over until then.

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By Cara Bahniuk On October 7, 2018 1 Comment

Brooks Orpik breaks 182-game regular season goalless streak

Thursday night’s game in Pittsburgh was an absolute gong show, with teams trading goals before Kris Letang ended it in overtime.

One of the goals that might’ve gotten lost in that fray was Brooks Orpik’s first regular-season goal since the William Howard Taft administration.

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By Julia Karron On October 4, 2018 0 Comment

The Caps will be a 100-point team, take it to the bank

Though the Washington Capitals last season earned 105 standings points and won the Stanley Cup, they have yet to win a single preseason game, and although no one cares even a little about that, there is some consternation about the team’s fortune in 2018-19. Lots of Caps fans still get the autonomous sensory meridian response whenever they think about the Caps winning the Cup, but the afterglow is fading, and it’s time for us to look to the future. Now is the time of year when analysts make their projections, and not all of those projections are rosy for Washington.

Among them is one from the esteemed Dom Luszczyszyn of The Athletic, who projects the Caps to earn 94.4 standings points this season. That ostensibly would put the defending champions on the playoff bubble – a setback, but there are lots of reasons why the team may outperform those expectations.

Personally, I think the Caps will again be a 100-point team. Lemme tell you why.

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By Peter Hassett On September 25, 2018 0 Comment

On the field with the Caps at their Stanley Cup celebration at Nationals Park

Leading up to the Capitals banner-raising ceremony on October 3, we’ll be sharing content from the summer that we never got around to publishing. This series is entitled Stanley Cup stories.

Three days after the Washington Capitals vanquished the Vegas Golden Knights in five games and secured the franchise’s first Stanley Cup, the team made its first public appearance in Washington DC.

Alex Ovechkin was scheduled to throw out the first pitch ahead of a Washington Nationals game, but little was known about how the team would be honored or what they’d be doing with the Stanley Cup.

Up to that point, the DMV area was desperate to celebrate with the team and they finally got their first chance approximately ten minutes before the first pitch of the Giants and Nationals.

The Capitals, including majority owner Ted Leonsis, team president Dick Patrick, and head coach Barry Trotz, lined up in the stairs leading to the Nationals clubhouse. And then everyone waited. As the anticipation of the Capitals’ appearance grew, a loud Let’s Go Caps! chant rang across the stadium. The sound hit me on the field like a sack of potatoes.

Eventually, Nationals PA announcer Jerome Hruska introduced DC’s first championship-winning team in over two decades, and Ovechkin walked the Cup up the dugout steps to a loud ovation. His teammates, who appeared ragged from days of intense partying, followed in tow.

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By Ian Oland On September 24, 2018 1 Comment

The NHL asked Brooks Orpik not to talk about his summer salary-cap clearing adventure

Over the summer, Brooks Orpik was traded to the Colorado Avalanche and then bought out by general manager Joe Sakic. Once the Capitals re-signed him, the organization received scrutiny from the NHL over their cap-clearing maneuver.

In a wide-ranging interview with 106.7 The Fan, Orpik explained that the league gagged him from speaking about the trade.

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By Julia Karron On September 24, 2018 0 Comment

Alex Ovechkin will play in his first game of the preseason tonight in Quebec City

The Capitals are up north to take on the Montreal Canadiens in their third preseason game. This game is special, as it’s being played at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City. The arena is built next to the Colisée Pepsi, where the Quebec Nordiques used to play.

This is the first preseason game for Alex Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Tom Wilson, Michal Kempny, and Brooks Orpik. Thursdays tilt also becomes the third game for Jayson Megna, who is battling for the open spot on the fourth line. Megna is the only player to suit up in all three preseason games.

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By Cara Bahniuk On September 20, 2018 0 Comment

Report: The NHL had concerns about how the Capitals dealt with Brooks Orpik’s cap space

In Elliotte Friedman’s Friday edition of his column 31 Thoughts, he mentions the trade that sent Brooks Orpik and Philipp Grubauer to the Colorado Avalanche and the subsequent re-signing of Orpik in August.

It turns out the NHL wasn’t too pleased with Washington’s cap space clearing strategy.

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By Julia Karron On September 14, 2018 2 Comments

Brooks Orpik was ‘blindsided’ by news of his trade to the Colorado Avalanche

Brooks Orpik, the respected team leader and experienced veteran whose advice about avoiding late hits helped keep his rookie defense partner Christian Djoos safe on the ice, found himself “blindsided” by an unexpected hit: he had been traded before the draft to the Colorado Avalanche.

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By Brennin Weiswerda On September 6, 2018 0 Comment