Archive for June, 2011

Truth be told this was intended to be a hate rant directed at Semyon Varlamov.  Though I reacted rather nonchalantly to the reports of him leaving for the KHL’s SKA St. Petersburg, I was a bit more passionate about his agent’s comments. But in the middle of my anger-infused sentences, I realized that I could not sink to the level of immature bashing; there are many more people capable of that. It’s now clear that what Varlamov is doing is what any smart, talented, thinking person would do.  Varly himself said he would take a pay cut to stay in [...]

(Photo by Alena Schwarz) I breathed a huge sigh of relief this morning when Brooks Laich signed his six-year, 27-million-dollar contract extension. Folks who’ve read my posts on the Washington Post’s Box Seats blog know that I like to write about community relations and philanthropy, so in my mind this flat tire-changing wonder is elevated to near-superhero (read: actual superhero) status. Now that I’ve unmasked him (you’re welcome, Brooks), here are the five superpowers I’m hoping he’ll put to good use this season:

Capitals enforcer D.J. King, who is still on the roster, is 27 today. Despite only playing 16 games this past season, King, of Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, was a welcome presence in the locker room. (Photo by Alena Schwarz)

Capitals defenseman John Erskine, of Kingston, Ontario, is 31 today. (Photo by Alena Schwarz) Follow us on Twitter and like our Facebook page.

Here’s a rundown of the situation. 1) Bloggers Angie Lewis and former Capitals Outsider contributor Keara Dowd wrote an article for the Hockey Writers titled: “Fancy This: Jaromir Jagr to… Washington?” The headline on its own can be misconstrued as a rumor, but the article is clearly a list of pros and cons of Jagr coming back to D.C. which ultimately sides with the cons. Contemplating whether a team should pick up a certain free agent is common for sports bloggers to tackle.

Jay Beagle and Karl Alzner aren’t slacking off this summer. Nope, they’re filming workout videos in Calgary to awesome music.

In case you missed it last night, as many of us did at the Puck Daddy / Japer’s Rink Awards Party, they opened the NHL Awards with a 24/7 parody. The Capitals got hit pretty hard in this piece by Jay Mohr, but I guess they should be happy they even got mentioned in the show at all this season. The NHL seems to have chopped off the end of the video. I’ll try to pull a copy from my DVR later this evening, so we can show you the entire thing.

The NHL Awards didn’t provide much for the Capitals demographic this year, or for anyone who enjoys a good television in general.  Mike Green was the sole representative for the team as a nominee for the NHL Foundation Award, which was eventually awarded to L.A. Kings’ captain, Dustin Brown. Though a measurement of the individual players’ seasons, a lot can be told about a team when looking at the sway of the votes.  Not much can be said in favor of the Caps, but compared to last year there has been some improvement. The Ugly: The Defense From having two [...]