Archive for December, 2011

In the space of fourteen minutes last night, the Hershey Bears game against the Norfolk Admirals went from heart-stopping to heartbreaking.  The Bears went from confident to unsettled, and when they headed to the locker room they left a 3-6 loss on the scoreboard.  The gracious way of describing the third period of last night’s game is “Ugly,” and I’m sure the players used more colorful language behind closed doors. Because there is always a silver lining, even if the Bears burned through theirs early in the evening, tonight’s article is going to take a paragraph to explain the mess that [...]

Every once in a while, everything goes right.  That was tonight in Hershey against the visiting Bridgeport Sound Tigers, and it was beautiful to watch.  In light of the Capitals game in Denver, it was an even sweeter slice of success. Winning a hockey game requires more than just a few pucks in the net (although those certainly help).  A triumph on the ice and a celebration in the locker room needs both the “big guns” and the “lesser” guys to pay their dues.  Tonight, the Hershey Bears were a phenomenal example of how to do it right.  They weren’t [...]

A couple months ago, Karl Alzner Tweeted that he had started playing Words With Friends and included his username (kalzner). Caps Outsider had a one-on-one with him about his spelling skills. Capitals Outsider: How did you get started playing? Karl Alzner: “I started playing last year when I got an iPhone and Brooks Laich played quite a bit, and DJ King played. I had played scrabble on my iPad before and I figured it was pretty much the same thing, so I started playing.”

After a stunning 5-1 loss at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers, most fans and some members of the press are starting to question the hiring of Dale Hunter as being the most logical choice to take over as head coach after the firing of Bruce Boudreau. Since Hunter has taken over the squad the Capitals are 3-4-0 and are currently sitting in 8th place in the Eastern Conference standings. This is a far cry from what most people have predicted the Capitals to be in at this point of the season, as most predicted that the team would run [...]

Headline inspired by Michael Hoffman Full disclosure: While I root daily for the Caps, I do own a Briere jersey. That being said, this is not a game I, the fans, or even Troy Brouwer wanted to see. “You are gonna have minor setbacks, but if you’re gonna have setbacks like that at least you can do it with a good effort,” said the winger, “Tonight was just–I wouldn’t have wanted to pay money to see that hockey game tonight, if I was a Caps fan.”

In recent days, news of the Capitals-with-Dogs calendar has made the rounds since its release at Friday’s game.  What’s less well known is that the Hershey Bears annually put out their own dog calendar in partnership with UDS Service Dogs, and it’s got a distinct AHL flair (S/T to Rink Rebel for the reminder to clarify that Hershey’s been doing it for years longer than the Caps). Below the jump, find a few select highlight images and a dash of color commentary.

It’s the Capitals Outsider holiday gift guide!

Well, the news coming out of Gwinnett is good.  In the first of two back-to-back games against the Gladiators, the South Carolina Stingrays earned themselves a 3-1 victory.  There’s a reason I still use the twitter hashtag #rainbowsandkittens for their victory posts. In Hershey, the news is not so nice.  As you may remember, Hershey has a bit of a losing streak going when facing the Baby Pens at the Giant Center.  It’s been going for well over a season, and it leads to a certain amount of inherent frustration and encouragement to pull a win out of wherever they [...]