The Washington Capitals honor a lot of charities, something many teams do. Playing in the city that houses the countries government, though, creates a special bond with the military. The team skates with families of the fallen, recognizes injured soldiers during games, and raises money for military charities.

On Thursday, the Caps did even more, holding their 10th annual Military Appreciation Night. The Caps wore desert camouflage jerseys during warmups (auctioned off during the game), and hosted the Navy Mites on Ice team and the USA Warriors hockey team during the intermissions. A number of tickets were also given away to soldiers and veterans.

Below, take a look at some photos of the special jerseys:

Washington wore Courage Caps hats during warmups to support the cause. (Photo credit: @KCity65)

Sports teams may feel like glorified corporations these days. There still, however, is something more to them: the fans, the community, and the good the teams can do through charitable work. On Sunday, the Washington Capitals launched their annual Courage Caps program, which raised over $100,000 for TAPS, a military charity, last year.

Launched in 2007, Courage Caps has raised almost $325,000 through the sale of special hats and t-shirts. The apparel can be signed by a Caps player for a couple extra 10s. For the second year in a row the program is benefitting TAPS — the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors — which programs counseling and support services to the families of fallen soldiers. To kick off this season’s program, Washington held a skating party for some TAPS families. A week ago, Americans Matt Hendricks, Joey Crabb, Jack Hillen, and John Carlson took the ice with around 150 people who have been helped by TAPS.

“Without the men and women that do what they do for our country, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy this great freedom,” Hendricks said at the time.

So if you want to feel better about yourself and support the Caps, stop by one of the team stores or head over their website. It’s a lovely cause.

Photos by Chris Gordon

The past decade has seen the United States involved in two wars — one in Iraq, one in Afghanistan. We’re all aware of them, we’ve seen the headlines. But for most Americans, the country’s battles are an abstraction. It’s something on the news, not part of the stories of other human beings.

Some Americans, though, can’t remove themselves from them — the wars have taken members of their family. Husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters, mothers, and fathers: the all have loved ones who will never come home. This has unfolded thousands of times throughout the past 12 years.

“Even eight years later we still grieve,” Patty Stubenhofer, whose husband Mark was killed in Iraq in December 2004, said. “The biggest thing is to know we’re not alone, that there are people that remember.”

Losing a loved one in the military is unspeakable, but there are many organizations trying to ease the burden. One of them is TAPS, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors. Last season, TAPS partnered with the Capitals as part of the team’s annual Courage Caps program, which raises money for military charities through the sale of specific t-shirts and hats, some of them signed by Caps players. In 2011, Washington generated over $100,000 for TAPS through the program. For the second straight season Courage Caps — which was started five years ago by the team and has raised over $300,000 — will benefit TAPS, which offers various counseling and support services to families of fallen service members for free. This gear’s Courage Caps gear will be available starting next week on the Capitals’ website and in team stores.

“We’re really excited how the program has taken off, especially last year,” Elizabeth Wodatch, the head of the team’s charity work, said. “It really has an impact.”

Photo by Caps Community Relations

On Sunday, the Caps hosted some of the families helped by TAPS for a skating party at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. The four Americans on the team — John Carlson, Joey Crabb, Matt Hendricks, and Jack Hillen — took the ice with around 150 kids and adults who have lost loved ones in the military.

“I had a blast helping out all those little kids,” Crabb told me. “They looked so happy out there. That’s great with some of the stuff they’ve gone through just to get back to being kids.”

The players were on the ice with the families are about an hour, sharing stories of their loved ones and “not talking about the Capitals’ record, or the power play and penalty kill” according to Crabb. One mother even gave Carlson her fallen son’s dog tags (seen posing on the right). It was the first time on the ice for some of the children, who were often helped along by members of the Caps offering tips for beginners. (Hendricks is right; don’t make the mistake trying to walk on the ice instead of pushing off.)

“Some of them are doing a great job, some of them are struggling, but we’re making it fun for everybody and that’s what it’s all about,” said Hendricks.

“This is a great honor for us to be out here today,” he added. “These families have been through tragedy and we’re just here to say thanks, give them a little bit of joy today. Without the men and women that do what they do for our country, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy this great freedom.”

In addition to the support services TAPS provides, the families also benefit from the community it offers, and knowing that other people are going through the same thing.

“The kids have met other kids and talk to each other,” said Stubenhofer, a mother of three. “Knowing that they’re not the only one whose dad didn’t came to their baseball game helps them a lot. It doesn’t make them happier but it makes them not feel so different.”

Photos

Holtby skates Zachary around the ice. (Photo credit: Ann-Marie Ward)

Photo credit: Ann-Marie Ward

The day before the Washington Capitals played their most inspired game of the season — a 5-0 shellacking of the Florida Panthers, some special guests invaded Kettler Capitals Iceplex and raised the spirits of three Caps in particular: Braden Holtby, Jason Chimera, and Tomas Kundratek. The Caps hosted Extreme Recess Hockey in conjunction with Dreams For Kids DC, a program which allows children with physical and developmental disabilities — as well as at-risk youth — to get out on the ice and skate with the pros.

The event had a profound impact on both the children and players involved.

“It’s making me feel unreal,” Kundratek told John Walton in a team-produced video. “Kids having smiles on their faces. That’s what this is all about. This is my first time and I’m really enjoying it.”

The event was certainly a respite for the three Capitals who were there, as the team was a night removed from their lowest point of the lockout-shortened season, an embarrassing 5-2 loss to rival Pittsburgh. The Capitals owned a league-worst 2-8-1 record and have looked, at times, lost implementing Adam Oates’ new system.

“It kinda snaps you back to reality pretty quickly about how important life is, and what the true meaning of life is,” Chimera explained. “It’s important for us to be out here. It puts smiles on kids faces. It’s pretty heart-warming to come out here.”

Of course, the event also had a huge impact on the kids and parents involved as well.

RMNB reader Ann-Marie Ward and her five-year-old son Zachary attended and they had quite an experience.

I’ll let Ann-Marie give some context. Here’s an excerpt from the blog post she wrote on We’re a Caps Family, which you should most definitely read.

As many of you may know, my younger son Zachary has some developmental issues. He has a lot of difficulty with motor control, so even though he’s almost 5, he’s still learning how to walk and isn’t talking yet. While he is enrolled in an amazing preschool program and has many interests, he hasn’t ever been able to participate in sports like his older brother. He has spent many a Saturday watching his brother play soccer, ride his bike, or run around with his friends. And because we are huge hockey fans, he has spent lots of time at the ice rink, seeing other kids skate and, of course, watching the Caps practice.

Well Mom and son watched practice this day too, but once it ended, Zach got a totally new experience. This time he would go on the ice himself. After bravely getting buckled into a special sled, he joined 99 other kids on the ice.

After taking several laps around the ice, Zach first met his first Capitals player: Tomas Kundratek. Kundy, as his teammates call him, gave Zach some stuffed animals, skated him around the ice, and then snapped some pictures with the group. Later, Jason Chimera did the same.

Then Braden Holtby greeted the group. The Wards, who have followed Holtby’s career closely since he first played for the Bears, have a special place in their hearts for the 23-year-old Lloydminster, Saskatchewan native. As Braden skated young Zachary around, he jumped around in the sled with excitement. “I got really emotional seeing how much fun they were having,” Ward wrote later.

“When you get the opportunity to do these events, it really puts things in perspective,” Holtby said of the day. “Every time, it sends shivers up your spine being out here.”

As much as we’d all like to believe that sacrificing a rubber cow and goat had an impact on turning the Hockey Gods in our favor Saturday, the inspiration that Zach and the other 99 brave kids gave the players on Friday cannot be understated.

Zachary and I are taking full credit for this win. #Caps

— Ann-Marie Ward (@martina09) February 10, 2013

And I’m not the only one.

Caps Video of the Event

On November 17th, Washington Capitals first-line winger Troy Brouwer suited up for the Goals For Dreams hockey game, a charity exhibition that pitted the NHL Players Association against Winnipeg Police Patrolmen. In front of a sold-out crowd at the University of Manitoba’s Max Bell Centre, locked-out stars like Jonathan Toews, Shea Weber, and Mike Richards hit the ice again and raised over $80,000 for the Children’s Hospital Foundation and the Dream Factory.

Good news for all you Brouwer-maniacs out there: Goals For Dreams has put every player’s game-used jersey up for auction on eBay — including Troy’s — and bidding ends a little after 9pm tonight.

Brouwer’s jersey, which comes signed, is currently going for $100. Considering that a customized Capitals jersey costs $200-plus, that’s, um, a really good deal. Plus, all the money from the sale will be going to a good cause: the Dream Factory Foundation which grants the wishes of critically and chronically ill children from the ages of 3 through 18.

Get to bidding on this sweet jersey and make some kid’s dream come true. C’mon. It’s Christmas.

Additional Photos

Resisting… urge… to make fun of MG52′s shirt. (Photo credit: @KevinMacDonnell)

Via his Twitter account @GreenLife52, Mike offers a free drink to his 75k+ followers

NHL players have missed their first four paychecks of the 2012-13 season, but one Washington Capitals player is still willing to empty his pockets for a good cause. On Saturday night, Mike Green asked all of his followers in a tweet to come out to the popular sports bar Front Page Arlington. The all-star defenseman then bought all Caps fans in attendance a round of shots and then later just paid for the entire bar tab. Green also served drinks from behind the bar, signed autographs and took pictures with fans, and even participated in the last round of a day-long poker tournament to help benefit Hurricane Sandy victims and the Ballston restaurant whose revenue is down 10% because of the lockout. How cool is that?!

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: hockey players are the most down-to-earth and generous athletes in any sport. These types of gestures make fans for life, regardless of how the unnecessary league-imposed lockout darkens our collective hockey souls.

Below the jump, I’ve included a few more pictures from the night — and if you’ve got some more, feel free to send ‘em our way.

Photos

The shots MG52 bought for fans. (Photo credit: @larltonthegreat)

Green bartending. Looking good, Jorge! (Photo credit: FPA owner Jorge Fernandez)

Photo credit: Kyle Mace of Sweetest Hockey On Earth

November 1st marks the first day of Movember, an event where men across the globe grow mustaches to raise money to fight prostate cancer. Hockey players have been among the most avid supporters of the charity, raising thousands for research and awareness.

Almost the entire Hershey Bears team is participating this year, and some players are trying to one up each other. After Boyd Kane’s wife offered a signed team photo for any person donating $25 or more, Caps prospect Tomas Kundratek responded with his own overture.

No signed jersey or stick. Too rote. Instead, Kundratek is offering to take the fan who donates the most money out to dinner at the finest establishment in Hershey: Houlihan’s! If you’re nice, he might let you order an appetizer.

Check this us.movember.com/team/756193The biggest donation on my mustache wins an end of the November supper with me athoulihan’s #myTreat

— Tomas Kundratek (@Kundrc84) November 1, 2012

How cool is that?

This is why hockey players are the best. They’re down-to-earth people and have tastes like the rest of us. I can’t imagine LeBron or Ben Roethlisberger doing something like this. Kudos to Tomas for willing to hang out with a fan for a good cause.

Now go donate! He deserves your money.

Paralyzed high-school hockey player Jack Jablonski drops the puck for a ceremonial faceoff between Parise and Hendricks. (Photo via Defending the Blueline)

When George McPhee traded for Mike Ribeiro and signed Wojek Wolski, he formed perhaps the greatest shootout line-up in the history of hockey. That duo is rounded out by Matt Hendricks, who went 5 for 6 and embarrassed some of the best goalies in the game last season. The Capitals don’t even need Alex Ovechkin or Nicklas Backstrom for the gimmick anymore.

But temper that confidence. On Sunday, NHL players including Zach Parise, new Caps defenseman Jack Hillen, and Hendricks, took the ice for a charity game benefiting Defending the Blue Line. The game brought 3,000 hockey-starved fans out to the University of Minnesota and raised an estimated $50,000 for the children of military parents. It was great, until Hendricks’ shootout attempt at the end of the game.

Hendy shoots at the 1:40 mark.

As Hendricks skates in, everything is going according to plan– until Wild goaltender and evil twin Niklas Backstrom tries to poke-check the puck away. Backstrom’s extended stick forces Hendy to hold on to the puck longer than expected. He runs out of room to shoot on his forehand and misses.

NHL goalies have finally found a way to finally stop the Hendricks’ move. Actually, probably not. Ilya Bryzgalov tried the poke-check last year, Hendricks just deked back to backhand and scored easily. Hendy will get him next time. He’s just rusty. Yeah, that’s it.

Photo via Defending the Blueline

It’s summertime: lean days for hockey fans. But I’ve got some good news though: here’s an opportunity to play (or watch) hockey– and do it for a good cause.

On August 3-5, the Gardens Ice House in Laurel, MD is hosting the Leap Towards a Cure Presented by Outback Steakhouse, Laurel, MD, hockey tournament. 26 teams will compete in the tourney to raise money for the Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins.

Leap Towards a Cure is looking for players for the tournament right now, so if your rec league is winding down, please get the word out. There are a bunch of divisions for different talent levels, so please don’t worry about your skills.  They particularly need free agent skaters for the women’s division.

Plus, you might see some hockey guys you might know.

Here are the details:

• 3 guaranteed games, plus a possible championship game, for each team
• Tournament t-shirt for each player
• Tournament skate towel for each player
• Skills Competition (hardest shot, fastest skater, accuracy shooting)
• Free Community Festival on Saturday, featuring games, a silent auction, and a raffle
• Free food on Saturday provided by Outback Steakhouse, Laurel, MD
• A Saturday afternoon happy hour and Saturday evening after-party at Frisco Tap House & Brewery, open to the public, where players will receive special drink privileges and other good stuff.

You can visit the Leap Towards a Cure site for more information.

You must have a current registration with USA Hockey and be 18 or older to play. If you’re interested, send a message to the tournament directors with your name and preferred level (Low Silver, High Bronze, Low Bronze, or Women’s), and he’ll take it from there. Per-player costs will depend on how many skaters are on each team, but based on last year it should be in the $80-$100 range.

Even if you can’t participate yourself, please spread the word. If you’re around your local rink this weekend, make some noise. There are a lot of other ways to help the good cause. Volunteers to help out at the site will be showered with gratitude. Plus, a few very cool players you might know will play some alumni from Eleanor Roosevelt High School on Saturday, so that’ll be a treat for everyone.

Thanks to Abram Fox of District Sports Page for alerting us to this.

What are you doing on Sunday? Ain’t no Caps game, so you have no excuse not to get down to The Gardens Ice House in Laurel for an epic match-up for a good cause.

University of Maryland Hockey will face off with its in-state rival, the Naval Academy, for a charity game to raise money for the USA Warriors. There is no charge at the door, so spectators are asked to make a donation to the Warriors. Here’s the Facebook event page.

A sneak peak at Maryland's special uniform for the game

In case you don’t already know, USA Warriors is a non-profit program that helps wounded veterans play hockey. And when I say “play,” I mean some of these guys are flipping intense out there.

There’s gonna be some schwag. The first 500 fans who donate will get a free commemorative shirt. At the game you could win memorabilia, a meet-n-greet with celebs and old-timey hockey pros, or a guitar signed by the band Three Days Grace. All proceeds benefit USA Warriors.

University of Maryland, Navy, DC101, Elliot in the Morning, and the Montgomery Youth Hockey Association are all doing some good work for a great cause, so let’s go join ‘em. See you there!

The Deets

Date: Sunday, November 13, 2011
Time: 3:30 pm
Location: The Gardens Ice House, 13800 Old Gunpowder Rd, Laurel, MD 20707

Silent Auction Items

• Golf and lunch for four at Lakewood Country Club
• Luxury hotel stays, courtesy of Ritz Carlton
• Baltimore Ravens team signed football
• Maryland athletics items
• Caps tickets
• AED System and lesson, courtesy Rescue One
• Guitar signed by Three Days Grace, courtesy DC101
• Signed and framed Mike Vick jersey
• Maryland’s game-worn Military themed jerseys, courtesy MYHA
• Week long, ocean-front beach house for a week in Bethany Beach
• And much more!