On Wednesday, Braden Holtby spoke to the media for the last time this season at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. The next day he went to his DC-area home, packed up his things, and got in his car and drove. And drove. And then drove some more.

Three days later, after making a couple of pit stops along the way (including one in St. Cloud, Minnesota where Matt Hendricks played college hockey), Holtby arrived in his hometown of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Google estimates the Holtbeast had to travel 31 hours and 2,006 miles in his car to make it back home. Here’s what it looks like on a map.

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Holtby was in a hurry to get back home because he wanted to cheer on his former junior team, the Saskatoon Blades, who are hosting the 2013 Memorial Cup. On Sunday night, the Blades played the Halifax Mooseheads, and Holtby’s presence proved to be good luck as Saskatoon won 5-2. Earlier in the tournament, the Blades lost to Dale Hunter’s London Knights, 3-2.

During the first period, Holtby — wearing a leather jacket and sporting a ponytail and beard — gave a televised interview. Here’s what was said.

Welcome back. So we’re joined by Braden Holtby. This guy’s used to being down there [points to the ice] during his three full seasons with the Saskatoon Blades and now he’s up here watching junior hockey. What do you remember about your time in the Western Hockey League.

It’s the best time of your life. I think every player says that. Juniors — just the camaraderie with your teammates and what not — we had an outstanding coaching staff and training staff. It was an absolutely perfect three years.

So the best part of an NHL player’s life is the playoffs and I know Washington got there and looked good. What do you make of losing to New York in the opening round?

Yeah. [Audibly sighs] I mean obviously we would have liked a different outcome, but nowadays every NHL team is so close. We got beat by a very good team, but we’ll learn from it and bounce back next year.

What can you tell us about your drive? You drove here. You know there are flights to Saskatoon? How’d you get here?

Yeah. I just wanted some of my stuff and my vehicle back here so I hurried up and knew there was a chance to come here and watch a game and made sure to make the drive as quick as I could to get here.

Braden, thanks for the visit.

Thank you.

Took him three days by the way guys, if you’re counting at home.

Braden also walked around the arena, checking out the CCM booth.

Photo credit: @toddduffin

Holtby also posed to take pictures with fans.

Photo credit: @mikepaziuk

It’s nice to see Braden — just like Matt Hendricks and Karl Alzner — having some fun after a tough first round loss against New York. Getting some love from his hometown fans had to help.

A big welcome to @holts170, who’s in the building tonight to support the boys in Blue at the #MCMemorialCup!

— Saskatoon Blades (@bladeshockey) May 19, 2013

Yet again. (Photo credit: USA Today)

Alex Ovechkin sat on the bench, glaring down at the ice with his head between his hands. He looked defeated, because he was. His sixth visit to the Stanley Cup Playoffs was about to end in another disappointing loss, after another year failing to meet expectations.

After the game, Ovi stood in front the white board at the far end of the Capitals locker room and went off.

I am not saying there was a phone call from [the NHL], but someone just wanted Game 7. For the ratings; you know, the lockout, escrow, the league needs to make profit.

Ovi then backtracked a little, going from blaming the refs to the entire Washington Capitals roster, including himself.

It’s very frustrating. That’s the whole point; you have to win the games and try to win the Cup.

We have a great coaching staff, good group of guys who support each other. It doesn’t matter what happen, we not yelling at each other, nobody was pointing finger like it’s your fault we lose the game. It’s everybody’s fault. All guys are at fault. My fault, Backie’s, Ribs’s — everybody. It’s not about one person or two persons, it’s about the team. We don’t get team success in game seven and game six. It’s blame on us.

My SovSport colleague Dmitry Shumin asked Ovi to describe what happened in one word. Ovi: “[We] sh*t ourselves.” #caps

— Dmitry Chesnokov (@dchesnokov) May 14, 2013

Then there was Nick Backstrom. He spoke in a soft tone, not able to bring himself to stand up. Like Ovechkin, he’s been through this many times before. NBC Washington’s Adam Vingan asked him what he’d lessoned he learned from the series. Nicky was blunt.

Learn how to play in the playoffs, same thing as previous years. We came back in the regular season and playoffs came — not good enough. I can only talk for myself and my effort — not good enough. No excuses, just a bad effort. … It’s like deja vu. It happened before. It’s a bad feeling right now.

In game six on Sunday night, the Capitals did not receive a single power play despite a few egregious fouls by the New York Rangers. One of the worst missed calls came in the first period, when Mathieu Perreault was decked into the boards by Michael Del Zotto.

But there was also the time Rangers forward Ryan Callahan elbowed Jack Hillen, and then Hillen got whistled off for roughing.

Then, when Rangers forward Derek Dorsett might’ve slew-footed Mike Green. Green got a call for cross-checking.

The Caps got nicked for ticky-tac plays all night, including a cross-checking minor to Joel Ward late in the third period after he crashed the net. The Capitals been called for 31 penalties in the series; the Rangers have been sent to the box just 19 times. The penalty parade is more lopsided at Madison Square Garden, with the Capitals penalized 17 times. The Rangers have just 7.

After the game, Alan May shared his displeasure.

1st Star today for Rangers #25 referee Marc Joannette, even worse today than he was at MSG Wednesday. Should be ashamed, very bad

— Alan May (@MayHockeyCSN) May 12, 2013

Then May took the officiating to task on CSN’s Caps Postgame Central.

We’ve seen this three times at Madison Square Garden in the last week. The same referee Marc Joannette on Wednesday night — the same guy — today turned his back and looked away when Mathieu Perreault was hit five seconds after a puck, rammed from behind headfirst into the glass, not a call! The Capitals couldn’t get a call all game long, they set them back. They were very tired at the end of the first period, they had to kill of the 5-on-3 again. The only one that’s a clear cut penalty is the puck over the glass. But the Joel Ward penalty in the third period was absolutely disgusting and embarrassing that it was called. And I really can’t believe that guy was assigned this game again!

While the Capitals were apparently frustrated by the calls, they tried to downplay it in postgame interviews.

“Tonight shouldn’t have been so lopsided,” Braden Holtby said, according to Steve Whyno. “It shouldn’t have. We all know that. … We won’t use it as an excuse.”

Alex Ovechkin also expressed his displeasure, saying “it’s nothing we can control.”

The Capitals have a discipline problem, sure, but the officiating needs to improve or else game seven will be a total mess. Let the officials know what’s up on Monday.

Additional reporting by Chris Gordon.

Steve Oleksy has never been considered a top prospect. In fact, before he made his NHL debut for the Washington Capitals in March, Oleksy played for seven different minor league teams in five years. It’s been a long and often painful road Oleksy has traveled, one that was made even longer because of Braden Holtby.

You see, earlier in the season when Holtby and Oleksy played together in AHL Hershey, the sassy goaltender from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan decided to play a prank on the new Bears defenseman.

I’ll let Oleksy explain.

“I asked him for a ride back [to my car],” Oleksy said to ABC7′s Britt McHenry. “And this was before I really knew who Holts was — and he said,’Yeah. No problem, man,’ So I came up from doing a little interview and I walk out the door just to see him driving away. So I had to lug all the way back to our regular rink which is close to a mile away with my bag on my shoulder. People probably thought I was homeless.”

Regardless, Holtby and Oleksy have become fast friends, as the two would hang out regularly in Hershey. The Holtbeast would even become one of the first in the organization to catch on to Oleksy’s childhood nickname.

“One time I was at his house and on his computer it said ‘Binky’s Computer’ or something like that,” Holtby told RMNB’s Chris Gordon. “I was like ‘Who is that?’ One of the guys told me. It’s one of those nicknames where it’d be pretty funny if it caught on.”

Holtby has also been one of the Oleksy’s biggest advocates in Washington, such as Thursday night after Binky’s first career playoff game. Oleksy would tally the game-winning assist, as well as block a shot with his face and return without missing a shift.

“He can make those skill plays,” Holtby told the media after the game. “It surprises people all the time just because of the role he plays. He’s worked as hard as anyone to improve the skill part of his game.”

Holtby added,”I don’t think I’ve ever seen him without scars, without stitches at some point.”

GIF by flawlessrussians

It all just proves, that pranks can sometimes be the biggest signs of endearment.

Despite a painfully slow start, Alex Ovechkin has had one of the greatest seasons of his career. He scored more goals than any other player, earning his third Rocket Richard trophy in six seasons. He finished third in the league in points. He led his team to a division title after being mired in dead last a month into the season. Ovechkin’s play is the reason the Capitals are in the playoffs — without his success, this would have been a lost season for Washington.

Since he has been so crucial to the accomplishments of his team, he deserves consideration for the Hart Trophy, which is awarded to the guy “judged to be the most valuable to his team.” However, many of the writers who vote for the award are casting their ballots for somebody else — namely Sidney Crosby or John Tavares.

The Great One, Wayne Gretzky, disagrees with that.

Monday afternoon, Gretzky called in to Hockey Night in Canada’s afternoon radio show hosted by Rob Pizzo and Elliotte Friedman. Wayne talked about what teams he thinks will succeed in the playoffs and gave Ovechkin the ultimate endorsement, naming him and Jonathan Toews as the two people he’d like to see win the Hart trophy. He also praised the skills of first year head coach Adam Oates.

Gretzy on his MVP choice:

Listen, first of all, had Crosby not been hurt, I think he would have been a unanimous choice. And he still may win the award. He was so remarkable in the games he played. I don’t think anyone’s going to question it if Jonathan Toews wins [the Hart]. He takes faceoffs, he kills penalties. On the power play he’s an instrumental leader for that hockey club. He’s sorta the heartbeat of that team. He does it in a classy way. He’s just a wonderful player. So he’s going to get a lot of votes.

From my side of things, I look at Alexander Ovechkin. You look at the Hart trophy and what it means. And it means what player could you take away from that team and they wouldn’t have the success they had. And I think that people forget that he had three coaches in a 12 month period and I think that’s difficult for any player — especially an offensive-minded player. He struggled without question the first 20 games. And I think the final 28 games he finally got his confidence back. I don’t think there’s any coincidence that they were below .500, then as soon as he’s able to play at the level he’s capable of, they became a different team. I don’t think anybody’s going to be disappointed if either Toews or Ovechkin wins. Those would be my two guys that I would vote for. If Columbus made the playoffs, obviously that goaltender deserved a lot more attention than he would get.

Gretzky on how much credit Oates deserves:

What he’s done there is tremendous. And you have to make a decision as an organization, okay, “are we going to hang our hat on number eight” or are we going to say “time to move on, trade him” for two or three or four players that are a little bit more defensive minded. Adam Oates came in and said “he’s going to be my guy” and in fairness to Ovechkin, he’s boughten in to what Adam also wants. It’s been a good two-way street. Obviously, Ovechkin has loved playing for Oates and Oates has done a tremendous job coaching Ovechkin.

He’s a great player. He’s a superstar and it was just a matter of him getting his confidence back again and enjoying the game. I don’t care who you are. If you lose your confidence as a professional athlete, it’s very difficult to play. And so obviously he has it back and listen, the year he’s had and the finish he’s had, good for him and great for the city of Washington. It’s been exciting to watch.

Thanks to @nogoodtrying138 for first tweeting about the interview.

Photo credit: Brian Babineau

Saturday afternoon against the rival Boston Bruins, a chippy game stayed somewhat calm until the end of the second period. That’s when Brad Marchand goaded Mike Ribeiro into his first NHL fight and all hell broke loose. Matt Hendricks responded by dropping the mitts with Bruins first-line forward Nathan Horton, bloodying his face.

In the third period after Hendricks exited the box, Bruins heavyweight enforcer Shawn Thornton asked Hendy to drop the gloves several times. The Blaine, Minnesota native refused. That’s when, as Karl Alzner described it, “the biggest joke I’ve ever seen” occurred. Thorton shadowed Hendricks, shoving him and begging him to drop his mitts. Then Bruins defenseman Adam McQuaid cornered him along the boards, forcing Hendricks to pick one of them to dose-e-doe with.

So what did Hendy think of all the drama? Below are his full remarks after the Capitals’ morning skate Sunday.

Why did you fight Nathan Horton?

Horton and I seemed to be bumping into each other after every whistle. I don’t know if it was intended by him or intending as part of their game plan, but it seemed to happen and that’s part of hockey. That’s part of playing the Boston Bruins in Boston. It’s the way they play, and you’ve got to know that it’s coming.

Was Horton yelling at you during that face-off?

Yeah. I didn’t hear. I heard my name after the draw. I lost the draw. I was taking David Krejci to the net staying with my centerman and I heard him yelling my name. I looked up and saw him. And he was looking at me and asked me to go. That’s how it happened.

Did you get an explanation from the Bruins on why they both cornered you?

First of all, that’s Thornton’s job. That’s what he does. He’s paid to do that. That’s what makes him valuable in this league: he can play minutes, but he’s also a heavyweight enforcer. He’s a valuable asset. That’s their first-line right wing. It didn’t matter what happened there. I ended up getting the better of him in the fight and that’s the price you have to pay in a 4-1 game against them at home.

Karl was pretty unhappy that two guys came at you at the same time. How do you feel about that?

Thornton’s just doing his job. McQuaid’s giving me another option. In my opinion at that point in the game, I felt like ‘okay this is what I have to do at this point in the game.’ They wanted me to answer the bell for fighting their top line guy. And they know he asked me to go. Against them that’s what you have to do in those types of situations. McQuaid came over to give me another option. He knew I didn’t want to fight Thornton. The guy’s far out of my weight class. That’s justice to them.

Do you like the fact that [the Bruins] pick you to be the guy to answer to them?

I know that Adam doesn’t want me fighting. We’ve talked about that numerous times. The situation that happened last night, I just kept being slapped around after whistles, getting head-locked. Horton had asked for it a couple times. We didn’t go and then he gave me the opportunity after our number one point-getter Ribeiro gets goaded into his first NHL fight. It was a situation where I thought I had to do it. You know, you live with the repercussions of it. It’s part of the job.

Did you get a skill player because they got a skill player?

No, Marchand and Ribs match-up pretty well size wise. Not weight wise, but size wise. And for me, I think Horton wanted to fight.

Washington Post and ESPN writer Neil Greenberg talked Caps hockey on the Tony Kornheiser Show on ESPN 980 this morning. The RMNB alum killed it. I considered putting a bombastic quote in the subject of this post like “Greenberg: This is not a good team” or “Neil Says [Ovechkin]‘s No Crosby”, but I really think you will be better served by reading or hearing the whole segment, which I freaking transcribed below instead of actually enjoying my lunch.

Tony and Neil cover a lot of topics in the 15-minute segment: Neil’s brush with the Cup in ’94, what has caused Alex Ovechkin’s decline and what we can expect from his future, Mike Milbury’s assessment of Ovi vs. reality, Adam Oates’ talent as a coach, and what the future holds for the Washington Capitals. I think this is essential reading/listening for Caps fans, so get to it.

Tony Kornheiser: The first obvious question is who are you? I mean, why are you in my life now?

Neil Greenberg: I think you always need a Neil Greenberg of some sort in your life, Tony, so I guess here I am to help fill that void.

Kornheiser: But who are you? Where do you come from?

Greenberg: I come from New York. Queens, New York actually.

Kornheiser: Really? What high school?

Greenberg: Cardozo High School. Actually the same high school Howie Rose went to.

Kornheiser: Who does the Mets, right?

Greenberg: And also the Islanders.

Kornheiser: Yeah, okay.

Greenberg: I started my stat analysis in baseball following Bill James. And then a couple years ago I started to apply those same principles to hockey. Lindsey Applebaum at the Post saw some of my writing and asked me to contribute to Capitals Insider, and then after that someone at ESPN caught some of my work, so I’ve been contributing to both of those outlets for the last couple of years.

Kornheiser: So you’re a kid, right? How old are you?

Greenberg: I’m 39 years old.

Kornheiser: That’s a kid to me. That’s not a kid to you. I should know more about hockey considering I used to cover it. I covered the Rangers for Newsday. I covered the Rangers for awhile. And I grew up on Long Island and in those days the New York Rangers lived and trained in Long Beach, Long Island, and I used to go to the rink and watch them do all these things and then I lived in Long Beach and I should know more about hockey than I do.

What intrigues me about your stuff is that you’re sort of a geek– you know how the baseball guys  took over baseball. Now, led by people like Daryl Morey, they’re taking over basketball, and maybe they’re gonna take over hockey.

So you’re out of the mold of that guy Nate Silver. Am I correct on that?

Greenberg: You’re absolutely correct. I’m actually a big fan of Nate Silver’s work.

Kornheiser: Good. this is going very well, Neil. Very well. And what is your hockey background? Did you play hockey as a kid?

Greenberg: No, I never played hockey as a kid. I just grew up loving the sport. Saw my first game– Rangers-Penguins– when I was seven years old, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

Kornheiser: Were you a Rangers fan as a kid?

Greenberg: I was a Rangers fan as a kid, yes. I actually drank out of the Stanley Cup when they won in 1994.

Kornheiser: Really?! How did that happen?

Greenberg: I was frequenting some of the bars of Nassau County. I don’t remember exactly which one, but I was there. There were people taking pictures with the Cup outside of one of the bars, so we stood in line. And as soon as I turned the corner to enter the bar, someone said, “Do you want to drink from the Stanley Cup?” and I said, “Absolutely.”

Kornheiser: Who would refuse that? There are only two things anybody ever wants to do with the Stanley Cup. Both have to do with fluid, and one is not good, and the one you had was the good one.

Greenberg: And it came after probably all the bad ones, so I was kind of rethinking that decision.

Kornheiser: Let’s get to what attracted me to your writing. You basically said Alex Ovechkin has fallen down the well. This is very exciting to me. You can prove this analytically that Alex Ovechkin has fallen down the well, right?

Greenberg: Absolutely.

Kornheiser: What’s the deal with him?

Greenberg: Well, he’s getting older. there’s two things that are happening. One is your general age progression. People have a misconception as to when hockey players– particularly goal-scorers — peak. It’s typically between the ages of 22 and 24, and then you start to see a down-slope at age 27. Ovechkin has pretty much been in that exact pattern.

If you look at how Ovechkin scored his goals early on when he entered the league, it was by a volume shots. It was more quantity than it was quality. He led the league with 425 shots…

Kornheiser:  …He was overpowering, right? He was a big strong overpowering guy.

Greenberg: He was a completely dynamic player that tossed rubber [at the net] from every angle. And as those shots per game decreased, it took the goal-scoring along with it. And now we’re looking at a player who’s putting up 300 shots on goal as opposed to 500 or 400 shots on goal. So the goal scoring numbers are gonna come down.

To his credit, those shots on goal have up-ticked a bit this year, but a lot of goalscoring is also luck. You have a clank of a pipe there; it goes through the wickets there. And he hasn’t been seeing a whole lot of puck luck as maybe he has in the past.

Kornheiser:  “Puck luck?”  Love it!

Greenberg: Puck luck, yeah. He’s just not going to be the 50-goal scorer that he was — probably ever again.

Kornheiser: Okay, I’ve got two questions on this. One is– what made Gretzky great over long periods of time was his ability to set other people up. I take it that Ovechkin is not an assist guy. Lemieux was an assist guy as well. Ovechkin is still in his head an overpowering goal-scorer. So I’m asking if I’m right on this– this doesn’t give Ovechkin real room to go up anymore. Or am I wrong on that? And the second question I have is– you know this, you see this– do the Capitals know this?

Greenberg: Let me take the assists first. Ovechkin is a good passer. I think that’s one of the most under-rated parts of his game; however, he’s not Gretzky, he’s not Lemieux.

Kornheiser:  He’s not Crosby.

Greenberg: He’s certainly not Crosby. So he’s not going to be getting points that way. The switch to right wing was an effort to get him away from that overpowering move he had down the left side, where he would go down the left wall and try to cut in and try to score the goal that way–  because that just wasn’t working anymore. Defenses have caught up to that. So you’re right. His points are going to come from goals, and unless he starts to adapt his game a little bit more on the right wing, we’re gonna see some 25- to 30-goal seasons.

Kornheiser:  That’s it?!

Greenberg: Oh absolutely yeah.

Kornheiser: They’re paying him a lot of money.

Greenberg: They are, and that’s where people’s expectations I think are becoming unglued because they see on paper this 65-, 50- goal scorer that’s making 10 million dollars, and they think that’s gonna happen in perpetuity. The Ovechkin contract was a bad contract. When they signed Ovechkin to tat contract for that period of time, it was a bad deal. You can never expect a goal scorer to score 60, 50 goals a year for 10 years. It’s just not reality.

Kornheiser: Do they know what you know?

Greenberg: I think so. Hockey analytics has definitely become bigger in the past couple  years. There are some teams that are embracing it. I know that Tampa Bay has a hockey analytics guy on staff. Chicago, Pittsburgh, Calgary, some other teams are embracing it. As far as the Capitals are concerned, they seem to trust the coaches more than the numbers. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; however, I think there’s room for both when you’re looking at player evaluations.

Kornheiser: I’m sure you saw this in the paper today. Mike Milbury said of Alex Ovechkin, “When you have great talent it comes with great expectations and accountability. If you put him (Ovechkin) up to those to two standards tonight in this particular game (I guess against Philly), he fails the test miserably. This is an awful display of hockey by Alex Ovechkin. He should be ashamed of himself.” That’s pretty brutal.

Greenberg: It was a very brutal segment. I watched that segment during the game, and I think it was a little bit unfair. Ovechkin by far did not have his best game; however, he was coming off a back-to-back. And his three games before that were great. There were flashes of the old Ovechkin. So to say that his whole career has boiled down to two periods of a back-to-back I think is a little disingenuous.

Kornheiser: Okay, I started by asking you if Ovechkin had fallen down the well. Now I need to ask you have the Capitals have fallen down the well. It seems to me they are propped by playing in maybe the worst division in the history of mankind.

Greenberg: Yes.

Kornheiser: The only way a team is gonna get in [to the playoffs] from their division is by winning it. But are [the Capitals] falling down the well?

Greenberg: Absolutely. they have been for some time. This team is not a good team. It looks good because you have guys like Ovechkin and Backstom and to some extent Green. But when you look beyond that, this team does not have any depth. The talent level is overestimated. The goalies are young and inexperienced and are prone to lapses. I think this team since the 2009-2010 season has really been in a downturn, and I just don’t see them coming out of it any time soon unless there’s some major personnel changes that happen at the core.

Kornheiser: But the Caps fans believe not just that they are the best team in hockey this year, [but that] they are the greatest team of all time. They’ve been cheated out of at least five Stanley Cups. Are Caps fan knowledgeable hockey fans?

Greenberg: They are very knowledgeable hockey fans. I do think though they get a little bit swept up in the optimism of Ovechkin. When you look at a Caps game you see Ovechkin at the top of his game, which has happened this year…

Kornheiser: …he had a hat trick the other night.

Greenberg: … It’s very easy to get swept back up into oh everything is fine, but when you look at the core of this team, they have a lot of problems. The first and foremost is they have a lack of talent at the top six forward positions. In the Philadelphia game in the third period Adam Oates switched up his lines. He took out Jason Chimera from the top line and put in Matt Hendricks on the top line. You know, Matt Hendricks is a lot of things, but he is not a top-6 — let alone top-line — player by any means. That alone illustrates the lack of top-six forward talent that this team has. The blue line is banged up. Dmitry Orlov has yet to play this season, and after Mike Green, the talent drops there too. The depth is just not there for any sort of sustained run. And this team is not a good puck-possession team. They don’t tilt the ice in their favor. When it’s five-on-five hockey, they’re probably a bottom-ten team in the NHL.

Kornheiser: Bottom ten?!

Greenberg: Absolutely.

Kornheiser: Can we make any judgments on Adam Oates yet in his first year of coaching?

Greenberg: I think so. I think he’s a very good coach. I think he’s done a good job of using the assets he has on this team. It seems like Ovechkin has bought into moving  the right wing. The power play is very much improved from last year now that they went to the 1-3-1 system. So yes, I think that Adam Oates is good coach, he will be a good coach, he was a fine hire. I just don’t believe that the assets that are on this team are what he needs to be successful.

Kornheiser: Alright, I’m gonna get you out of here on this. I’ve repeated this a lot because I find this sort of amazing. You look at hockey int he way that the sabermetricians look at baseball. It’s just different from ‘the eyeball test’ that most people apply to everything. Of all the things you’ve said about their relative position in the NHL, do George McPhee and Adam Oates know this?

Greenberg: I don’t know. I think to some degree they have to know that if Jason Chimera is on the top line, that they have a problem on the top-six forwards. I have to believe that if John Erskine is getting top-four defensive minutes that they know there is depth problem on the blueline. They have to know that their young goaltenders just aren’t going to have enough experience to string together long stretches of games where they play at a high level. So I’m going to give them the benefit of the doubt and say that they know this, but when you’re dealing in real life with the salary cap, it’s probably a lot harder to make the moves that need to made to get this team back on track.

Kornheiser: I don’t know anything about hockey, but the next time we want to talk about hockey, will you come back on?

Greenberg: Anytime I appreciate it.

Kornheiser: Fabolous. Neil Greenberg, boys and girls. That was pretty good!

What do you think? Has your opinion of “Negative Nancy” Greenberg changed? What do you disagree with?

Also, let me know if I goofed in my transcription. This thing was basically War and Peace, so it may need proofreading.

Happy Sasha. (Photo credit: @megab23)

Ahead of tonight’s reunion game against the Caps, Alex Semin sat down with Carolina Hurricanes color guy Tripp Tracy for a two-part English interview. It’s totally awkward.

For those worrying Tripp would nail Semin with incisive, hard-hitting questions like “Are your shoes comfortable?“, you may now relax. Instead, Tracy tossed up softballs like “What do you think of your teammates?” and “Do you enjoy Carolina?”

Hey, you guys don’t think there was any collusion between Tracy and Carolina PR following Troy Brouwer’s unkind words, do you? Naw! Tracy probably came up with “your teammates are clearly the most important relationship to you” all on his own.

With immense thanks to welshhockeyfan and Tom Kaz, videos and transcript are below.

Part One

Alex, I know it’s been a few games, but boy does that jersey look good on you. And I think that’s a perfect place to start. How have you enjoyed Carolina?

In Carolina? I like in Carolina. Everybody support me. I like fans in this area. Everyone is good.

In watching you, your teammates are clearly the most important relationship to you. They have loved you. Talk to me about getting to know your teammates.

[Odd noise that sounds like Ahhh] I say before. Everybody support me and help me. Doesn’t matter where on the ice. Off ice. When we’re on the road, guys tell me go with us for dinner. I like these guys.

I want to ask you about one guy in particular. As soon as we landed in Washington, Eric Staal — your captain, your linemate — he sent me a message that said “I’m so excited. I wanna win this game for Alex.” He’s enjoyed you so much. Talk about getting to know him.

I’m very excited too to be stay here. Cuz I play before heres seven years. It’s very important for me this game tonight. I wanna wins this game too.

What have you liked most about Eric?

He’s good guy. He support me every time on ice. He’s well spent. He wants to pass it to me. I like play here.

Part Two

I want to get to know you a little bit. Your relationship with your father who was a great player in his day. He was a forward like you. I believe he was your coach. Can you tell us a little about your dad?

Yeah. He’s good player when he was younger. He support me every time. No [laughs] he suggest me every time. Sometimes after a game, I call him and we talk about a game when I play well, when I play bad. So we talk to after game [about] how I play. He… help me. [nods]

You must stay up pretty late with the time-change in Krasnoyarsk.

It’s 13 hours.

Baby.

[I stay up until] 11, 10 PM.

Anybody that watches you says “Man, he’s a smart hockey player.” Does that come from your dad? They talk about you. They say “you are a smart hockey player. You think the game well.” Does that come from your dad?

Yeah. Probably.

Everybody says it. [Head Coach] Kirk Muller says,”You know what? He’s such a professional.” He hates to lose. Can you talk about Kirk Muller?

I just work on myself. I don’t know how to explain this. I like working with Kirk. He’s a good coach.

Before I let you go, when you’re training in the summer, is it true you train with a ski team?

Ski team, yeah. The coach for the ski team have a group. And the young guys — same like me — starts training with this guy in June and practice two months with these guys.

Whatever you’re doing there, you’re doing right. What are your hobbies when you’re not training?

Fishing. And I like other water sports like jet skis in summer.

We’ll try to get some video of that. Alex I wanna try something because you’ve taught me a lot of Russian. But you didn’t teach me this. This will be my best try. And then I’ll translate. [Tripp speaks absolutely terrible Russian.] Alex, we’re proud you scored your 200th NHL goal as a Carolina Hurricane.

[inaudible] I really happy to scoring Carolina 200 goals.

We’re very happy to have you here. Good luck.

So… Frost/Nixon, right? And how much does it burn to hear him say “I like play here” after he said the SAME THING to us?!

Maria with her Slapshot stuffed animal. Dad gives thumbs up. (GIF by welshhockeyfan)

Attending Saturday’s Washington Capitals game, Alex Ovechkin’s fiancée Maria Kirilenko got a special treat. Ovi scored a hatty for the first time in over two years.

While CSN Washington didn’t pan to Kirilenko sitting in the lower bowl, the Devils broadcast on MSG drank from the Ovi-Kirilenko well a lot. They zoomed in on her celebrating with Ovi’s father Mikhail (giving the thumbs up) after Ovechkin’s third goal. MSG’s Deb Placey interviewed Kirilenko during the second period, after Ovi scored his first goal of the night.

Warning: The video is adorable. Risk of hurling unicorns and rainbows is likely in some patients.

Does Alex play better when you’re here? He’s already scored today.

Well, hopefully he’s playing better. When he’s on my side, watching my games, I’m definitely playing better. Today when he scored, I was so happy! It’s really nice.

You got engaged on New Years, which is a big holiday I understand in Russia. It was different because he was home for the first time in a long time on New Years Eve.

It was the first time for me as well. For a long time, I didn’t celebrate the New Year at home. It was amazing. Our family was together, you know, and it was a surprise for them. The father of Alex he was crying, and even I was crying. It was really exciting time.

Is it more nerve-racking to play your own game or watch [Ovi]?

Umm, when you play, you’re more relaxed. You just, you can’t help. You just wanna do something. Of course I feel more nervous watching.

Well I don’t think you’re going to be able to leave, since he has the goal today. Thanks so much for the visit. Congratulations to you two.

Thank you.

Placey makes a good point. Maria, please adjust your schedule and attend every game. You are crucial to our plans for the Cup.

Also this.

And this.

Last week, Ted Leonsis spread his wings by launching Monumental Network, a site  to aggregate all the Caps, Wizards, Mystics, and Verizon Center coverage his company produces. They’ve got original reporting and a network of blogs to cover the living heck out of each team.

Earlier this week, Casey Phillips, Monumental’s digital correspondent crowded in on RMNB’s beat with a story that we should have had. After Cosmopolitan Magazine named Mike Green the sexiest player in the NHL, the Monumental crew asked the team who they thought was truly the most handsome guy around.

The answers will amaze you. Or maybe they won’t. I mean, you know they’re gonna say Brooks, right?

Jason Chimera

“I’m pretty good looking. My line-mate Joel Ward’s a good looking guy. Mike Ribeiro’s a good looking guy. …I don’t think any of our team is good looking.”

Jay Beagle

“I think Joey Crabb should take his place. Um, Mike Green’s a good looking guy, don’t get me wrong, but I think Crabber could give him a run for his money.”

Eric Fehr

“I think in the top 30 they should have Braden Holtby. He’s a real sharp young lad. He dresses the part. You know he’s a real good looking guy.”

Joel Ward

“I would just like to see who’s writing that stuff.”

Braden Holtby

“I think Greenie fits the part well. Dresses really well, has a nice style too. He’s got some good looking tattoos and whatnot. He definitely deserves that [honor].”

John Carlson

“[Mike Green's] definitely a good looking guy yeah.”

Mike Green

“Prolly the pretty boy Brooks Laich. All the girls seem to like him.”

Is anyone else surprised it took that long before someone named Brooks?