In a few short hours, the Capitals will face the Rangers in New York City to battle over who will advance to the Eastern Conference Finals. But we shouldn’t worry. Why? Because our team is made up of a bunch of super heroes.

A few weeks ago, at the same time that the Caps were starting their series against New York, Marvel’s “The Avengers” hit theaters, wowing audiences everywhere and shattering box office records. As a huge fan of the movie and its characters, I decided to make RMNB its own special homage to the film, but… with a bit of a twist.

The idea for this illustration started to form around last season, before I went to school. I got a request from my mother to draw a little sign in the same style as my Russian Machine signs for herself. But instead of Ovechkin, she wanted Nicklas Backstrom. So I turned Nicky into the god of thunder Thor, with influences from the Marvel Comics character.

This got me thinking about what kind of crossovers I could do with other Caps players. Last summer, I drew Alex Semin as Two-Face, and this season the sign I made for my mother was John Carlson as Captain America. When I found out about the Avengers movie, I immediately jumped at the chance to make an illustration crossing over Earth’s mightiest heroes with Washington’s mightiest heroes.

And thus the “Capsvengers” were assembled.

We have John Carlson and Nicklas Backstrom reprising their roles as Captain America and Thor. Mike Green is the Incredible Hulk, Brooks Laich is Iron Man, Matt Hendricks is Hawkeye, Karl Alzner is Black Widow, and Joel Ward is Nick Fury. For their outfits, I tried to find a balance between the comic character’s design and the Capitals’ uniform.

The layout of the illustration is based off the concept art for one of the earliest movie posters, but instead of having the team on the Helicraft, I put them on the rink instead. The drawing is 15” x 20,” and created using FW Acrylic inks and coloured pencils.

This illustration took several months of brainstorming, and many sleepless nights to paint (since it also happens to be Finals Week). It was a blast to make, and I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do.

CRASH THE NET.

Sneaking some Junior Mints in my cargo shorts cause ain’t no way I’m paying $8.50 for Junior Mints.

Trailer!

But because the memory of the hockey season has not yet faded, we had to find some way to tie this back to the Washington Capitals. Can you guess what we came up with?

RACHEL COHEN FOR THE WIN!

And here’s your DVD extras.

Art by Bryan Hitch from The Ultimates, Vol. II

ASSEMBLE!

Above: Hershey celebrates their Game 4 win. Top: John Carlson does it again. This time, he redirects the GWG Home on a Bears PP. (Photos by Chris Knight, The Patriot-News)

Tonight could have gone very differently. Despite rediscovering their offensive mojo, the Hershey Bears could not generate a lead over the Texas Stars. With the end of regulation looming, the Bear shook off the threat of a do-or-die game 5 with Captain America John Carlson’s razor-sharp deflection past Stars goalie Matt Climie. An empty netter from Alexandre Giroux sealed the deal, and now we’re facing a unique prospect: the Calder Cup will be awarded in Hershey. With the series finally tied, the only question remains who will claim it.

A couple other quick notes for you:

• Pinizzotto penalty? Naturally.
• Scott McCulloch’s response to John Carlson’s GWG was to smother Karl Alzner into the boards. Yeah, they’ll remember that.
• No one was too sure who scored the game’s first goal: Andrew Gordon or Keith Aucoin. Once the snow cleared, Aucoin was given credit, but Gordo was a key player in that play and Carlson’s game-winner.
• If Hershey doesn’t make a red, white, and blue Carlson t-shirt soon, someone’s gonna make it for them.

The Bears will play their third and final game in Texas on Friday night. The series will return to Hershey on Monday, but will the most winning team in AHL history land in PA with the series lead or not?