Photo credit: Patrick McDermott

The Carolina Hurricanes lost 9 of their last 10 games before visiting the Washington Capitals for their final meeting of the season. Since re-signing a contract for too much and too long, Alex Semin had cooled off in a way that literally no one on earth could have expected, but the team was motivated to climb out of their rut on Thursday night. Dominating the early minutes, the Canes seemed to have a handle on the game until Verizon Center released the long-dormant kraken of secondary scoring.

Caps beat Canes 3-1.

• This felt like a letdown game, didn’t it? The Canes kept the Caps without a shot for the first 10 minutes, scored on an power play, and kettled up the home team in their own zone. It coulda been bad, but the Caps eventually clawed their way into a possession tie by the end of the first period.
• Hay, Troy Brouwer scored his first goal in two weeks, a monster shot from the slot on the power play. Sassymouthed Mike Ribeiro set him brilliantly, patiently waiting for the right moment from the goal line. Brouwer has been pretty dull of late, suffering on a weary second line, but his goal was everything the Caps want from and love about Troy— smart positioning, net crashyness, and shooting the puck so darn hard that Joe B dubbed it the Brouwitzer.
• Troy got two– with an empty netter in the final seconds. It’s great to see Troy get back in the game– but even better to see him have words with his old frenemy Alex Semin. Hopefully those words were small and spoken slowly.
• It was a night of pretty goals: Mike Green spanned the space from the blue and the faceoff dot like a stalking lion before releasing a roofer to Justin Peters‘ far side. I dunno if Green is “back” in the mythical way that we hope Ovi is back, but I’m really eager to find out. When he is on, Green is among the best in the league.
• Some explain to me how Maria gets cell signal in Verizon Center? My iPhone turns into a 400 dollar brick when I’m in there. (Actually all the tweeple are telling me that the fan wifi has been solid lately. That’s awesome. I’m gonna watch YouTube videos and download episodes of Arrested Development next time I’m at a game).
• My least favorite thing about Mike Ribeiro is that when he’s on the ice most of the shots go towards his team’s goalie. My second least favorite thing about Mike Ribeiro is how he jaws at refs and players at every turn. I don’t know if his trash-talk led to the soft cross-check penalty that neutralized a first period Caps penalty, but I wouldn’t be surprised. I mean– how does he talk to waiters? Cause that’s a deal-breaker to me.
• 15 shot attempts– 6 of them on net for Alex Ovechkin. He’s not gonna score every night, but if he shoots like that he’ll come darn close. Ovi was also a big factor in Green’s goal: he was all up in the goalie’s grill, presumably chatting about his golf swing and passing on musky odors.
• I’d write about the Matt Hendricks-Nicolas Blanchard fight, but it’d be like describing the taste of water. It happened and then it was over, and that is all there is to say about it.
• Braden Holtby acquitted himself quite well after two games off. After a scary start, Holtby dialed in and was offering up his typical inhuman rampage saves by late in the third (that glove in the last 90 seconds? Sheesh.) 43 saves!
• The mini-brawl between Skinner and Johansson was just adorable. Anne Geddes cute. Awwwwww.

Joe B suit of the night (thanks, Clare!)

It’s tempting to turn every game into a “Did Ovi Scoar?” thing, but we can’t. The Southeast is still tight, and wins gotta matter more than goals right now. And besides– if Ovechkin can play the way he did tonight, he’ll get his.

I like the way the Caps played this one. It was an atrociously and unacceptably slow start, but they found their groove didn’t allow Carolina to tilt the ice.

Caps are on a streak. Six wins in a row. Jets gained no ground tonight. The stars are shooting and the Holtby is halting. It’s springtime in DC. Buckle up.

And oh yeah, totally called it:

This power play. #thebank

— RMNB (@russianmachine) April 12, 2013

Photo credit: Gregg Forwerck

It’s a busy week in the world of the Washington Capitals with the trade deadline coming tomorrow, but there was actual hockey to be played on Tuesday night as the Caps faced off against Alex Semin and his Carolina Hurricanes.  It was like old times at PNC Arena, as the Caps did the thing where goals come in torrents but defense is like eh whatever, maybe if we have time.

As the guy who has been misspelling “score more goals” incorrectly for a few years, I am completely okay with this style of play. The Caps fought back from a deficit and then took a big ol’ lead that wasn’t hard to hold onto when you’ve got Braden Holtby between the pipes. Am I doing run-on sentences tonight? Okay fine, let’s do that.

Caps beat Canes 5-3.

More bullets than Robocop 2. Parental guidance advised.

Sasha in the Sasha box. (Credit: @margaretfogs)

• Jiri Tlusty got two goals in the game’s first 10 minutes, but let’s look a bit closer. The first was probably tipped in by future goat sacrificer Jason Chimera as the entire Caps crew did everything they could to make Jiri feel welcome in the paint.  The second goal was a power play tally that Karl Alzner failed to block… as Alex Semin high-sticked him right before the shot (no whistle, natch). Tlusty had been ice cold for the last two weeks, so it’s nice of the Caps to help him out of the streak.
• Chimera scored his second goal of the year, but chose the wrong net. Pretty sure J.P. called that before the game.
• Tlusty got the hat trick (the first of his career) with a real casual-looking power play goal. Tlusty is fine and all, but Washington treated defense like an abstract concept through 60 minutes.
• The Caps mounted a big ol’ comeback. It started with Alex Ovechkin sending a sick unbelievable red snapper into Dan Ellis‘ net. Ellis eventually got pulled in favor of Justin Peters.
• Then Nick Backstrom set up a goal for Mike Green.
• Then Nick Backstrom set up a goal for Mike Green.
• Not a typo. Green has four goals in the last three games and cares little for your trolly comments, you commenting trolls. And..
• Nick Backstrom had a four-point night– all assists, all primary. In addition to him breaking the 400-point threshold, the night also put him over a point-per-game career pace (402 in 401).
• And if you wanna houserule it, give Backstrom a fifth assist. Joel Ward scored a shorthanded guac assisted by some great threading from Marcus Johansson. Backstrom was serving a penalty at the moment, so it’s kind of like shake and bake and he helped.
• Jeez lotsa bullets tonight. It’s like 2010 up in here. Whatever. Let’s embrace it. Here come some more.
• Alex Ovechkin keeps the scoring streak going– all the way to nine games. He got two tonight, putting him in the league-leader discussion. Whoa. Alex Ovechkin– even past his prime– is still better than pretty much everyone else in this league. I wanna add that he’s not even getting that lucky on the bounces– Ovi is scoring because he’s putting tons of rubber on the net: 6 shots tonight. That’s how Alex became a star in the first place, and he’s got that vibe going again. I love it. RMNB.
• Joni Pitkanen won the icing race against Troy Brouwer to get a whistle, but it cost him some knee ligaments. The crash was awful, with Pitkanen’s legs folding underneath him before his knee collided with the boards. It was too ghastly for a replay, but I have a feeling the board of managers are see it a few more times as the hybrid icing debate continues.
• When the Caps finally did give the Canes a hard time for occupying the crease, John Carlson did it with a crosscheck to Patrick Dwyer. You took it too far, John. You took it too far.
• John Erskine took a shot to his face, but no big deal. The trainer keeps a bucket of nails behind the bench for him to chew on in just such an occasion. He’ll be fine.

Joe B suit of the night

Alright, that was a Joss Whedon movie of a game: fantastically fun but punctuated by some harrowing scares. Even the most vile Cane-hater (as if anyone cared about the Canes enough to hate) would pause at Pitkanen’s injury. Pucks to Ward’s and Erskine’s faces were thankfully not serious (although if Ersk had to rip a tooth out I’d be surprised not even a little bit).

A convincing win in a very big game as the Caps’ playoff hopes are still alive. I’m not up for scoreboard watching, but the tweeple seem encouraged  by it. So… yey?

Wednesday is the trade deadline. The Caps are a .500 team again, so I think it’s really unlikely that the Caps are gonna sell, but I have a feeling McPhee won’t do anything drastic either way. A player or two might depart, but I think we’ll be able to keep our pants on. Wait, what does that even mean?

Good game!

What if the Latisys commercial is like that video from the Ring but it just takes way longer for us all to die?

— RMNB (@russianmachine) April 3, 2013

Breaking news, hot off the presses.

From the Canes:

Canes Agree to Terms with Semin on Extension

RALEIGH, NC – Jim Rutherford, President and General Manager of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes, today announced that the team has agreed to terms with left wing Alexander Semin (SEH-min) on a five-year contract extension. The deal will pay Semin $7 million per season through 2017-18.
“We’re very happy to retain Alex,” said Rutherford. “Alex is an elite player and has been a major contributor to the Hurricanes having a very strong top line.”

Semin, 29, is in his eighth NHL season and his first with Carolina, after signing as a free agent on July 26, 2012. The Krasnoyarsk, Russia, native leads the Hurricanes in assists (22), and ranks second in points (30) and plus/minus rating (+18) in 30 games this season. Semin (6’2”, 209 lbs.) is tied for 11th among all NHL skaters in assists this season, and tied for 10th in plus/minus rating. He ranks first among Hurricanes forwards in time on ice per game (20:39) and has spent the majority of the season skating alongside Hurricanes captain Eric Staal.

Semin has totaled 205 goals and 233 assists (438 points) in 499 career NHL games with the Washington Capitals and the Hurricanes. He netted his 200th career NHL goal on Feb. 11 against the New York Islanders. Washington’s first-round selection, 13th overall, in the 2002 NHL Entry Draft, Semin is fifth in the NHL in plus/minus over the last five seasons (+110), behind only Henrik Sedin, Zdeno Chara, Alexandre Burrows and Daniel Sedin.

Photo credit: Gregg Forwerck

The Washington Capitals got rocked by Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday. Thursday looked like more of the same until Alex Ovechkin threw the team over his husky Russian shoulders and carried them kicking and screaming into the W.

This one could have gone very different. It’s good to know your Capitals can still surprise you.

Caps beat Canes 3-2.

• Alex Semin scored 74 seconds into the game– an easy one from the paint as Marcus Johansson lost his assignment while searching for his stick. It was kind of a classic Semin game: he whiffed on two great opportunities after that.
• Jeff Skinner ran into Tomas Kundratek‘s knee in the first period, sending the Hershey call-up to the locker room for the rest of the game. In his absence, Steve Oleksy ate up a lot of ice time and finished with a minus-11 Corsi. So… ouch.
• That second goal was a weird-ass, slow-rolling, knuckle-y deflection. I can’t in good conscience put Michal Neuvirth on the hook for that one or the point-blank bullet from Semin. Great work from Neuvy in net.
• Eric Fehr nearly had a repeat of that goal-of-the-year nominee. He didn’t get the goal, but he did draw a penalty in the effort. Why doesn’t he have a new contract yet?
• Settle a bet for me: does Raleigh’s horn guy sound like a drunk Louis Armstrong or Sam Wolk with sinusitis?
• Alex Ovechkin hit the 700-point mark with his 3rd period power play goal. As Neil Greenberg points out, Ovi’s 700 is just about 50/50 goals and assists. Kid’s got a bright future ahead of him– either as a goal-scorer or playmaker. Ovi led both teams in shots on goal with 6.
• Joey Crabb caught a penalty for a phantom boarding hit. In reality, Bobby Sanguinetti (spelled it right on my first try!) just fell and hit the corner nastily. No malice in it, which I guess the refs realized, as they gave the Caps a make-up cool soon after.
• Eric Fehr and Alex Semin got matching minors for roughing in the third. It felt weird to type that. We didn’t even get to see it happen. Dammit.
• Alex Ovechkin got behind the Carolina D and suckered Ellis out of net to secure the game-winner. I’m not sure if he knocked it in or if Ribeiro or Fehr was the agent. I don’t truly care. Alex Ovechkin won this game.

Joe B suit of the night

This game was as bad as it gets through 20 minutes. The second period showed some improvement, but it’s not in my nature to get interpret a Joey Crabb goal as a turning of the tide. No, it was Alex Ovechkin who gave this game some spirit in the third period with that power play goal. It was Alex Ovechkin who won this game by putting the puck behind Dan Ellis with just over two minutes left.

Leadership from your captain. In a week of harsh scrutiny, could you ask for anything more?

I don’t think the Caps have life in the postseason, but they played with heart and sometimes that’s enough. That’s enough tonight.

WHAT THE WHAT WHATY THE OWQUUOUQWF GOALLLL OVIIII OR FEHHHRRR WHO CARES GOAL

— RMNB (@russianmachine) March 15, 2013

Photo credit: Boston Police Department

If the Washington Capitals were this bad last year, and the only thing that kept them afloat was Dale Hunter’s coaching, I feel like I’d owe him an apology. On Tuesday, instead of watching NCIS: Los Angeles, starring LL Cool J and Robin from Batman Forever, we all watched the Carolina Hurricanes mollywhomp the Caps. It was just wretched hockey, the kind so intolerable you’d think it’d inspire change in the organization. You’d think.

It was bad. It was really bad. How bad? Joe Corvo scored. Yeah. That bad.

Canes beat Caps 4-0.

• Maybe this is all punishment for the PuckBuddys pregamer.
• The game’s first goal was a weird one. Fired from below the goal line, the puck appeared to bounce off the back of Braden Holtby‘s shoulder/mask before dropping into the net. I don’t really know what to make of it, and I’ll defer to goalie experts if they correct me, but it appears Holtby has surrendered goals in consecutive games because he failed to lock down the post.
• Joe Corvo scored that goal. That’s pirate-looking, do-nothing, ex-Cap, nigh-felon Joe Corvo. Semin got the assist, as if the night could’ve been any less pleasant. Nice try.
• But if you’re looking for Sasha drama, this game had it all in the second period. Alex Ovechkin‘s stick caught Alex Semin in the face on a followthrough. Semin went down, but heroically recovered so that he could be… hit in the face by Braden Holtby’s stick like 30 seconds later. Classic.
• The Caps played a tight first period, but the Canes pulled away late while facing the Perreault line. After that it was all Carolina, who outshot the Caps by a healthy margin at the end of 60 minutes.
• Marcus Johansson had four very strong opportunities to score– all set up by Alex Ovechkin, He converted none, which I guess I have to chalk up to bad luck. Still, he has no business playing with Ovechkin, who really needs teammates who drive play rather than suppress it.
• Riley Nash tapped in a very sneaky shot by Jay Harrison to make it 2-0, and making Caps fans very cranky in the process. Crankiness worsened a few moments later, when a hasty toot of the ref’s whistle denied Mathieu Perreault a tally.
• Jeff Schultz lost the race to an iced puck. Patrick Dwyer won and served the puck to Riley Nash, who had a layup for his second goal of the night. Schultz has never been fast, but yeeeeeeeeeesh. He looked like a tranquilized giraffe back there.
• On the second thought, maybe filling the blueline with AHL players was a tactical misstep.
• Alex Ovechkin is still stuck on 699. He’s been pointless for a week now. Meh, I don’t like that word: pointless. Let’s say he was held without a point. Ovechkin didn’t have a shot on net all night, probably because he spent most of his opportunities in the offensive zone setting up whiffs for Marcus Johansson.
• Steve Oleksy dropped the mitts with Drayson Bowman, who should own a yacht with a name like that. Oleksy won by punching a lot. If only fists were pucks.
• Who is this Justin Peters person?

Guys, I have some thoughts I wanna share with you about the Caps’ chances of making the playoffs. I’m just not sure tha—–

Oh. Good point, Jim Mora. My bust.

Here is what Joe B looked like tonight. His tie wasn’t as ugly as this game, but it was close.

The Capitals now travel to Carolina, where they will lose to the Hurricanes on Thursday.

*mic drop*

AP Photo/Ted Richardson

[Doug Johnson of the PuckBuddys is back! And he has this preview. Yet another preview. Which, for the record, he doesn't need to do, he just chooses to do. He could stop at any time. Really. Just this one more. Go be co-dependent with him here.]

Morning Skate: Well fiddle-dee-dee. No sooner do we air out the Rangers’ stank from Verizon than the hillbillies from Hooterville return, bringing with them an undiscovered country of smell. Yes y’all, the Carolina Hurricanes are blowing back in, bringing with them their corn-pone, possum caps, crystal meth and Alex Semin, in something like that order.

Of course “stank” is something we all got a heapin’ helpin’ of this weekend. Must we really bring it up again – the juvenile penalties, the evaporating puck-management skills, John Tortorella’s stupid fat face? Apparently, yes.

Just what is happening in hockeyville? What is at the root of this existential struggle? I was contemplating this conundrum when a colleague at work asked me about the loud whooshing in the vent above my desk. “Is it blowing or sucking?” he asked.

Exactly.

Perhaps it’s just that the Capitals suck. Inconsistent play between and even within games, a superstar Captain who fans more than he shoots, and lines that seem more improvised than a John Cassavetes movie (ha!). Could it be that the 2013 incarnation of the Caps really aren’t that good across the board, and we should just focus on the 2014 rebuild?

Or maybe it’s blow. Yes, let’s stick with that one for a moment. As in blowing leads, blowing shots, and blowing opportunities, leading to the Caps faithful blowing chunks. I’m sure there’s an emoticon the kidz have come up with for that, but I can’t care.

Do you see the difference? Suck is what you are; blow is what you do. This dazzling insight, arrived at after at least, oh, a minute of thought, jibes with Peter’s ambitious analysis, though with much less of the word stuff and more of the… well I just don’t know how to finish that sentence. Ergo: the Capitals blow. And this is good news, because blow is fixable. Suck is forever.

The Puck Drop: Which, what a coincidence, brings us to Carolina. From its earliest days as South Carolina’s ugly little sister, North Carolina has remained one of the best reminders of why we might have been better to just walk away from that whole Civil War thing and leave good enough alone.

You would be hard pressed to find a place as simultaneously dull and ugly as North Carolina. Trust me on this: after spending just one week in Charlotte for the Democratic National Convention last year, it is one of the few spots on Earth that a tropical storm would improve.

Craig did this. The minx.

Sadly, the same cannot be said of the Hurricanes, née the Hartford Whalers, now residing in that pop-up book of a city, Raleigh. At 7-3 in the last ten games, they now seem to be pulling it together after a slow start, much like another team had been looking of late.

Of course, one of those losses was from us, here at home, when seemingly nobody came ready to play except Cam Ward, who — it must be noted– is performing better than any of our three current goalies and is infuriatingly cute. I would offer up performance comparisons here, but seeing as at least a few Hurricanes fans will have this read to them and mathematics is still legally considered “a demonye vice” in Carolina.

The Canes are simply playing better, and better as a team, than the Capitals right now. As are most teams in the Eastern Conference. And in other news, the Earth is still revolving around the sun. Moving on…

The Hot And The Not:

• Not – Missing, one Manimal; Answers to Troy. Early in the season, Troy Brouwer was performing exactly like we expected, tearing it up and generally playing like a robo-wolf wearing jetpacks and a katana. That said, he’s been weaker of late, adding just one goal in the last five despite logging serious ice time. We think we know the reason: Troy’s drought began at the same time he started started gassing it up about Alex Semin’s work ethic, right before our last game hosting the Canes. Coincidence, or something else, hmmm?! Did Sasha put the Evil Eye kabong on Troy? Is he so wracked with guilt about trash-talking a good player that he can’t perform? Am I just completely making crap up just for one more line of copy? I think you know the answer.
• Hot – The Sasha Line. Ugh, you know like when you break up, and you’re feeling pretty good about the whole thing, and a year later you run into each other on the street, and your hair is awful and your breath reeks and you’re wearing your “I just give up” stained sweats while they’ve lost 10 pounds and had their teeth whitened and smell like fresh peaches and are all like “Excuse me? Oh…oh Hi! Well just look at you!”? [ED: YOU'RE OVER-SHARING AGAIN]. That’s sorta what welcoming back Alex Semin once more feels like. 1/3 of the Canes top line, Sasha is scoaring, and even more assisting fellow line mates Eric Staal and the adorably named Jiri Tlusty do the same. We’ve faced some pretty good lines lately — see Pens and Islanders — but this may just be the best of them.
• Not -Ref You Cray!Is it possible that the NHL zebras have a thing against the Washington Capitals and are calling penalties on what other teams get away with? Hmmph. More possible is that some of the refs have their knickers knotted over a few Capitals players in particular, and I would rate it almost probable that one of those players is Alex Ovechkin. Let’s say that’s so, because why not. Then what? Do we think jawing the ref is really going to help him see the error of his ways? That puerile fan taunts help clear their souls? The PuckBuddys totally get the frustration, even letting fly with a few choice comments directed their way from time to time (read after three beers.) Boo hoo not fair fap fap, now just accept it and move on please.
• Hot – O Hai Nicky! We have a saying around our house. “You’re DUE, Nicky!” I guess it’s less a saying and more something we shriek at the TV. Anyway, Nicklas Backstrom remains one of the best all-around assets in the Capitals toolbox. Although not as good as last year, he’s good on the dot for us, he’s even better at landing assists, and was brilliant against Boston. Still, we’ve only seen 3 goals from him this season, way below where he wants to be and where we need him to be. It’s quite likely this is uninformed drivel, but Backstrom at 25 seems to be one of the most even-keeled guys in red out there.
• Not – Under Pressure. Even the Ecuadorian gas rats (look it up!) at the National Zoo can tell you that these next two games – Canes at home, Canes away – may well decide our playoff picture. Not so much in a point-counting way, although I’m told that’s still the way they do it. No, think spirit and energy. If this team believes they will defeat the Canes, and are able to do that, it’s going to be an enormous boost in esteem and confidence for this squad.
• Hot – Steve gOAleksy. What can be said about this miracle from Michigan hasn’t already been said? But let’s just bathe, for a moment, in the wonder that – at the moment – is Steven Oleksy.   …   There, bathed yet? Feelin’ fine? Because that is exactly what we need right now. Everyone feeling fine.

The Late Line: So here it is. Boston had it all over the Caps on paper, and what a thing of beauty that was. The Islanders should have been something approaching doable, until we were the ones that got did on. If I worked the book in Vegas, I wouldn’t be working the book anymore in Vegas. But be bold! Chaos is a ladder! And other Game of Thrones quotes I’m supposed to know!

Caps 3, Canes 2.

Sue me if I’m wrong. Or take it up with my bookie.

Photo credit: @SuzanneKang

For the first time in 290 days, Alex Semin, the 5th greatest goal scorer in Washington Capitals history, was back in his old barn. Now wearing visitors white, the 28-year-old forward was booed each time he touched the puck. Despite four shots on goal, Semin finished the game without a goal.

Here are my 28 favorite Semin-related photos from the night.

Photo credit: @misspuskar

Photo credit: @tripptracy

Photo credit: @k_wattelet

Photo credit: @wesjohnsonvoice

Photo credit: @puckbuddys

Photo credit: @wyshynski

Photo credit: @AllisonGyovai

Photo credit: @MissPuskar

Photo credit: @alexisrowland

Photo credit: @carolinacanes

Photo credit: @clydeorama

Photo credit: @pmullll_

Photo credit: Patrick McDermott

Photo credit: @ianoland

Photo credit: Patrick McDermott

Photo credit: @ice_chip

Photo credit: @thehornguy

Photo credit: @theGREATK8

Photo credit: @RFCapsMoustache

Photo credit: @TheBigYoush

Photo credit: @Bagace

Photo credit: @hannahcane30

Photo credit: Patrick McDermott

Photo credit: Alex Brandon

Photo credit: @swhyno

Photo credit: @ianoland

Photo credit: @makeyagoMADS

Photo credit: @ianoland

“I knew you were trouble when you walked in…”

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?!

[Ed. note:Today, the latest member of the PuckBuddys team hits the ice. Jason Rogers currently hangs his hat in Virginia, has studied in Paris and worked in China (always one step ahead of Interpol). But where ever he is in the world he’s a Caps fan through and through. He knows the game and we're not holding that against him. Jason currently sports #8 – and the “C” – playing center for the Manassas Sperm Whales. Srsly. Give him a follow on twitter.]

Morning Skate: Well, Saturday’s game against the Devils sure was fun to watch, no? Alex Ovechkin bowled a Magician, and the whole team clearly ate their morning Oates with breakfast. It was a real big-boy win against the defending Eastern Conference champions for this Caps team, and like a really nice yard with an unmarked septic field, hopefully something they can build on. Today, Southeast Division rival Carolina Hurricanes blow into town like a hot, smelly belch from the South. I hope they brought illegal fireworks.

The unbearable lightness of being Sasha

The Puck Drop: There are a couple big plot points to this match-up for the Caps. The first, of course, is the Return of Sasha. Yes, the man who once shared a banner with Voldemort is coming back to Verizon. If I had to guess how Semin feels about this, I would play the averages and assume he doesn’t care.

But I predict the Verizon faithful are going to let him have it, with a few scattered apologists wailing, “Guys, but that wrister!” He’s been an alright pickup for the Hurricanes with three goals on the season. Or, differently, as many as Ovechkin had in his last game. And speaking of Ovechkin, my God, we might get to see Ovi absolutely train track Sasha in the open ice. Think about that, and salivate over it. I need to go change.

The second big plot point is that the Caps have a chance to take two more points off of a division rival’s plate and put it onto theirs. As Jeff Kleiman said on Twitter: “The Southeast Division has really ‘just become a dumpster fire’.” With no teams over .500 and the winner of the division likely to have fewer points than the eventual eighth seed, there’s not a reason in the world the Capitals shouldn’t rise from this trash pile like Rocky over the city of Philadelphia. If they keep playing like Saturday, we could well have a new banner to hang from the rafters at Verizon, even if we have to shake the coffee grounds and band-aid wrappers off it first.

So that’s about where we’re at, which brings me to where we’re going next, and a segment I call:

Liable to Libel: A Baker’s Dozen Lies About Today’s Opponent

• The Hurricanes have petitioned the NHL for permission to change their name twice: once to the Katrinas in 2005, and once to the Sandies in 2012. Let’s see what 2013 brings.
• Eric and Jordan Staal learned to possess the puck so well by being made to fight over scraps of meat tossed to them by their parents, unable to ween all 37 of their hockey-playing children.
• North Carolina ranks first in the US in occurrences of adorable children’s ice cream scoops falling off their cones and making them cry.
• @AlexSemin has blocked @tbrouwer20
• Raleigh, North Carolina was originally called Staalopolis, named for the dinosaur of the same name. It’s true.
  

  The Staal Family

• If you rearrange the letters in Cam Ward’s name, it spells Raw Clams.
• Alex Semin is actually trying really, really hard, guys.
• Passersby often stop the Carolina Hurricanes on the street and say, “Boy, it’s obvious you’ve won a Stanley Cup.”
• Seriously, Alex Semin wants this more than anybody.
• When approached by the league about the possibility of Raleigh hosting an NHL franchise, Mayor Tom Fetzer reportedly began foaming at the mouth and firing a pistol wildly into the air like Yosemite Sam.
• Jussi Jokinen prefers for his first name to be pronounced, “Juicy.”
• The entire cast of Les Mis were all Staals and performed under pseudonyms.
• South Carolina is really grateful the team chose to call themselves “Carolina,” and is totally gonna make it up to North Carolina.

Hot And Hotter: Here’s who and what I’ll be keeping an eye on in tonight’s game at the SIM Card:

1. Ain’t Eight Great? - Much like Hansel, Ovi is burning hot right now. And in DC we’re basking in this fairweather praise like cool whip from Katy Perry’s brassiere. In the home-and-still-home against the Devils, OBestkin played like a Russian with a fire lit under him, with a meteoric ‘See what I did there?’ rise that many would tell you was long in coming. In addition to finishing his checks with gusto and roaring into the zone on breakouts, finally – finally – his buckets and buckets of shots started to hit pay dirt. Whether playing the 1812 Overture from the top of the circle, or creating room for himself with a little dink-and-dunk puck play, the Russian Machine seems to be revving up. Woe unto the rest of the league if he is.
2. The Ebb and Flow of John Carlson - Once hailed by the Screen Actors Guild as the world’s greatest living actor, my jersey-sake #74 has been a sore subject for me this season. J.C. Superstar was once the roll bar on our Miata, keeping us secure when the cycle got rolling on us, pinning us to the boards sharply when we lost our way, and other shallowly extended metaphors. He made smart, lockdown plays in his own end, and was never the weak link going the other way on the rush. Early this season, Spike Strip was blowing tires nightly and leaving Holtby on islands like his name was Tattoo (children, go look it up.) Lockouts are tough on young players to whom acclaim has come quickly. Big things are expected from you, and accomplishment is no longer a pleasant surprise. It’s demanded from you, and Captain America now seems to be lifting himself up off the mat and coming out swinging. He’s keeping pucks in the zone, working the wheelhouse on the power play like Steamboat Willie, and winning footraces to the puck. Also, I bet if you stuck a fork into his hair, it would stand straight up. And that’s gross, but I respect it. [Ed note: Johnny cut his hair!]
3. “Now I ain’t sayin’ he a goaltender, but he ain’t messin’ with…” We’ve been a hot mess between the pipes, like the area rug of a crack house. We have a list of old boyfriends like an experimental trip through Europe: Cristobal, Jose, Semyon, Michal. But Holtby could be our guy; a just-inked, two-year deal underscores that. We all fell in love with Braden during last year’s playoff series against the Bruins when he stared down that little twerp Rich Peverley like a consummate boss and stood on his head so long he got CTE. Yes, Braden Holtby will give up goals if you don’t play defense in front of him. Just like that other guy – what’s his name? - Oh, everyone. But boy, if you give this kid a a demi-snowball’s chance to make a stop, 9.31 times out of 10 he makes the save over the last four games. He’s making quick decisions with the pads and ought to take that glove with him over to Nats spring training. We’ve had our share of streaky goalies, but Holtby could be our Windex man. He’s currently starting in the most consecutive games of his career, and we may be able to keep doing so thanks to the shortened season. I hope that in so doing, he can find his groove and keep doing his weird, Jedi thing.

And with that, I leave you to eagerly await the drop of the puck at 7pm tonight at Verizon. Let’s go get ‘em, boys.

Photo credit: Jamie Kellner.

During Saturday night’s game between the Carolina Hurricanes and Tampa Bay Lightning, Alex Semin took a puck to the face.

Relax: he’s fine, and his face is mostly in tact.

Photo credit: Jamie Kellner

It all happened during the second period. About six minutes in, a puck hit Alex Semin in the side of his face. He fell to the ice, and play was stopped. After a few minutes in the quiet room, Semin returned to the ice, seemingly unscathed except for a puck-sized bruise on his right cheek. Considering Semin’s long-standing reputation as a “soft” player, here’s some striking evidence to the contrary.

Carolina ended up losing to Tampa by a score of 5 to 2. Semin earned four penalty minutes on the night– a trip and a high-stick— and was held without a point. Still, Semin is a positive possession player on a decent team. Carolina is currently second in the Southeast, two points behind Tampa with one fewer game played, and four points ahead of the Capitals.

Carolina comes to Washington on Tuesday night. Semin is expected to play. It’ll be his first game in Verizon Center since April 5 May 9, 2012. Yeah, we’re on it.

Photo credit: oethreads. Licensed under Creative Commons.

Special thanks to Jamie Kellner of CanesCountry.com for the photos and story.