On Saturday, several Washington Capitals players rented out Kettler Capitals IcePlex to scrimmage against local college kids. Two readers who attended, Lexi Martinez and Kate Hudson, share their experience below. Lexi did the write-up, and Kate snapped the photos. Enjoy!

Caps fans got a surprise Thursday night, when John Carlson took to Twitter to announce that he’d be joining a few teammates back on the ice at Kettler the following morning for something special. Along with Brooks Laich, Jason Chimera, Jay Beagle, Jeff Halpern, and former Capital Peter Bondra, John would be scrimmaging a team of college players from around the area. It was thrown together late and all for fun, but for me, it meant a little taste of the Caps hockey we’ve all been missing so much. Naturally, I was freaking out.

Friday was rainy. I woke up the earliest I had since high school. It was also the day that the Maya had predicted would be the end of the world (a little disappointed I’m not going all Walking Dead on zombies right now, but I digress). I thought about chucking my alarm clock across the room and returning to my comforter cave. But then the guilt hit me. What kind of fan would I be if I slept away a rare glimpse at my boys back in action? Ugh, I’m so dedicated, I swear I should get some sort of award. But whatever.

There was something comforting about being back against the glass watching part of the team, even if they were preparing to toss a puck around with a couple kids instead of getting ready to face a division rival. Jerseys dotted the stands, little kids climbed over each other in oversized Caps t-shirts, pre-teen female fans primped their hair in their front-facing iPhone cameras in anticipation of the autograph signing that was to come. It had all the makings of a great day at Kettler, but, something was off. There wasn’t the buzz that comes from regular season practice. There’s just something missing from the air with guys like Ovi and Backstrom on the other side of the planet. As the scrimmage progressed, the already dull crowd began to thin out. The kids got bored and quieted down. The cameras stopped clicking and flashing as there wasn’t much to photograph. The greatest Kodak moment was when Jason Chimera tripped and fell to the ice. He just kind of gave up and laid there. I know that feeling, Chimmer.

Credit has to be given on the boys on the ice, though. At this point, they’re technically unemployed. They pay for their own parking, rent out the ice with their own money. They’re not allowed in the private locker rooms they’ve been using for years. They get their own skates sharpened, their own equipment replaced; THEY WASH THEIR OWN HAIR. THE MADNESS. They don’t have to do things like this for the fans, but they do, because they care about giving us the hockey we miss. Their jerseys sport the NHLPA logo, with #THEPLAYERS on the back where their last names used to be. They’re not playing for the name on the back, or the name on the front (yes that was a cliché Miracle reference, sue me), but in the name of hockey; in the name of the game and the fans that are suffering without a season.

It’s obvious that fans’ patience with league negotiations is wearing thin. It’s getting harder to find interest in anything hockey related when we feel so betrayed by the league itself. We can, though, rely on our boys to try to give us a little something to hold on to. They’re still on the ice, and even if we find ourselves daydreaming about goal horns and the roar of the Verizon Center that we once had, we’re still watching.

Photos via Kate Hudson

Kate’s signed iPhone.

Photo illustration by Ian Oland.

Guess what tomorrow is? That’s right! Canada Day!

It also happens to be NHL Free Agency, the wildest and kookiest hockey day of the year. The Capitals aren’t expected to make any world-shaking moves this year, but you never know. The spirit of capitalism can possess even the most level-headed of GMs and make them act like crazy people, so stay tuned here tomorrow while we update you on what’s going down. The Caps have a few holes to fill, a few free agents who will find new homes — and who knows, maybe McPhee will trade Backstrom for Jeff Skinner or something, and we’ll all have to drink ourselves into oblivion.

Anything is possible! But luckily, not everything is likely, so follow us below the jump for your Guide to Free Agency 2012.

How much cap space do the Caps have?

from capgeek.com

The Caps have $20,805,428 to spend this offseason, but they also have a good part of their own roster to re-sign. Expect most of the unrestricted free agents to walk; expect most of the restricted free agents to sign. The Caps have made qualifying offers to Jay Beagle, Mathieu Perreault, Mike Green, and John Carlson, and though Perreault and Green may warrant some thought, they will likely be signed.

Once the Capitals have taken care of their own free agents, expect them to have anywhere from $10-15 M to spend. With that, they could buy this beautiful home in McLean, Virginia! Alternately, they could sign some hockey players.

Who is likely leaving?

Photo credit: Clydeorama

Mike Knuble:  Shut up. We’re not crying, it’s raining on our faces.

Jeff Halpern:  We bear no ill feelings for the former Caps captain as he gets set to leave Washington. Quite the opposite, in fact, Halpern filled the role that he was brought in to fill admirably, and was good-natured about adversity when things weren’t going his way. Jay Beagle seems set to step into his shoes, but we have no issues recommending Halpern’s services to a good home. Four stars, would acquire again.

Dennis Wideman:  Already traded and signed with the Calgary Flames, to a 5-year, $5.25 M/year contract with a no-movement clause. Well okay. You do whatever you feel is good, Calgary.

Where will Semin go?

Photo credit: Greg Flume

Sadly, probably not here. For the first time in his NHL career, Semin will explore the possibility of signing with a team other than the Washington Capitals, maybe even in the KHL. We love him, but that’s why we’re letting him go. We heard that in a country song one time.

What are the Caps’ needs?

Photo credit: Kathy Kmonicek

The Caps have gone a long way towards replacing Semin’s production with the acquisition of Mike Ribeiro, who scores 20 goals like clockwork and will be a capable 2C. However, as far as positional depth goes, we still have big hole on wing that will need to be filled. There aren’t many top-six quality wingers on the free agency market, and the Caps probably won’t be in on any of the big names. Nonetheless, here’s who’s available.

P.A. Parenteau: The 29-year-old winger is a relative unknown, which is a side effect of playing with the New York Islanders. Caps fans should know him, however, as the pain in the neck who seemed to score against us at every opportunity.  We recognize this as the cry for help that it is, and would be happy to rescue him from Long Island Purgatory if the price is right.

Ray Whitney:  Another underrated winger playing some of the best hockey of his life at the age of 40. The Caps haven’t been too kind to their senior citizens in recent years, but maybe new coach Adam Oates can tempt a fellow playmaker into our ranks. Of course, the rumor is that he wants to go back to Carolina where he still owns a home — which leads us to wonder, why does everyone always want to go to Carolina? Do they know something we don’t? Is it the weather, what is it?

Dustin Penner:  Penner hasn’t played up to expectations for awhile now, but this last season with the L.A. Kings was a disaster, with the left winger scoring only seven goals in 65 games, not to mention his unfortunate run-in with a stack of pancakes. Still, L.A. fans weren’t complaining when he scored the OT goal to send the Kings to the Stanley Cup Finals. He can’t hear you, he’s got his two Stanley Cup Rings plugging his ears.

What about defense?

Photo credit: Jim McIsaac

Dmitry Orlov stepped up as a surprisingly NHL-ready defenseman last year, which means we have one less hole to fill, but with with Dennis Wideman’s absence the Caps are in need of one more solid D.

Jason Garrisson: Garrison is coming off a career year with the Panthers, scoring 16 goals and 33 points as a defenseman. He’s recently been credited as a player who “does everything Wideman does and more”, a power play quarterback who can actually defend as well. A defenseman who can defend? Sign us up!

Matt Carle: The Caps would do well to stay away from this one. Wideman’s signing made the market for an offensive defenseman look awfully scary, and there will be many teams who will be interested in the former Flyer’s services. That said, he’s a heck of a player, and we wouldn’t be upset about acquiring him as long as we didn’t have to sell any limbs to do it.

Bryan Allen: A much more reasonable option. Canes’ GM Jim Rutherford made Allen an offer, but Allen wasn’t interested, choosing to go to free agency instead. Allen won’t get the kind of paydays that some of his more offensive counterparts will, a defensive defenseman who logs tons of minutes and regularly kills penalties, who also led the Canes with 188 blocked shots. That sounds fine by us.

Who should the Caps avoid like the plague?

Jaromir Jagr: NOPE.

Martin Brodeur:  Brodeur is a legend, and one of the best who ever played. He can go be a legend somewhere else, we prefer hot-blooded up-and-coming goalies to elder statesmen.

Andrei Kostitsyn: Unless we plan on trading a problem for a problem, avoid like the plague. Kostitsyn is a poor man’s Alex Semin with bonus coaching issues and mob connections. Nope.

Wishful thinking

Zach Parise: Regular 30-goal scorer Parise is a prize in a shallow field, and we estimate he will sign a 20-year deal for 500 gold bricks a year. It’s unlikely that the Caps will make a play for Parise — in fact, the most likely suitors seems to be the Minnesota Wild and the Pittsburgh Penguins, so we should probably be preparing ourselves to hate his guts instead.

Don’t do it, Zach. Make good choices.

Bobby Ryan:  Now this one is a little more likely. Once Parise finds a home, Ryan will be the next biggest prize on the market, and one that the Caps are a little more likely to take a shot at. He’s one of the best deals in the league when it comes to salary versus production, having scored at least 30 goals for the last four season at a cap hit of $5.1 million. We’ve love to see him in a Capitals uniform, but the asking price is still steep. Put in a good word for us, Bruce?

Ryan Suter: What Zach Parise is to the forward market, Suter is to the defenseman market. In the Caps’ case, that means he’s an elaborate distraction meant to draw all eyes and offers so we can quietly slip in and talk to the others. We’ve got little to no chance at landing him. We will probably survive.

Shane Doan:  Doan bleeds Coyotes red and it would be tough to pry him out of Phoenix, but July 1st has rolled around and he is still unsigned. This guy plays like a prototype for a Canadian supersoldier, tough, gritty, productive, and would be a dream in the Caps’ lineup. Has he had enough of the constant ownership issues? Is he looking to go to a contender? Do we ask the same leading questions about Shane Doan every year?

Don’t expect too much of a splash tomorrow. George McPhee has never been inclined to throw money around in free agency, because he’s not stupid because he prefers to build through the draft and through trade instead. But a serious rebuild of the core has been threatening for some time now, and perhaps this is the year that core finally splits up.

At least one of the former Young Guns seems set to leave town tomorrow. Will it be more than one? Will we be shocked and angry, or underwhelmed? Will our favorite players still be in Caps red at the end of the day? We’ll have to wait and see.

We have a soft spot for Jeff Halpern, a local boy who returned home this season after spending the last few years as an NHL journeyman. Even if he leaves the team this summer, we’ll always have the memories, and the nostalgic pictures of him in those terrible black uniforms.

Cap Hit: $825,000. Halpern will be UFA on July 1st.

Best Moment: The 5-1 loss against the Flyers in which he was the only Cap that scored, also the only Cap awake on the ice.

Things We Said About Jeff Halpern: “Whoa, hold on. I think we need a box check.”

Alignment: Lawful Good

First Irrelevant Google Images Result:

Media Consensus: “Hometown Maryland boy! Former captain! Faceoffs!”

Spirit Animal: A DC parking meter.

Alternate Universe Superhero Identity: The Faceoffinator. (Nemesis: Nik Antropov)

Team Role: Jeff Halpern is your prototypical fourth-line center, meant to grind and eat up a few minutes a night, but he was also acquired for his skill on the dot in the absence of Boyd Gordon this year.

Execution of that Role: Halpern ended the regular season with a 58.3% faceoff win percentage, 5th best in the league. He wasn’t able to provide much in the way of offense, but since he played with a constantly shifting fourth line in a tumultuous season, we’ll cut him some slack.

Postseason Performance: Halpern only got into the lineup in the last two games of the second round, when Jay Beagle went down with a broken foot. He acquitted himself reasonably well in those games, despite the rust, though a painfully close postseason Game Six probably isn’t the best time to take a double minor, Jeff Halpern.

Likeliness to Return: Two out of ten. Jeff Halpern says he plans on playing next year, but he was a rental for Washington. We wish him luck wherever he goes!

Usefulness in a Post-Apocalyptic Setting: Halpern has lived all over the place throughout his career, he’d know the country and would easily adapt to many situations. Plus, if any zombies or mutant bandits tried to make you take a faceoff, look out. 

Other: Jeff Halpern was a pretty cute kid, we have photographic proof.

Credit: hockeyplayersaskids.tumblr.com

Overall Year-End Rating: Six Bad Sashas.

For statistical analysis of Halpern’s season, see Japers’ Rink or Peerless Prognosticator.

There were a few common themes to the Capitals’ last postseason interviews, before they went their separate ways for summer. The first question posed was always about Dale Hunter, who has made the decision to return to the London Knights franchise in Ontario rather than stay on to coach the Caps. The team expressed universal admiration and gratitude for what he brought to the Capitals in his short tenure, often focusing less on his system than on the character and sense of accountability he was able to instill.

There was clear disappointment at the early ending to the season, but a different tone to the team’s assessment of their year than the year before — many of the Caps mentioned that they thought they were able to go out in a way that they feel better about this year, though of course they’d all still rather be playing hockey.

Read on for the details of Jay Beagle‘s injury, Brooks Laich standing outside Hunter’s window holding a boombox, and Hunter’s odd career model for Alexander Ovechkin.

Alex Ovechkin

Alex Ovechkin had 9 points in 14 games, but it was his shot-blocking and his willingness dump the puck into the offensive zone that got him national attention this postseason. Ovi, dressed in casual Nike leisurewear, spoke mostly about Hunter, mentioning that he reminded him of an old coach.

He said that moving forward, the leaders in the room will have to continue to be cohesive, as he felt they were near the end of the year. “I think at last, we were a team in the playoffs. I don’t know if you guys see that or not, but I was in the locker room, I was on the bus, I was playing, and it was a team. You lose like a team and you win like a team.”

“I think he just bring a system right away, when he came to the locker room,” said Ovechkin of Hunter. “It doesn’t matter if I like it or not, I have to play it because he’s my coach. Again how he said, you have to be a plumber, so I was a plumber.”

Ovechkin will now travel to Stockholm to play for the Russian National Team in the World Championships.

Braden Holtby

Braden Holtby, dressed in some kind of strangely cowl-necked sweatshirt, said it has been a season where he had to “grow up fast,” but denied the pressure was ever really on him.

“This has been the place that I’ve wanted to be forever. Obviously it’s not the result that we wanted, what I wanted, but it shows that we do have the capabilities in this dressing room and as an organization to give ourselves a chance every year to win a Cup.”

When asked about what he would take away from Dale Hunter’s coaching, Holtby emphasized his patience, and his willingness to let the team find its own identity. “There’s usually a lot of pressure on guys put on through coaches and whatnot to figure things out quick, I think he was very patient. That was what we needed as a group.”

Holtby said he looks forward to competing with Michal Neuvirth for the starting position, and with Tomas Vokoun leaving Washington, it seems that he will get a chance to do so.

Brooks Laich

Brooks Laich, still defiantly unshaven and looking like a handsome extra in a period drama, seemed perhaps most visibly affected by Dale Hunter’s departure. He repeatedly expressed admiration and respect for the coach, saying that he is still trying to talk him into staying.

Though he expressed disappointment at the way the season ending, he only had good things to say about the chemistry in the room near the end of the year. “It was the tightest-knit group and the hardest-working group that has been here, I believe. The team that played two nights ago was the hardest-working team I’ve ever been a part of, and the closest. The atmosphere and the culture has really changed, and everyone is of equal importance.”

“It’s a different feeling going home this year than it was last year.”

Dennis Wideman

Dennis Wideman, dressed in cowboy flannel, said he understands Dale Hunter’s decision to return to London, having played there in the past. “It’s a great city,” he said. “I still try to get back there as much as possible. All his family is there, his kids are there [...] I think it’s just where home is for him.”

He said he has not yet talked to his agent about his impending UFA status, but confirmed that he’d like to be back. “Why not,” he said. “Yeah, I’d love to be back.”

George McPhee

George McPhee was dressed incredibly sharply, of course, and broke the news about Dale Hunter stepping down. “I thought he did a great job of coming in and helping us out,” he said, explaining that the front office has known that his stay could be a temporary one. “Trying to hire a coach in the middle of the season is a difficult process, the vetting process there is a long one, and so to have Dale to be able to come in, even if on a temporary basis, was something we liked a lot.”

He said that he plans to take his time and be deliberate in choosing a new coach, and that the process may go into July or August if necessary. He also gave an update on Evgeny Kuznetsov, saying that they’ve talked to his agent, and he is not going to make it over to the NHL this season. “He’s a young guy, he’s only twenty years old. We understand why he may not want to leave yet, but at some point, he’ll want to come to this league, it’s the best league in the world, and he’s a heck of a player.

Jason Chimera

Jason Chimera, wearing a gray V-neck shirt of mourning, admitted that the Game Seven loss was very painful, saying “I’d be lying to you if I said it doesn’t hurt. It hurts, it hurts quite a bit.”

He talked about the difference between the road to the playoffs this year than in other years. “I think this year we kind of battled our way to get in, we kind of went through a lot of stuff during the year, kind of of ups and downs, we got ourselves in, we gave ourselves a chance.”

He called previous seasons “easy” compared to this season’s struggles. “This year it was kind of — a lot of guys had down years offensively, we struggled as a team to get in. Once we did, I think we kind of came together. That says a lot about us. That’s what I’ll take away.”

Jay Beagle

(Here he is really, though.)

Jay Beagle, wearing a cotton shirt in a lovely shade of sky blue, revealed that he broke his foot blocking an Anton Stralman shot in Game Five, though he still continued to play the rest of the game. He said that he felt “useless” on the ice, taking fifteen and twenty-second shifts by the end of Game Five, but that he didn’t want to leave his team a man short.

Though he’d had his foot X-rayed by Game Six and was aware it was broken, Beagle says he tried so hard to play through it that he was dressed and walking down the tunnel before Hunter and the team trainers pulled him aside. “It was better for the team not to play,” he said, “although it was hard obviously to get undressed while your team is about to go to an elimination game.”

It was almost even more difficult for him to watch Game Seven from home, after having surgery on his foot that ended his season for good. “It was tough to be a spectator, it was tough to watch,” he said. “You hurt for the team, and in the other aspect, you kind of hurt for yourself that it’s over.”

Jeff Halpern

Jeff Halpern, looking like somebody who has barely dragged themselves out of bed to go to the grocery store after a bad breakup, said he does plan on playing next year, and will prepare the same way during the summer regardless of his USA status. “It wasn’t the finish to the season I personally would have liked,” he admitted. “The team was doing well, but as far as for my own personal career and future, you hope that there’s a lot of other opinions out there.”

He said he was happy to get back into the lineup in the last few games, and said he felt very good by the second game that he played. “I was unhappy,” he said of the long stretch he spent in the press box. “I wouldn’t expect anyone to not be in the lineup to be happy about that. You try to come to the rink, you try to have a smile on your face and support the guys as much as you can. I tried to do that as best as I could.”

He said the biggest change in returning to the area after many years was the difference in expectation for hockey in Washington, saying he was surprised at “how much hockey has grown to be not just a fun sport to be a part of, but an important team in this area.”

John Carlson

John Carlson, wearing a “74″ Caps hoodie, didn’t seem concerned about his upcoming RFA status, saying “I think that hockey makes it pretty simple, the way things happen when you’re young. I certainly can’t complain, I’ve been given a great situation since I’ve been here. I like the city and I like playing here.”

It was clear his mind was still on the season just behind them, saying that the loss “sucked a little more” because of how hard the team had been playing. “At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how you lose, I think everyone is just as disappointed, but maybe you take a little more out of it than say, last year.”

Karl Alzner

Karl Alzner, wearing a baseball sleeve tee and new stubble in place of his glorious beard, used three “very”s to get across just how well-liked Dale Hunter was by the players, saying he “transformed” the team into a team that “works extremely hard, is very honest, one that I think that other teams don’t like playing against.”

He said he never had trouble adapting to Hunter’s defensive style of play, pointing out that he never sees the puck carrier anyway unless he’s trying to check them. He acknowledged the overall growing pains the team went through this year, though, saying there were “meetings and shouting matches”.

“When you have that and get that out in the open, things usually gets better after that,” Alzner said. “Kind of a stupid saying, but someone said it and it was perfect — you got to crack a couple eggs to make an omelet. That’s exactly what’s happened, we kind of broke things down and slowly start to build it up. It’s going to be exciting to see how everything pans out.”

Matt Hendricks

Matt Hendricks, in a blue cotton t-shirt, said it was going to be a tough couple of weeks watching the rest of the postseason play out. “It doesn’t get any easier.”

He said Dale Hunter’s most significant impact on him was giving him confidence, and the opportunity to play a significant role on a team. He said he does not expect that’s something he will lose, and that he now knows he can contribute on an NHL level.

“He gave me that chance, and he worked with me until I did exactly what he wanted me to do, night in and night out. Once I achieved that, he started giving me more and more opportunity, more minutes, to prove to him, and myself, and the team that I can do that. Without him giving me that chance, I’d still be looking at myself as a fourth-line guy that fights, and scores a little bit. Now I feel like I have a better role, and a bigger year.”

Michal Neuvirth

Michal Neuvirth, wearing a gray shirt and a distracting silver chain, confirmed that his injury was to his hip flexor. He said that he was disappointed that things happened the way that they did, but that he understands he has no control over that kind of accident. “These things happen.”

He said that he was able to get close with Tomas Vokoun in his time here, and that he picked up a great deal from the veteran goalie, both in conversation with him and simply observing him in practice and in the games. “He gave me a lot of his thoughts about the game,” Neuvirth said. “I can’t say one bad thing against him.”

He said that he does expect to compete with Braden Holtby for the starting position next year, but pointed out that it doesn’t matter who starts the first game of the year, and said that was one of the biggest lessons he has learned in his NHL career so far.

Mike Green

Mike Green, very matchy-matchy in a red Reebok shirt and red hat, acknowledged that it was a difficult season for him, missing games with injury early in the year and seeming to struggle to find his scoring touch when he began playing regularly again.

He seemed confident that he’d found his groove again, though, later in the season and into the postseason. “I felt mentally the best I’ve ever felt, and physically — you get your bumps and bruises. I feel great, I feel like I did four or five years ago on the ice, and that’s comforting for me.”

He wasn’t willing to get into specifics regarding his upcoming UFA status, but like Carlson, expressed a desire to stay in Washington. “I’m excited to come back if that’s the game plan,” said Green, “and that’s what I want, so we’ll see. I love it here, it’s a great organization, a great city, I believe we’re going to win a Cup here, and I want to be part of it.”

Mike Knuble

Mike Knuble, in a brownish-beige polo shirt, says he’s open to playing next year and that he feels healthy, with no nagging injuries. “Mentally too,” he emphasized. “I still enjoy playing the game, I still enjoy coming out to the rink every day, I enjoy being around the other players. I think that’s half the battle, is wanting to be there as you get older.”

He also lent a veteran voice to the search for the Stanley Cup, saying that he does think the Caps are very close. “Everybody’s got that microscope out at the end, trying to figure out what separated this champion from everybody else this year. Some people kind of chase that, try to build their team that way, and then that flavor of the year changes the next year. I think the personnel in there, the guys in the room are good players who care about the game and want to win. I think this year got a little more of a taste. A bounce there, or two, and we could be playing hockey right now. But we’re not.”

Tomas Vokoun

Tomas Vokoun, wearing a black athletic shirt, says he feels healthy as this point and is prepared to test the UFA market. He said he did not plan on being back in Washington, and that it was never his intention to be in Washington for more than one year.

He did express disappointment at not being able to play in the postseason. “I waited for a chance like this for a very long time,” he said, “and you get hurt — that’s life. Worse things happen to people. It just didn’t work out.”

Vokoun has been rumored to be headed to Russia to join the new Lokomotiv Yaroslavl team in the KHL.

Troy Brouwer

Troy Brouwer, surprisingly looking as if he has actually seen a hairdresser in the past month, said he thinks the team will be able to maintain the things they learned from Dale Hunter in his short time coaching. “I know it’s a long summer here, but hopefully guys remember that to win in the playoffs, you have to sacrifice, block shots, do the right things, and that’s just what he tried to instill in us the entire time he was here.”

He had praise for Jay Beagle and his attempt to play in Game Six, saying he was an ideal teammate. “The way he was walking, the way he was feeling it, it was kind of clear to the guys how it would turn out, but we love the guy for trying like he did.”

Nicklas Backstrom

Nicklas Backstrom, wearing a white cotton shirt and at least two chains, said the team really came together when the playoffs began, starting with the first game of the Boston series and feeling stronger in the system as the postseason went on.

“For me personally it’s been a little up and down, with my concussion,” said Backstrom, who missed 40 games this season with a head injury. “I think I’ve been doing all right, when I’ve been playing. But as a team, I think we’ve actually been better than people thought, and we’ve been changing a lot of things a lot of people didn’t think could happen.”

“I think everyone worked hard,” he said, when asked what lasting impression Hunter would have on the team. “That’s something I’m always going to remember. Work hard, and good things happen to you.”

Dale Hunter

Photo credit: Paul Bereswill

Hey you: thanks for reading RMNB. Crazy season, right?

We started the year with our Winter is Coming promotional series. We documented a crazy winning streak, and then its astonishing decline. We said goodbye to one coach and hello to another. We saw gruesome injuries. We analyzed the Caps’ struggles at and before the trade deadline in our Capitals During Wartime series. We made posters and signs to pump up the fans and the team both. And we tracked the Caps as they made the playoffs by the skin of their teeth.

Yeah, we had exhaustive coverage this season, but there are so many questions left unanswered. Here are few we’d like to address this summer.

Collective Bargaining

The NHL Players Association and the league have to find common ground this summer lest they risk another lockout. No one wants a repeat of the lost season, but with hockey’s popularity on the rise the stakes are pretty high. Many decisions hinge on the outcome of these negotiations.

Free Agency

The following Caps players will be unrestricted free agents this summer: Alex Semin, Mike Knuble, Jeff Halpern, Keith Aucoin, Dennis Wideman, and Tomas Vokoun. If McPhee doesn’t re-sign him, Semin will command a lot of attention on free agency day. Mike Knuble is getting older but wants to keep playing. Jeff Halpern is a hometown boy with fantastic talent on the faceoff dot. Dennis Wideman is an all-star/playoff goat who might want a big pay day. Tomas Vokoun’s crummy goaltending is mostly responsible for Bruce Boudreau getting fired. Anyone wanna take bets?

On the RFA side, Mathieu Perreault, Jay Beagle, John Carlson, and Mike Green are all on the docket. Will the Caps risk a qualifying offer on Mike Green? Perreault didn’t play in the postseason, but Jay Beagle was a star– who gets paid?

Dale Hunter

Word leaked that Hunter’s contract as head coach of the Capitals was for one year only. George McPhee and Brooks Laich each have said they want him back next year, but Hunter has a very comfortable gig as demigod of the London Knights association. We’ve been very critical of Hunter hockey here, but his postseason results were attractive. Will Hunter give it another shot?

Hershey Bears

The Capitals’ current AHL farm team, the Hershey Bears, do not have contract for next season yet. They signed a one-year extension over a year ago. Both teams struggled this season, and the Caps pretty much depleted Hershey’s talent in the spring– so what will happen during the offseason? And will the Norfolk Admirals, who were freaking amazing this year but who have a similarly frayed relationship with Tampa Bay, be involved?

And why do we keep hearing about Baltimore whenever this topic pops up?

Alex Ovechkin

Ovi is probably going home to Russia this summer. There’s no real drama here; we just wanna know what kind of wacky hijinx he’ll get in to. No way he can beat the wookiee suit. I mean: no way, right?

Evgeny Kuznetsov

The KHL superstar has been playing games with our heart all year. Will he come to the Caps this year or not? We don’t know. We’re gonna keep on translating and covering anything we can get our hands on– but at this point we trust nothing until there is ink on paper one way or the other. We’d love to have another Russian on the team for selfish reasons, so we’re firmly in the “C’mover, Kuzya!” camp.

Braden Holtby

For a span of 16 hours last year, Braden Holtby was the presumptive #2 netminder for the Washington Capitals. Then the Caps acquired Tomas Vokoun for a song, and Holtby had to toil in Hershey all year. He had a disappointing season until the Caps called him up for some late-season heroics. Holtby became a star, besting one future hall of fame goalie and nearly felling another. But goalies are passed around like sriracha in the offseason, and you know he’s an object of desire for many teams (Brian Burke, what up.) So is Holtby our future franchise goalie? If not, will the Caps use him to acquire what they truly need…

Second-line Center

Aside from deadline acquisitions that didn’t last, the Capitals have been without a strong second line pivot for the past few years. Whereas many other teams are supposedly built from the middle out, Washington has treated its 2C as a swappable part. Brooks Laich, Marcus Johansson, and Mathieu Perreault have all given it a shot, but it hasn’t worked out. Having a talented top-six guy backing up the top line can give the Capitals options on offense that they’ve never had before.

That’s all I’ve got. What did I miss? What other questions will be plaguing you between now and September? Whatever happens, we’ll be here writing and cracking jokes. Don’t be a stranger.

Braden Holtby has not lost back-to-back games in the NHL in 29 games now. The Caps are the first team ever to win four straight games following overtime losses.

Let’s talk about resilience. Two wins this series following some of the most heartbreaking losses in recent memory, two instances of the Caps picking themselves back up and putting themselves back together. Two times when it wasn’t just talk. For the second time this postseason, we’re going to seven games.

The Great 8 scored on the power play, 88 seconds in. I could not make this up if I tried. Chimera finished off a strong play from Semin to make it — stay with me — an actual two-goal lead. It lasted for most of the game, but unfortunately someone on NBC said “shutout”, so Marian Gaborik scored. Caps beat Rangers, 2-1. 

• It was…a pretty good start. Anton Stralman got two minutes for not being as fast as Jason Chimera, and the Caps executed a PP sequence that had previously only existed in your dreams. As we know, the scoring of the first goal has become the most important event in the entire universe, so we all breathed a sigh of relief to see the Caps go up early, but luckily the team decided to continue to play the rest of the game. They had The Fire tonight, and clearly had no intention of going down easy.
• Some #fancystats from @hiredgun0213, 52-19-8 on the PP…5 + 2 + 1 + 9 + 8 = 25, who put them on the PP in the first place. Spooky.
• Mystery of Jay Beagle, Parts One and Two: Beagle was not at practice, which was significantly a bigger deal than it would have been, say, six months ago. Dale Hunter quickly soothed our concerns, stating that Beagle was in tonight, simply “resting his legs”. Cut to pregame warmups, dramatic reveal: Beagle was not in. Beagle was in fact very, very out, prompting the first Jeff Halpern appearance since March 23. Just when faceoffs thought they were safe.
• Tim Thomas probably still thinks those flashy, unnecessary Holtby glove saves are funny. Braden Holtby thinks Tim Thomas being out of the playoffs is funny. Either way, it’s a fabulous way to get shooters to think twice about going glove-side, while the Caps shot blockers take away the low. Carry on, Braden.
• Slight threat to Ovechkin’s future children from Brandon Prust after the Ranger failed at hockey for a shift or so and resorted to cheap shots instead, sticking Ovechkin right in the produce section. “It’s recoverable,” said John Walton, tactfully. “It’s not a whole lot of fun, though. We’ll leave it at that.”
• The Verizon Center was in fine voice tonight — when Keith Aucion missed a point-blank chance in the second period, you all sounded like you were being murdered. It was excellent.
• The PK was once again the most unassailable of solid objects, despite being without Beagle. The penalty killers never let us down (except for that one time that we are not talking about). Their magnum opus was a beautiful four-minute kill late in the second period tonight to preserve a two goal-lead. Heroism. There will be books and songs written about these penalty killers, there will be busts of them sitting on people’s mantels.
• You didn’t misread that, I said two-goal lead. For the first time in these playoffs, the Caps were able to get and hold a two-goal lead for more than three minutes — in fact, they held it until the last 50 seconds of the game.

This postseason is all about the adjectives that you never thought would be applied to the Washington Capitals. Resilient. Gritty. Defensive. Committed. Here we are on the edge of another Game Seven, once again flying directly in the face of any conventional logic about what this team was expected to accomplish. It’s been breathlessly intense and terrifying. You have new ulcers that you can probably name after defensemen.

But the Caps are still alive. Isn’t that amazing, and ridiculous? Prepare yourself for the cardiac stress test of Saturday, and you might yet come out of this alive, too.

Photo: Chris Gordon. Guy on TweetDeck: Adam Vingan

The Washington Capitals had only a 38% win percentage on the road this season, so getting the W Thursday night is crucial; they just can’t depend on victory away from Verizon Center. But Monday’s home loss to the Bruins was an ugly affair, and the once well composed team fell to shambles. To win Game Four, the Caps are gonna have to dig deep.

I have compiled a series of modest steps the Capitals should take to make it happen. And then we threw in the secret weapon. (Okay, we’ll tell you: more posters.)

For Alex Ovechkin: Shots > Hits

On November 13th, Alex Ovechkin said his job is “to score goals, not make the hits.” But through three games this postseason, Ovechkin has leveled 17 hits and scored just one goal. Your boy Neil Greenberg crunched the numbers and confirmed what Boudreau said: the more Ovechkin hits, the less he scores.

Being physical is great, but the Ovi’s purpose should be obvious: SCOAR MOAR GOALS. This is a big stage for Ovi, so we’re looking for a another moment that gets people making this face:

Extracurriculars Gotta Go

The Boston Bruin know their game. Sure, they play physical between the whistles, but it’s the interim where they truly shine. Whether it’s Milan Lucic Game of Death-ing Brooks Laich before a faceoff, Milan Lucic ragdolling Nick Backstrom after the first period buzzer, or Milan Lucic biting Jeff Schultz’s brittany spaniel at the botanical gardens on Wednesday, its clear that they’ve got the edge when it comes non-hockey dickishness. The Capitals would be wise not to engage the Bs in their creeping.

They’ll win instead by being what Alan May called “thick and proud”–a tough and united team that finishes their checks and knows how to get gritty — but only during the course of the normal hockey game. But when Julien’s guys want to play the pest after every play, the Caps should be ascetic. Silent, focused, tough as nails. Just walk it off.

Roll the Roster Over

Finally found an excuse to post Erskine's dog

The Caps will be without star center and cross-checking phenom Nick Backstrom in Game Four, but that’s no reason to fret. NB19 played exactly none of the Caps’ three regular-season wins over the Bruins, so we know the guys can do it without him. But while Hunter is filling Nicky’s slot, maybe it’s time to shake the whole roster up.

I love Jeff Schultz and Dennis Wideman, but the dudes have been on ice for four of the six Bruins goals. Perhaps it’s time to give the rookie Dmitry Orlov his first taste of the playoffs. Or better yet, let’s get Big John Erskine in the lineup so he can give Looch what-for one more time.

In Backstrom’s place? You already know the answer. #FreeKnuble. Mike Knuble‘s experience, leadership, and cool head can only help a Caps team that may be frazzled after getting beaten up so ferociously last time. But putting him on the fourth line to grind it out does no one any good. Kanoobs is best deployed as a net-crashing compliment to a playmaker like Alex Ovechkin or Alex Semin.

Further down the lineup, Jeff Halpern may serve as another injection of experience in relief for either Keith Aucoin or Mathieu Perreault, who cannot match the Bruins in size and don’t have the elite faceoff chops of the former Caps captain. Plus: box check.

Defense First

Paille all alone with Holtby

The Capitals weak-sauce possession game has had me queasy since December, but it doesn’t matter anymore. Results are the only thing that mean anything now, and the Caps proved that a tight defensive game can win. It’s the kind of hockey Dale Hunter said he wanted to play since the day he arrived, and now he’s getting his chance.

But Monday was ugly. The Caps surrendered four goals– many of them due to poor defensive decisions. Justin Bourne at Backhand Shelf took the Caps defense (and Mathieu Perreault in particular) to task for blowing assignments, looking clueless, and generally making it easy for Boston to get at Holtby’s net.

To win on Thursday, the Caps must recommit to defense. They’ve gotta stick to JJ’s plan and execute without the slightest deviation. If they can keep the Bruins cadre of 20-goal scorers off the boards for another game, they can steal this series.

About the penalty kill? Shh. No jinxing.

Win It For Nicky

And finally, the emotional dimension. The Capitals survived without Nick Backstrom for a huge chunk of the season, and they’re gonna have to do it again on Thursday as Backstrom serves a one-game suspension for cross-checking Rich Peverley after Game Three.

The Caps should remain cognizant of their loss and use it as fuel to perform. Just as the Caps sans Alex Ovechkin summoned a hat trick out of Mathieu Perreault against Boston, so too should their role-players emerge as goal-scorers in Game Four. The team has been wronged, aggrieved by a feckless foe, deprived of their glory. Now they must be righteous and indignant. That’s their fuel.

They’ve gotta win this one for Nicky. They don’t even need us fans antagonizing Tim Thomas this time around, they just need a united front for Our Team.

Pursuant to that goal, blog maestro Ian Oland has cooked up some crucial posters.

Same deal as always. The links below will download PDFs, which will fit snug on a 8.5″ x 11″ page. Take a reasonable amount to Chinatown, hand some out to strangers, and then camp out in front of the glass during warm-ups. Let the boys know who they’re fighting for.

RMNB’s Free Nicky Signs

Download	Download

If that doesn’t work, you can always go to Kinkos and print out a giant seagull head. That’ll really creep out Seguin.

Crash the net.

Posters by Ian Oland.

Screengrab by: @recordsandradio

If I had told you in October that a late-February game against the Islanders would be one of the most important games of the season, you would have laughed yourself sick. This one was big, though. All of them will be from now on. The Caps hung in there, didn’t stop fighting, tied up the game in the most completely improbable fashion possible — and then they won. You might not have seen that one coming.

Josh Bailey glided right through a defensive breakdown and scored the first goal. Matt Moulson deflected a long shot in front of Neuvirth to make it 2-0. Brouwer scored one Knuble-style in front of the net with the clock winding down. Brouwer then officially became a certified hero by tipping in a second goal with seconds left to go and took us to overtime. Alex Ovechkin ended it with a five-hole beauty, and you know what? We might believe. Just a little bit. Caps win, 3-2.

• Let’s be honest. We would probably rather face absolutely any other Islanders goaltender, of the 567 possibilities they have available, because Evgeni Nabokov is the real deal. Tonight the Caps ended a 100-plus-minute streak in which Nabokov has shut them out in the Verizon Center, and hopefully no new streaks like that will be starting anytime soon.
• Dmitry Orlov uncaged! This was his first game free of the stylish college hockey look, ending a becage’d stretch in which he had a goal, 3 assists, and was +5 overall. For those of you who are superstitious, though, Orlov had a fantastic game, ending with +18 Corsi and a crushing hit on John Tavares in the middle of the third.
• The team had four “power plays” where they tried to “shoot” the puck at the net and score “power play goals”. This was executed with all the grace of water buffalos on ice. Caps have scored only once in their last 20 PP chances, and only twice in their last 32. We got trouble.
• As frustrating as it is to have a $3 million man on the fourth line, Ward-Halpern-Beagle have been gold for the Caps the last few games. They had a shift late in the first period where they were running over Islanders and destroying everything that sparked some of the Caps’ best offensive pressure of the night. They didn’t end up with anything to show for it, but man, they were trying. Perhaps we can borrow Nicklas Backstrom’s hands for one of them while he is on LTIR. Don’t worry, we’ll give them back.
• In fact, Jay Beagle was great all game, he had The Fire tonight. He ended with a team-high, career-high five shots on goal and was generally everywhere you looked at any given moment. There was also a season high number of dog-related twitter jokes. Aren’t we glad we didn’t trade him?
• Michal Neuvirth kept us in it, there were so many points at which the game could have become a February Leafs game and didn’t. He is always there for us, except for a few times earlier in the year which don’t count.
• Seriously, how do you stop this?
• Jeff Schultz, on the other hand, will be receiving no awards tonight, or at least not any flattering ones. His play has improved quite a bit since that extended scratch period, but tonight was just not Sarge’s night. The first goal can be directly pinned on him, and there were a few other instances of him giving away the puck away to Islanders or giving up ice. This should be considered treason and he should be court martialed.
• The Caps got a little loosey-goosey after the first, to paraphrase Joe B. The eyes were open, the feet were skating, but the brains had been left behind in the locker room. Someone get on convincing the league that the team with the most turnovers wins the Stanley Cup.
• Troy Brouwer is the man of the night, Beagle’s beagling regardless. He gave the team a sudden surge of life with a goal late in the third, and then knocked in the game-tying goal so late that the people who had already left to miss the traffic probably missed it. Just think: according to yesterday’s deadline market, Troy Brouwer = Paul Gaustad.
• Did you get a sense of deja vu on the Caps climbing back and Ovechkin’s OT winner? That’s because almost exactly one year ago, 3/1/2011, Ovechkin ended a game against the Islanders in overtime almost the exact same way. Re-watch that goal below and remember that this was when the hot run to the playoffs started. Credit: Fedor Fedin

Joe B suit of the night.

Trade deadline did not go the way that many of us expected it to. There was no overhaul. There’s been a sense over the past few months that the Caps would be changing drastically come February, there was a lot of armchair GMing to be done and a lot of clear and reasonable excuses for the Caps’ performance. That’s over now. The trade freeze is on, these are your Washington Capitals.

We’ll see whether that ultimately turns out to be a good thing or a bad thing. There are certainly flaws in this roster, but there are flaws in every team around us in the standings, and the Southeast Division is a joke. The team that can manage to be the least awful will be in. The team is perhaps not as good as it appeared to be coming into October, but then sometimes for moments or for whole games they are fantastic, and there are players that we are so, so glad that we didn’t have to give up. All up to them now. Deadline’s past, no point dwelling. Tonight, they showed us that they just might be worth GMGM’s trust.

Photo credit: Graig Abel

Not a bad way to go out. The Washington Capitals’ domination of the Toronto Maple Leafs was likely the last we’ll see from this version of the team. Knowing this, the Caps busted out all their greatest hits from the last few years. Let’s review!

Marcus Johansson wrapped around Reimer’s net for an unchallenged goal in the first minute. Alex Semin fought off Luke Schenn and scored five-hole. Jeff Halpern took two whacks and hit top shelf. Keith Aucoin finished a bang-bang sequence from Johansson and Ovechkin to make it 4-0.

Colby Armstrong cracked the shutout with a wristshot early in the third period. Tim Connolly got a greasy one on a power play to make it interesting, but they ran out of time. Caps beat Leafs 4-2.

• The Capitals have won back-to-back games for the first time in over a month. They have peaked over 30 shots a game for the 5th time in the last 10 games.
• Michal Neuvirth was almost perfect in Toronto, including denying the dirtiest player in the NHL, Dave Steckel, on a breakaway significant more for the bloodlines involved rather than any fancy stickwork. 28 saves for Mikey, many of them k-rad.
• 5’9″ Keith Aucoin had not scored in the NHL since October of 2009. A two-step plan to ending that drought: pair him with dynamic players like Ovechkin and Johansson, and put him against a Toronto defense that might have been high.
• Also busting slumps is Jeff Halpern, whose post-sunset goal on Saturday was his first since December 13 and his first point in over a month.
• Also on the topic of faceoff specialists, Dirty Dave went a hearty 9 for 14 on the dot. Less awesome when he’s on the other team, but it’s been 2 years, so we should probably get over it.
• What is with Marcus Johansson and wraparound goals? He’s got three this season. And here we were thinking that wraparound went extinct with passenger pigeons and thylacines.
• Dennis Wideman used his wrist to absorb a hit into the boards late in the second period. It didn’t look good, but Wides returned in the third. Heh. That rhymes.
• Toronto goalie James Reimer is embattled. He’s getting criticism from his own GM, and this game sort of tells you why. Reimer wasn’t flawless, but he is also playing behind a defensive unit that looked unengaged when it mattered. It’s fun to comment on other teams’ misery for once.
• Yes, CSN’s Jill Sorenson jinxed the shutout. That’s just superstition, so we won’t hold it against her. But her awful non-apology apology afterwards (“sorry if I jinxed that for you”) just made it worse. You don’t apologize if something; you apologize for something.

Joe B suit of the night

This game was just fantastic. Withstanding a late-game rally, the Caps won a crucial road games and stole another pair of points from the Eastern Conference.

The Leafs are struggling– that’s obvious– but let’s not allow that to detract from the Caps’ jam session. Those long offensive shifts, dangling pucks and threading passes between befuddled defenders, remind us of a team we’ve been missing as dearly as an amputated limb.

The Capitals host the Islanders on Tuesday, but we don’t know exactly who will be rocking the red in Caps uniforms by then. Elliotte Friedman says George McPhee is not interested in rentals, so a shopping spree of free agents at the end of their contracts is unlikely. GMGM is thinking long-term, which is bold.

Either way, a change is coming. Get ready.

You thought you’ve been through the hard times already, right? Wrong.

The Washington Capitals’ pathetic bumbling against the Carolina Hurricanes was their worst performance that I’ve had the dubious honor of documenting. This was the kind of game that costs people their jobs. Or at least it should.

No goal summary for you. Hurricanes beat Caps.

• 

  via http://cohnjarlson.tumblr.com

  Read my pregame. I went on at length about the myriad ways in which the Carolina Hurricanes are a very bad hockey team. I didn’t even mention how they were missing Ruutu and Ward. That very bad awful team dominated the Capitals for a full hour. They dwarfed the Capitals.

• Alex Ovechkin did not play in the final 6 minutes of the second period. There was no apparent injury on his final shifts, and he returned to the ice in the third. So was it an equipment malfunction or just a hissy fit? 1 shot for the guy who is supposed to be the team’s captain, but is rather just its sulking, stubborn, utterly flaccid mascot. 1 shot.
• Mike Knuble was excellent in the game’s opening minutes, firing the Caps’ first two shots– both from right up front– and leveling hits. But even he fell in line with his team’s putrid pace, recording no more offense for the duration.
• I was excited for the reunion of Mike Green and Jeff Schultz, who were the Caps premiere pairing a few years back. They were on ice for the first two goals against. Once split up, Green was on ice for the two after that. Mikey, apparently, is still on the mend.
• There were no good players tonight. Maybe Jeff Halpern. And as much as you may hold affection for Mathieu Perreault, he is not cut out for first-line center in the National Hockey League. Any team that utilizes him as such is fundamentally broken.
• Michal Neuvirth relieved Tomas Vokoun after the latter surrendered two goals on seven shots, neither of which was really his fault. And if you really think the problem here is goaltending, just go ahead and bite down on the cyanide pill inside that false tooth.
• Caps @ Canes was the only game tonight. It was broadcast all across North America. That means tons of people had a good view of Washington’s self-immolation. That means everyone in America should be writing about exactly how awful they were on this miserable Monday night. That means– hopefully– some dramatic changes will be made. Now. It’s time. There aren’t any Dale Hunter die-hards left, right? Can anyone honestly say that this has been a successful transition?
• Who is this Justin Peters person?
• There were some fights. Here’s your sideshow:

Games like this usually result in someone getting fired. The Caps already fired their coach, who is leading a certain California team on a steep ascent of the Western Conference. So I guess there are no real consequences for this dismal sputtering. The Capitals exist in a fantasy world of zero accountability and even less efficacy, and that will apparently continue.

Joe B suit of the night

There is no savior coming for this team. There is no Adam Banks with his magically healed wrist, no Rohirrim riding down the crest with Gandalf, no up up down down left right left right b a start. This is the Capitals’ lost season and so much more.

You could say it started in game 8, when they lost Mike Green. You could say it happened in Buffalo, when Boudreau’s exasperation broke through. But it really happened in April of 2010, when the shellshocked Capitals began an 18-month retreat from their offense-first posture. This team has been shriveling like a spent something-or-other since that halak-ing, and it hasn’t ceased yet.

The playoffs are a pipe dream, and I’m not keen on hitting that particular pipe.

There has to be a bright future, because how much worse can it get?

That’s not a rhetorical question; I really want to know.