Russian Machine Never Breaks

Bolts beat Caps 2-1, Mike Green Returns

Photo credit: Mike Carlson

The Washington Capitals ended their vacation in America’s unit by mixing it up with the Tampa Bay Lightning. The game featured the return of Mike Green to active duty and Mike Knuble to the top line, but precious little else.

Just 130 seconds in, a neutral-ice turnover by Dmitry Orlov led to Tom Pyatt’s puck dribbling past Vokoun. Just 110 seconds into the second period, a turnover by Matt Hendricks led to Steven Stamkos’s breakaway and the 40th goal of his season. Brooks Laich redirected a Matthieu Perreault pass into the weak side of the Tampa net to make it 2-1. A Marcus Johansson penalty nixed the team’s chances at a comeback.

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Capitals During Wartime: Our Misery is Their Trending Topic

[Ed. note: This is fifth installment of Capitals During Wartime, a series about Washington's struggles before the 2012 trade deadline. Read previous entries about coaching, negativity, road performance, and centers.]

Everyone has the moment when you realize that the Caps are in serious trouble. You know when mine was, because that’s when I started this Capitals During Wartime series. For Ian, it was Monday night, when he finally admitted to me how worried he was. For the rest of the Internet and the broader hockey community, that moment is right now.

This article documents The Week from Hell, a litany of depressing and infuriating stories about your Washington Capitals. Because we need a single, coherent record of what exactly it was like when things couldn’t possibly get any worse.

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Carolina Hurricanes Preview: Point Break

Doug Johnson: Puck Buddy, dog owner, hockey fan, public intellectual. Follow @PuckBuddys.  

The Pregame: So you gotta give credit where it’s due. Whatever your political leanings (ours is usually doubled over, holding our stomachs, in the loo) that ol’ Newton Leroy Gingrich gets points for some sassy thinking. Seems then-Speaker Stay-Puft, some six years into an affair with a young House staffer (and Tiffany connoisseur) named Calista, basically told his wife Marianne that she would need to “share” him with his mistress. (There we are in the loo again.) At least, this according to ex-wife Marianne – no, not the one he divorced while she was in the hospital, that was a totes different wife! – who basically told Newt to get stuffed. He dumps her, marries the mistress who promptly begins a powerful benziodiazepine regimen (we’re making that part up) and now all is lollipops, the end.

We bring this up, in part because it’s still a larf-riot, but also because we’re doing some sassy thinkin’ of our own. Let’s just say, completely hypothetical here, that you’re the GM of a professional sports team with loads of potential but some underperforming talent. What to do? You want to keep him; sure, who doesn’t? But maybe you could also find a comely, pliable team somewhere else that may just want to share a little of his upkeep and tending while making you look genius. Everyone wins, right?

And thus American civic life dies a muffled death.

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Halfway

The Capitals’ 1-0 win over the Pittsburgh Penguins was their 41st game of the season. The halfway point.

Let’s take a quick moment, without any pomp or heavy opinions (except GIFs), to appreciate where the Caps are right now.


Overall Record

Overall: 22-17-2
Home: 15-5-1
Road: 7-12-1
Standings points: 46

The Capitals currently sit 8th in the Eastern Conference, essentially tied with Pittsburgh.

They are second in Southeast Division, one point ahead of the Winnipeg Jets and four behind the Florida Panthers. The bright side is that the Caps have played one game fewer than those teams. Still, the Caps are battling for standing in the division that used to be their feeding ground.

As Neil Greenberg pointed out on the Post Tuesday, the Caps’ home record is 5th best in the league. Their road record is 24th.

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Video: Mike Green Reinjures His Groin or Something

Photo credit: Greg Fiume

In the Capitals’ 3-1 victory over the Flames Tuesday, Mike Green made his grand return to the line-up after sitting out nearly two months with a groin injury. We made him signs. It was a thing.

The best part of the win was that Green made it completely through the game without re-injuring himself. In his last two comeback attempts from injury, Green has found himself back on the shelf his first game back (concussion on February 25, groin injury on November 11).

Well, two games into his latest return, Green took a rough run from San Jose Sharks’ center Andrew Desjardins behind the Capitals’ goal. Take a look for yourself:

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Dennis Wideman swims with the sharks. (Photo credit: Bruce Bennett)

The Washington Capitals had a good bit of time off before heading to California to face the San Jose Sharks. In that time, Mike Green continued his rehabilitation, Alex Semin returned to game-shape, and Nicky Backstrom’s head kept him out of action. No one was expecting an easy opener to the road trip, but this was ridiculous.

The back of Tomas Vokoun’s skate knocked in the first goal of the night, but Jason Demers got credit for it. Dennis Wideman crashed the net on the power play to tie it back up. Brent Burns converted a late second period power play with the help of a few screens. Joel Ward scored his first goal since November 5th to tie it up, but Patrick Marleau re-established the lead just 16 seconds later. Marc-Edouard Vlasic put the Caps in a pickle with a 4-on-4 goal, then Torrey Mitchell got the empty netter. Sharks beat Caps 5-2.

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San Jose Sharks Pregame: Bringin’ Sexy Back

Doug Johnson is a Puck Buddy. You will read his website and follow his Twitter thing.

The Puck Drop: Hey everybody! It’s a pajama party! Whooot! ZOMG, we’re gonna stay up late, an we’re gonna make popcorn, an an we’re gonna have hot chocolate! An an an we’re gonna get in our PJs and an an an we’re gonna watch the Caps!  Squeeee!!!

News Update! Dit-dit-dit-dah-dit-dit-deee-dit! Realignment on hold! Flash – Icers cry Foul on Fall festivities! Yups, the players union has turned nose down at the realignment plan handed down from on high. We’ll have more in the coming days. Stay tuned to this station…and now, we return you to your regular programming.

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Patrick McDermott

Ovi celebrates an early powerplay goal. (Photo credit: Patrick McDermott)

The Washington Capitals entered the new year with three wins in their rear-view and a convalesced Mike Green. Jarome Iginla and the Calgary Flames stopped in D.C. at the worst time.

Alex Ovechkin scored on the first shot of the night, a power play rocket one just 71 seconds in. Troy Brouwer crashed the net for number two, but Curtis Glencross got one back by snatching a behind-the-goal pass from Iginla. Nick Backstrom set up Dennis Wideman for the Caps’ third goal. Caps beat Flames 3-1.

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Download and Print the MIKE GREEN: GAME ON Poster

As we learned earlier, Mike Green will return to active play tonight after missing 73 billion games due to an injury to his love machine.

To celebrate Green’s return to the ice, here is a printable poster!

The mondo link below will download a PDF, which fits an 8.5″ x 11″ page splendidly. Download the file and print a million of these to pass out to everyone you see at Verizon Center. Mike Green is back. GAME ON.

DOWNLOAD THE GAME ON SIGN
DOWNLOAD THE GAME ON SIGN IN BLACK & WHITE

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Hark! Mike Green Has Returned

According to John Walton, Mike Green will play tonight vs. the Calgary Flames, his hometown team. It will be his first game since November 11th, his 9th game of the season.  Green played just 33 games in the calendar year of 2011.

We will have a printable poster after lunch. In the meantime, deal with this ridiculous photoshop.

Top row: John Carlson, Dennis Wideman, Roman Hamrlik, John Erskine, Karl Alzner (with Raccoon Hat), and Marcus Johansson
Front Row: Dale Hunter, Alex Semin, Jason Chimera, Dmitry Orlov, Jeff Schultz