Late on Monday, the NHL released a pretty sweet time lapse video of the Winter Classic ice rink being built at Citizens Bank Park and concludes with 46,967 people filing out of the stands at the end of yesterday’s game, a thrilling 3-2 Rangers’ victory. Now just imagine this in 2014– maybe at FedEx Field or Nationals Park (or even Camden Yards!).

Brouwer hour. (Photo credit: Mitchell Layton)

Just a few days before the Winter Classic, the New York Rangers visited the Washington Capitals ready for their close-up. The Caps showed up to play though, and we got to see one of the better overall games of the season.

Marcus Johansson scored the first of the game by cleaning up a rebound off a Jeff Halpern shot that he set up. Brandon Dubinsky converted on a breakaway to tie it after one period. Troy Brouwer snapped a streak of bad luck by tipping in a Jeff Halpern/John Carlson collaboration. Alex Ovechkin leveled a hit to open up a turnover, which Nick Backstrom turned into a breakaway by passing it to Alex Semin, who made the game’s fourth tally look easy. Late in the game, Alex Semin scored again, sailing one past Biron. Caps beat Rangers 4-1.

Via @KnublesKnights

• The Capitals Penalty Kill was mostly splendid, limiting the Rangers to 8 shots, 0 goals, and 1 kick on 5 opportunities. It was dominating, and credit is owed to Dennis Wideman, Roman Hamrlik, Nick Backstrom, and Troy Brouwer– your shorthanded ice-time leaders.
• Welcome back to active play, Jay Beagle. Given the disappointment around the league over concussions, every guy who gets healthy and back on the ice is a little victory. 5:55 TOI.
• Alex Ovechkin was a bulldozer. A bulldozer that generates a lot of turnovers and odd-man rushes-against.
• Troy Brouwer spazzed out on a wide-open net, missing a crucial power play chance. A few minutes later, he had a shot but chose to defer, passing to Ovechkin instead. Considering that and his 1 point in the previous 8 games, Brouwer’s confidence might have been in question. But then he camped out in front of Martin Biron to tip in Jeff Halpern’s shot.
• Goodness gracious. When he shows up, Alex Semin can play some freaking hockey. That’ is all. Two goals for him and two assists for his brovechkin.
• It’s not all good news. The Capitals still took well over 10 minutes to get into this game.
• And that was the final Caps game ever to be broadcast on Versus. It was packed with fact-free analysis, weird camera angles, and a 3:4 ratio (on Comcast) that made everyone look like Tyrion Lannister. The channel will transmogrify into NBC Sports on January 2nd.
• Mike Knuble Watch:  1 shot, 1 hit, 1 set-up of what would’ve been a goal on another line, 1 start in the offensive zone, 1 super long close-up of him on the bench looking up without any relevant commentary by the Versus team. TOI: 9:25.

And because this game was on Versus, there will be no Joe B suit of the night. Instead, please settle for the Alan May Tweet of the Night:

After a slow start, the Capitals were brilliant tonight. Hopefully this is more than a win. Hopefully this is a precedent for the rest of the season and beyond. They’re now 1 point out of the playoffs.

Have a great night, everybody. Buffaslugs again on Friday!

Based on reports from this morning’s practice, Jay Beagle is back in action. After missing 31 games following a fight with Pittsburgh’s Arron Asham, Beagle is suiting up to play tonight versus the New York Rangers. It’ll be his first game since October 13th, just in time for HBO 24/7 too.

To celebrate Beagle’s return to active duty, here are some printable posters!

The mondo link below will download a PDF, which fits an 8.5″ x 11″ page perfectly. Download the file and print a few billion of these to pass out to everyone you see at Verizon Center. Let Jay know you’re glad he’s healthy and ready to play like the scrappy little pup he is!

DOWNLOAD THE FOUND: BEAGLE SIGN

Photo credit: Mitchell Layton

With two wins in their rear view, the Washington Capitals hoped to end their homestand by beating up the New York Rangers, whom they ousted from the playoffs last Spring. Instead, flubs on friendly ice foiled the Caps.

With John Carlson utterly smoked, Jeff Schultz had to deal with Derek Stepan and Marian Gaborik, who scored. Artem Anisimov potted on the power play to give the Rangers a two-goal lead. Eh, make it 3-0: Marcus Johansson got a little cute on the breakout, turning over the puck so that Ruslan Fedotenko could have an easy layup. Alex Ovechkin massacred someone on the boards leading to a turnover that gave Troy Brouwer a goal scored from inches out. On the power play, John Carlson released a weaponized slap shot to make it 3-2. Michal Neuvirth’s glove was a bit clumsy, and Brian Boyle converted the rebound. On a 2-on-1, Ryan Callahan set up Brad Richards for an easy redirect– 5-2. Alex Ovechkin finally recorded a home-ice goal, beating a small platoon of Rangers to do so. Fedotenko made it 6-3, and we stopped caring. Rags beat Caps 6-3.

• Alex Semin hooked in the neutral zone, earning his 30th penalty minute of the season. This was another one of those “use your legs, not your stick” calls– a lesson that Sasha still refuses to learn…
• …Kind of like the pesky “stop doing that same move” lesson that Ovi stubbornly refutes with regularity. 21 games into the season, Alex Ovechkin finally scored his first goal on home ice using that very same move. It was the Rambo maneuver, wherein he outskated a trio of blueshirts all by himself before darting the puck over Lundqvist’s shoulder. It was the second top-line goal of the night.
• Jeff Schultz is beleaguered with criticism lately, so let’s put this on the record: mostly to blame for Gaborik’s goal is John Carlson, who was caught playing forward with a bouncy puck. JC74′s subsequent slapshot goal made up for the goof, so let’s speak no more of this. Schultz and Carlson both finished with plus-1 ratings. Unlike…
• Dennis Wideman, who was on ice for four goals against. The usual ice-time leader and reliable defender was not himself tonight, and that might have been the root of the problem.
• The first Capitals goal went a little like this: Alex Ovechkin smeared a blueshirt on the wall, John Carlson recovered the puck, Nick Backstrom shot, and Troy Brouwer cleaned up the rebound. With Ovi’s physicality, the playmaking skill of Carlson and Backstrom, and Brouwer working up front– isn’t this exactly how we want that top line playing?
• The Capitals hadn’t scored on a power play in 31 tries, except for a single 5-on-3 situation. Carlson’s bomb ended that drought.
• Without a bugging device in the locker room, we can only assume that Caps management loves Dmitry Orlov. The kid is sticking to the system (aided by Karl Alzner’s reliable play), he’s finishing big checks, and he’s keeping attackers away from the slot. Of the six goals against, Dmitry was responsible for none.
• Both Caps goalies are having trouble this season, but Michal Neuvirth seems the be getting the shorter end of an already short stick. He had very little in the way of goal support, but the real problem was the sub-par defense his team put in front of him. There’s no argument that some (maybe 2?) of these goals were purely his fault, but he also offered a few singularly Neuvy saves– particularly while his team was on power play. Mikey’s bad stats season continues: 27 saves on 33 shots.

Joe B suit of the night

Blame it on bad defense. Blame it on tryptophan (actually it’s the carbs that make you tired, but whatever). Blame it on my new Crash the Net t-shirt (0-1-0) or this game’s early start. No, but really: blame it on defense. AC Bob Woods is probably gonna be offering a 300-level lecture on sack-grabbing during the plane ride to Buffalo tonight.

We’ve got the Sabres tomorrow night. Different Caps time, same Caps channel. Different Caps result, hopefully.

At least Rachel was on TV…

Photo edit: Ian Oland

Doug Johnson is one of the Puck Buddys. You already follow them on Twitter, right?

The Pre Game:  We’re thankful for Puck Buddy Bunny and Dave E filling in for us on the pregamer for the Winnipeg Jets game a few days back. So, too, were RMNB readers, if the comments are to be believed (and really, has the Internet ever lied?) “I retract any critical statements I’ve made of Doug Johnson in the past,” commented one ‘CDizz.’ To which we say: ha ha! We’re betting you will soon be retracting that retraction, Mr. Dizz. We now return you to your regular, disappointing pregames.

It must be said, however that these last few games have been anything but disappointing for Caps fans. Sure, Wednesday’s result was closer than we like (in part due to a genuinely crummy officiating call against Mike Knuble’s third-period goal that made us throw things at the television) and we’re still only talking a ‘streak’ of two games. We always considered, and still do, any talk of streaks in either direction premature. A streak implies consistent success or failure of the team to execute; this past week or so proves that Coach Boudreau’s squad is not consistent, playing like jellyfish one game and superheros the next. Still, Sasha, Nicky, and Chimera were a gravy-boat of goodness against the Jets, as was the team overall, and we have reason to believe that may continue. Or hope. Reason to hope, maybe. To believe. Moving on…

The Puck Drop

We’re combining our two back-to-back game previews into one post, partly because our fingertips are still sore after a run-in with a cheese grater on Thursday, and partly because we’re just lazy, probably. So let’s go with what we know. We know that if we have to be playing two teams from the Empire State, at least we don’t have to travel up to Long Island, which, as previously established, is just ghastly. We know few were expecting much from the Rangers (10-5-3) this year, but they seem to be getting into a groove of late, leading to better performance than we would wish for the Blueshirts. We know the Sabres (12-8-1) are having less good fortune, but seem to have the winds in the sails following Wednesday’s punch-’em-up against the B’s. And we know that Sean Avery is still an awful excuse of a human being. That said, what else do we know?

What Makes Either of Them Hot

Jhonas Enroth

1: Jhonas Brothers. Together these teams have two Swede goaltenders we’re watching closely, but for different reasons. In the crease for the Rangers, again, is herring choker Henrik Lundqvist. What can you say about a guy who’s earned a .935 save percentage, other than that puts him in the top five in the NHL? It seems like this square-head has been playing for decades, and we’re not sure why, other than the irritating fact that he’s just consistently good and so far not nearly as susceptible to the sort of glass-groin injuries we also seem to be seeing more frequently. (Since when did goaltenders become thoroughbreds?) And for the Sabres is smiling meatball Jhonas Enroth (.930 Sv%). He’s a much fresher face (joining the Sabres in 2009-2010) on a much smaller frame: at 5’10″ and 166 pounds, he’s practically Martin St. Louis-sized. We’ve seen champagne splits bigger than this guy. He’s not quite in Lutefisk’s class yet, and did lose the shoot-out on Wednesday. But he’s fast and quick and we think worth keeping an eye on. In fact, they both are.

And yes, we really did just refer to a Swede as a meatball. We’re exactly that smart.

2: He Who Shall Not Be Named. So there’s this prick playing for the Rangers lately. We thought we were rid of him for good this season, perhaps after laying down a couple applications of roach spray. But he’s back. Perhaps he has horcruxes littered around Bryant Park; we don’t know. His numbers (2G 0A 2P in 7 games) still stink, but they really don’t tell the story of the last four or five games. As distasteful as it is, the Caps have to take this pest seriously, and shut him down.

Marian Gaborik (Photo credit: Bridget Samuels)

3: Meh. We’re already late on deadline for this, and finding it hard to shoehorn two teams into one sausage. So let’s just say that both these teams are top-level mid-tier teams – not bottom-dwellers but not exactly league leaders – and both are capable of biting. It really depends more on which Capitals squad shows up: the fleet-footed flashers of Wednesday or the slipper-shuffling surrender monkeys against the Maple Leafs. Oh, and Marian Gaborik (9 goals, 7 assists) is slumping a little bit, but he’s still a sweet slab of Slovak hockey who can get pucks on net, as can the Sabres’ Thomas Vanek, who now has scored his team-high 12th goal and sitting pretty with 25 points.

Thomas Vanek, whose suit boldly mixes patterns.

What Makes Either of them Not

1: Home Away: The Caps aren’t exactly proving to be a team of road warriors so far, but we’re going to get a little help where these next two games are happening. Today’s post-turkey tango at the Phone Booth couldn’t be coming at a better time, with the squad feeling energized (we assume) from Wednesday. We’re also 8-1-1 at home, and we like those figures. Saturday we hit the road, but frankly if we have to play a team in their barn, we would choose the Sabres. With a home record of 5-6-1, they don’t have so much home field advantage as they do handicap.

2: Day-to-Day Grows to Weeks. This isn’t on either New York team, but on us. When Mike Green went down from a bad hit to the leg a few weeks back, we were reassured it was nothing significant and a day-to-day thing. That was weeks ago, and Green is still not back on the ice. He’s not even at practices, which tells us this is much more serious than just day-to-day. Jay Beagle last played on October 13 when he ran into a brick fist called Arron Asham, who is called different things in the PuckBuddys household. Beagle’s concussion has kept him out for six straight weeks. Neither player at this point is expected back in the nearish future. We obviously hope foremost for their recuperation, but know that the entire team is struggling to adapt to their absence.

3: RallyBalloon! Do either of their teams have a mystical red rally balloon? A sentient latex being from beyond come to inspire the Caps to smote our enemies? A Rockin’ Red airborne vessel of all things C-A-P-S? I think not.

The OT Shootout: Several of the last Ranger’s games have been relatively high-scoring affairs (and I still think we have their number) whereas Buffalo has generally been able to keep things within one or two (witness the Caps/Sabres pre-season match-up.) Predictions: Caps 4, Rangers1; Sabres 2, Caps 3. Bet based on these numbers and you deserve to lose your money.

Craig and I are heading to the game Friday. We’re the two goofballs in Caps jerseys. Oh, I crack myself up. But look for us: one with red hair, the other salt-n-pepper, both happy to meet RMNB fans. Even if you hate our previews.

Photo credit: Michael Connor/The Washington Times

Editor’s note: To get you properly revved up for the season, each member of the RMNB crew will take a longing look back at some of our favorite goals from days gone by. You can call it nostalgia or cheap summer content, but it’s really a reminder: WINTER IS COMING.

The date was April 24th, 2009. The Washington Capitals had taken up their old tradition of digging a hole for themselves. The count was three-to-one, and the New York Rangers were looking to wrap this series up on the road.

So here’s the scene: John Tortorella is still dry, Sean Avery is wearing some D&G three-piece instead of his hockey sweater, and the Rags are on the power play. Your boy Boyd Gordon gets the puck behind Varly and sends it around the boards. It takes a weird bounce to get past the blue line– with Matt Bradley in close pursuit…

Brads gets a soft touch to escape Chris Drury and enters the Rangers zone like a man possessed. With just three deft touches and a burst of speed, Bradley confounds Henrik Lundqvist to score one gorgeous shorthanded goal.

Watch with me:

Pretty stuff. Turns out that was Matt Bradley’s first ever postseason goal. And it was a pretty tally too, the kind you’d expect from a “skill” guy, not a grinder like Matt.

But now that I think about it, expectations never seemed to matter much to Matt Bradley. He’s the guy who stepped in on the big fight, the guy who kept the rink maintenance guys well practiced in their bloodborne pathogen procedures, and he’s the guy who saved the team when they really needed it.

The Rangers didn’t really stand a chance after Brads knocked the wind out of them with that shorty, but elegance was never his thing so he followed it up with this crazy sharp angle to make it 2-0:

The game ended 4-0, and the Caps took the series in 7. I didn’t remember who scored the other two goals because I was in some kind of ecstatic blackout state, but J.P. reminds me that it was the Sashas. That was also the infamous water bottle game for John Tortorella, where he and one particularly militant member of the Caps red army lobbed liquid munitions back and forth. Here’s a Zapruder-like video of the incident (my apologies for the Gary Glitter song). Good times.

With Matt Bradley now a member of the Florida Formercaps and his recent comments about Alex Semin’s care index eating up all the pixels, this might seem a bittersweet memory to some people. Not to me. I see that pivotal goal and the criticism in the same way: this is a player doing what no one else could to make his (former) team better. It’s precious and rare and kind of awesome.

Personally, I look towards this season with excitement. Yeah, Brads is gone. But who’s gonna take his place? Who’s gonna fight and bleed and grind and hustle? Who’s got the grit to do what no one else will? Who’s gonna blow everyone’s mind with a well-timed miracle play? And who’s gonna do it with a mile-wide grin like the one Matt has up top?

Let’s find out on October 8th.

Photo credit: Nick Wass

Editor’s note: To get you properly revved up for the season, each member of the RMNB crew will take a longing look back at some of our favorite goals from days gone by. You can call it nostalgia or cheap summer content, but it’s really a reminder: WINTER IS COMING.

I’m the young one, so allow me to use recent history.

It was April of 2009. With the Capitals making the playoffs for the second year in a row, I decided to give this hockey thing a shot. Up until then, baseball had always been my sport.

After enjoying a couple games on TV, I got tickets to Game 2 of Eastern Conference Quarterfinals against the Rangers. 60 minutes of play later, I was hooked. Really hooked. The Caps were shut out 1-0, but the excitement, the speed, the gritty beauty of game had me. So I got tickets again. This time: Game 7, 7PM April 28.

New York opened the scoring five minutes into the game. I don’t remember who scored, but I do know how to google. It was Nik Atropov. Nearly 10 minutes later, Alex Semin knotted the game at one when his wrist shot deflected off the defenseman’s stick. The score would remain that way for another 39 minutes and 27 seconds.

Then someone decided to break the stalemate. It wasn’t Alex Ovechkin or Nicklas Backstrom –stars that even an idiot like me knew all about back then — but a 39-year-old Russian playing out the final games of his storied NHL career.

Sergei Fedorov.

The roar of sheer joy that encompassed Verizon Center was unlike anything I had experienced before. It never let up.

It was heaven. It was hockey.

Hockey returns to DC in 22 days!

Mike Green: picking the right time to play the best hockey of his life.

Shut the book on the quarterfinal series between the New York Rangers and Washington Capitals. In just five (not that short) games, the Caps sent the Rangers to an early vacation and a hot shave. This is the first Caps playoff series since the lockout (and the first of Bruce Boudreau’s career) that has not gone to a full seven games.

For the first time in the series, a goal was scored in the first period. While on the powerplay, Mike Green caught his own rebound and used Dan Girardi as a backboard for the game’s first score. Scott Hannan stretched a pass to Alex Ovechkin in the second, who then beat Henrik Lundqvist on the backhand. Alex Semin’s one-timer off Marcus Johansson made the score 3-0, which should have been the final. But then this happened:

About a minute later, Wojtek Wolski finally got one past Michal Neuvirth. Oh well. Caps beat Rangers 3-1. Series score: 4-1. The Capitals advance to the next round, but first comes a few days of well deserved rest.

• Michal Neuvirth was scant seconds away from his second shutout of the series before Wolksi got one through. For a player unknown to many before this year and mocked by another coach on pay-cable earlier this season, Neuvirth acquitted himself exceptionally well in five games. If there’s one goalie in the NHL who has distinguished himself in the postseason, it’s the babyface wearing red in the Washington net.
• The New York Rangers are a good hockey team. They were able to lick the Capitals righteously two times during the regular season. But the playoffs are a crucible whereby teams’ resolves are tested, and the Rags proved not to be made of sterner stuff after all. They mounted little offense, were flatly out-coached, and resorted to cheap thuggery when frustrated. But…
• Henrik Lundqvist is a mensch. The King was a giant presence in the New York net: poised and precise. Beating him in five games is a feather in the Capitals’ cap, but that doesn’t belittle Lundqvist’s talent or effort.
• Verizon Center fans are loud. Maybe it’s time to come up with some more creative cheers though. Share your ideas below. Here’s mine: N-A-S-T-Y! He ain’t got no alibi!
• Mike Green caught a tasty puck in or around the ear-cular region and did not play another shift. For a fellow who had a point in every game of the series but has been recovering from a concussion, this is a troubling setback. Green did return to the bench, and Bruce Boudreau insists that he could have played him, so we’re encouraged. At least Mike will have a long time to recover before next game.

• Once again revisiting the curious axiom, the Capitals’ best players were their best players today. Mike Green, Alex Semin, and Alex Ovechkin executed MISSION: SCOAR MOAR GOALS with aplomb. How scary is this team when they play up to par? Lord Stanley scary.
• Meanwhile, Nick Backstrom is still scoreless since March 6th, going at least 22 scoring chances without converting. Snakebit doesn’t do this drought justice, it’s more like BasiliskfromHarryPotterandtheChamberofSecrets-bit.
• Who went 80% (12 of 15) on the faceoff dot AND leads the team in facial hair? Bookish Boyd Gordon, who really shoulda combined with Matt Bradley for a goal or ten today.
• Two goals (the Caps’ and Rangers’ first) were followed by some Rags-initiated brawling. According to Darren “Danger” Dreger, Dan Girardi dislocated his finger when he punched Brooks Laich in the first of those scrums. Instant karma’s gonna get ya.

Joe B's suit of the night

The Capitals won this short series because they played their brand of hockey: getting pucks deep in the offensive zone, cycling until the defense got nauseated, crashing the net, and generally being bad asses in their own zone. On the other hand, the Rangers had neither their signature toughness behind the goal line or any offensive threat tonight, and that might have made all the difference. Those extended shifts in the OZ early on set a tone of this game that never quit. A triumphant and exuberant win for a team that badly needed an early victory in the first round.

And that’s the story of the quarterfinals. We don’t know yet who our second round opponent will be, but we know we’ll have a rested and focused team ready to face them. We may yet see the return of Mike Knuble (hand) or Dennis Wideman (leg) or Tom Poti (jkjkjktotallynotcomingback). But first: downtime. Let’s put to rest the Madison Square Garden drama, the Sean Avery ad hominem attacks, the hay-making hack pieces about Boudreau’s job security or the Alexes’ playoff production.

Four down. On to the next round.

Additional reporting by Ian Oland and we totally ripped off some of Neil’s tweets, too.

Take note, rest of the league. Don’t make Caps fans angry.

Thursday night, I turned to ESPN2, and watched PTI while I ate dinner. It almost resulted in me spitting out my cheesesteak. Former Washington Post columnists Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon led the show off with hockey and expressed their opinions on the result of Game Four between Washington and the Rangers. Because I heard the words “championship” and “Capitals” uttered in the same sentence, I felt compelled to share. The transcript is below.

Tony Kornheiser – I’m going to say something I don’t say very often. Let’s begin with hockey. The Washington Capitals came back from a 3-0 deficit on the road last night, scoring three goals in the third period to tie, and getting a fluke goal to beat the Rangers in the second overtime period. This silenced Rangers fans who had lustily serenaded Bruce Boudreau with taunts of, “Can you hear us?”

Michael Wilbon – Lovely.

TK – Can you hear this?

MW – I heard it last night.

TK – Wilbon, let’s start with the game-winner. If you are Rangers goalie Henrik Lundqvist, how are you feeling right now, big boy?

MW – Well, I wouldn’t say it, and I wouldn’t even tweet it. But I might be a little bit disappointed in my defense. After stopping 49? I mean come on now. I’ve done everything in this game.

TK – And just watching the puck just roll out there. Clear the puck.

MW – I’d be upset with that. What have I done here but play great? This to me, Tony, was a championship signature performance. If the Capitals win [the Stanley cup] – and a lot of people think they can win even though Vancouver’s said to be a better team by some – you’re going to look back on this game when the Rangers could have evened this series and say, “That’s it! That’s the point when the Capitals established who they are.”

TK – But because we have watched the Capitals for years and we’ve watched them – not once, not twice, but four times – blow 3-1 leads, they’ve got to back this up by winning Game Five at home. They’ve got to do that.

I thought the big part of the game -and the reason I thought the Rangers would win- is Ovechkin’s all alone in the first overtime with a breakaway. He’s got it on his stick. He doesn’t get it. That’s like popping out with the bases loaded. I thought it was going to turn for the Rangers at that point.

MW – First of all Tony, I turned away and I stopped paying attention. Three nothing. And you’ve mentioned the Capitals’ futility in the playoffs. That’s one of those games you go, “Oh my god, the Rangers are now even, the pressure’s back on the Capitals.” They came through. They delivered.

TK – Let’s say something here. This is a big gag by the Rangers. 3-0 at home. One period to go. And you don’t close it out? That is called a big gag.

MW – After Boudreau called out their building and their people?

TK – Big gag.