Help Wanted: One (or Two) Ornery SOBs for the Caps' Lineup

More good news on the Capitals' prospects front: Senior defenseman Joe Finley, last season's WCHA plus-minus leader anda number-one draft choice of the Washington Capitals, saw his firstaction since he suffered a concussion in UND's second game of theseason Oct. 11 at Massachusetts. Here's a ...

Get thee to Verizon Center early tonight to get your Ovechkin bobble head!For those of you watching on TV, you can always print out this post and yell at the others in the comments. Consider this an Open Thread, as requested, to share your joy or vent your frustration during tonight's proceedings.

Enrico and I will be heading down to the Wachovia Center for the double header today, first the Flyers at 1, then the Sixers later tonight, where we will be joined by Kulp, Meech, and Clare. If anyone's around for the games, feel free to say hello. I think we'll be at Chickie's and Pete's in ...

In Saturday's SovetskySport, an obviously frustrated Alexander Semin informs Dmitry Chesnokov of his latest injury -- incurred non-accidentally at the stick of St. Louis' David Backes Thursday night: "I have already been to the doctor. I think that maybe my nerve washit. And now it is squeezed. I can hardly walk. I have no clue howmany games I am going to miss. I felt bad this morning...

document.write(''); The Washington Capitals' Donald Brashear gives the Philadelphia Flyers' Riley Cote the gift that keeps on giving... at least until they remove the stitches:

Our buddy Jason from 3rd String Safety left us this comment last night regarding the Islanders-Capitals game...Excuse this comment for being totally irrelevant to the post but I went to a hockey game for the first time in a while tonight and I had several observations.- The Nassau Colosseum is a dump. A total dump. Sitting in my row I felt like a prisoner, I couldn't lift my hands...

AO Nets 20th, The Iron Curtain Gets 2nd Win, Semin's Back Hurts: Caps 4 / Blues 2

Washington travels to Philadelphia for their first meeting since last season's playoff series. Per the game preview at washingtoncaps.com, the "Caps won both of their visits to Philly last season and have won four straight regular season visits to the City of Brotherly Love, outscoring the Flyers 18-12 in the process".

A few things are clear about these Washington Capitals ? they are gutsy, they are deep in depth in the minors, and they know how to endure.  All of it combined have led the Capitals to a 19-10-2 record, third best in the Eastern Conference, only 5 points out from the overall most points

Varlamov, making his second career NHL start, was again dazzling.  If Bruce Boudreau truly wanted to see if his stellar performance last week against Montreal was a fluke (which we know better), he got his answer last night.  Varlamov stopped 29 of 31 shots to earn his second consecutive win in just his second NHL game.

One thing you don't expect come this time of year in the NHL playoffs, when there are only 8 teams left, is that one team is going to be substantially better than another. Series in this round are tight and goals, hard to come by, are earned with grinding work and extraordinary skill. This has not been the case in the Avalanche-Red Wing series. The Red Wings are remarkably...

Yahoo's Puck Daddy has posted another translated Russian interview, this time with Evgeni Malkin. While not as explosive as the interview with Alexander Semin, there's still some interesting stuff here.The line that everyone is paying attention to is:Sidney Crosby is following right behind you. ...

A preliminary look at the Rangers. Wondering whats going on with Michael Nylander? Is Shanahan retiring? Or is he going back to the Red Wings? Other player news as well.

The Ducks lost again Thursday night. They were shutout 1-0 in Denver by Jose Theodore and the Colorado Avalanche. That's two straight shutout losses for the Ducks. They wasted a pretty good effort by backup goalie Jonas Hiller. Corey Perry got hurt late in the game during a collision in front of...

The Caps won a hard fought game in Nashville against the Predators to get a rare win against a Western conference team.  The first period between these teams erupted with two fights. The first one ended with watching Donald Brashear crumple to the ice after getting decked by Wade Belak.  Brashear is one of the top fighters in the NHL and I've never seen him go down by like before...