Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh Penguins’

Caps-Penguins Winter Classic Preview

January 1, 2011

The Winter Classic outdoor hockey game between Alex Ovechkin’s Washington Capitals and Sidney Crosby’s Pittsburgh Penguins has been postponed from 1 p.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday because of rain.

More than 60,000 fans are expected to attend the NHL’s fourth annual Winter Classic at Heinz Field. Rain is expected to taper off in Pittsburgh during the early part of the game, which will be telecast nationally on NBC. Temperatures at game time are expected to be in the low 40s.

The Penguins have the best record in the NHL, while the Caps have won four of five games after an uncharacteristic eight-game losing streak.  Despite the losing streak, the Caps are still tied for first place in the Southeast Division with 48 points.

Ovechkin has two MVP trophies to one for Crosby, but Sid the Kid won a Stanley Cup championship in 2009 and an Olympic goal medal while playing for Canada last February.

Washington won the President’s Trophy for the best record in the league last season, which was highlighted by a 14-game winning streak.  However, the Caps’ season came to a crashing halt with a shocking upset in the first round of the playoffs to eighth-seeded Montreal.

To read the rest of my article on Examiner.com, click here.

Advertisement

Best 50 Players in Washington Capitals History

May 13, 2009

With Game 7 of the Washington Capitals – Pittsburgh Penguins NHL playoff series just a few hours away, I thought it would be a good time to make a list of the 50 greatest Washington Capitals of all-time.  Of course, this is my personal opinion, and it’s very subjective.  I’m sure there are a lot of Caps fans and hockey fans who know better than I do.  There aren’t a lot of current Caps on the list because so many of them are young and have only played a few years with the team.  There are great players like Sergei Fedorov who aren’t on they list because he only played two seasons for the Caps. 

Anyway, let’s remember that the Caps have had a lot of great players over the years.  Even though the Caps have generally underachieved in the playoffs, they did make the conference finals in 1990 and the Stanley Cup finals in 1998.  From 1983 to 1996 they only missed the playoffs once.  So this is the eighth time the Caps have made it to at least the second round of the playoffs.

  1. Alexander Ovechkin, F                       
  2. Rod Langway, D*+                       
  3. Peter Bondra, F                       
  4. Dale Hunter, F+
  5. Mike Gartner, F*+                       
  6. Scott Stevens, D
  7. Calle Johannson, D            
  8. Kevin Hatcher, D
  9. Olaf Kolzig, G
  10. Yvon Labre, D+
  11. Bengt Gustafsson, F                       
  12. Michal Pivonka, D
  13. Gaetan Duchesne, F
  14. Guy Charron, F                       
  15. Kelly Miller, F
  16. Mike Ridley, F
  17. Sergei Gonchar, D
  18. Ryan Walter, F
  19. Don Beaupre, G
  20. Dennis Maruk, F
  21. Dino Ciccarelli, F
  22. Sylvain Cote, D
  23. Doug Jarvis, F                       
  24. Adam Oates, F                       
  25. Craig Laughlin, F
  26. Al Jensen, G                                               
  27. Jaromir Jagr, F                       
  28. Al Iafrate, D
  29. Bob Carpenter, F
  30. Pete Peeters, G
  31. Jeff Halpern, F
  32. Larry Murphy, D
  33. Brendan Witt, D
  34. Pat Riggin, G                                               
  35. Dave Christian, F                       
  36. John Druce, F
  37. Chris Simon, F
  38. Mike Green, D                       
  39. Richard Zednik, F
  40. Alexander Semin, F
  41. Jim Carey, G
  42. Robert Picard, D
  43. Steve Konowalchuk, F
  44. Bobby Gould, F
  45. Andrei Nikolishin, F
  46. Alan Haworth, F
  47. Dmitri Khristich, F
  48. Joe Juneau, F
  49. Dainius Zubrus, F
  50. Clint Malarchuk, G     

*NHL Hall of Famer

+Caps Jersey Retired

Bold indicates currently with team.