Posts Tagged ‘Stanley Cup’

Washington Capitals and Alexander Ovechkin need more veterans to compete for Stanley Cup

May 6, 2011

For the fourth time in four years, the Washington Capitals did not live up to their seeding in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Alexander Ovechkin had 10 points in nine games, but he has been hampered by an injury all year.  The Caps’ best players are all forwards: Ovie, Nicklas Backstrom, and Alexander Semin.  But one of the problems with the Caps is that they are too young.  They need players who know how to win.  A look at the Stanley Cup champions from each of the past 10 seasons shows that all of those teams have multiple players over 30 who are either stars or major contributors.

The Caps have Mike Knuble, 38, and Jason Arnott, 36, but both have been banged up and Arnott only arrived in late February at the trade deadline.  It’s time for the Caps to make some changes and trade Semin or defenseman Mike Green for some veterans.  Owner Ted Leonsis’ extreme youth movement has led to good regular seasons, but the Caps have come up short in the postseason.  To read my article on Examiner.com, click here.

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Ovie leads Caps to 2-1 OT win over Islanders with game-winner

March 3, 2011

Alexander Ovechkin scored with 3:05 left in overtime to lead the Caps over the New York Islanders 2-1 Tuesday in D.C.  It was a spectacular end to end goal.  Brooks Laich tied the game up with less than a minute to go in regulation.

A couple of observations – the Caps narrowly avoided their 10th shutout of the year.  Last season they only had one.  Do teams that win the Stanley Cup get shut out 10 or more times in a year?  I don’t think so.

Second, Ovie only has 25 goals.  He had 50 last year.  This is like Michael Jordan scoring 28 a game one year and then 18 the next – a huge drop off.

Finally, the Caps got bood against the Isles.  A good sign as the fans are not just accepting being pretty good.

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

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Shocker: Montreal Canadiens upset Washington Capitals 2-1 in Game 7 as Halak makes 41 saves

April 30, 2010

The Montreal Canadiens stunned the top-seeded Washington Capitals 2-1 in Game 7 of their first round Eastern Conference playoff series Wednesday night at Verizon Center.

The Canadiens came back from a 3 games to 1 deficit and dashed the Caps’ Stanley Cup hopes after Washington’s most successful regular season ever.

Click here to see the rest of my article on examiner.com.

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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.

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