(Courtesy of LasVegasLasVegas.com)
On Wednesday, the NHL will honor it’s best at the annual award show at the Palms Resort in Las Vegas, Nevada. Yours truly will be on hand for FRWG’s first big league event and will hopefully be able to land a few minutes with the athletes that matter most to you.
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A relatively busy day in the realm of Russian hockey this Monday afternoon when it comes to defensemen as newsworthy headlines have appeared throughout today’s blogosphere. The biggest is of former NHL player Darius Kasparaitis retiring from his KHL club SKA St. Petersburg in order to become an assistant coach with the team he spent his last playing days with.
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It appears head coach of the Washington Capitals, Bruce Boudreau, is considering a goalie switch for game 3 against the Montreal Canadians.
After Jose Theodore let in goals on Montreal’s first two shots he was pulled in favor of Semyon Varlamov just 7:58 into game 2.
While Varlamov gave up 3 goals on the 22 shots he faced he remained in the game to see the Capitals rally and win in OT. Just like last year
Theodore was benched and the Capitals would ride Varlamov to game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Lifetime Theodore is 0-1-1 with a 7.42 goals against average and .803 save percentage (12 goals on 61 shots). Varlamov, meantime, has won his only two games at Bell Centre and has a 1.94 goals against average and .930 save percentage. (source Capitals Insider)
The Caps should tap on Varly to come up big in game three. He’s proved he can handle the pressure of the playoffs before and now he has more experience in the NHL than last spring. This could also be used as a wake up call for Theodore who could step his game up in practice. Ultimately it will be Boudreau’s choice but something tells me the young Russian gets the start tomorrow in Montreal.
(Courtesy of Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)
On Thursday night, Washington Capitals captain Alexander Ovechkin earned his 500th career point in grand fashion against the New York Rangers.
With his team down 5-3 in the dying moments of the second period the winger raced up the left side of the ice and simply undressed defenseman Michal Rozsival by slipping the puck between his legs recovering it and then beating Henrik Lundqvist with a one-handed, left-handed shot.
Ovie becomes the fastest player since Eric Lindros to reach the 500 point plateau doing so in just 373 games and just the ninth to do so in his first five seasons. The goal would give the momentum back to the Caps who would eventually re-take the lead and secure their 12th straight victory.
With two goals and an assist Ovechkin now leads the NHL in goals (38), points (80), and plus/minus (37). Since being named captain the Capitals have gone 15-1-0 and have scored four or more goals in every game but two. Their 12-game winning streak sets the new Washington Capitals franchise record.
(Courtesy G Fiume/Getty Images)
The month of January has been very good to the Washington Capitals who are on the verge of breaking a franchise record for consecutive wins that has stood for 26 years. Fittingly Alexander Ovechkin, who was named captain on January 5th, had his best month of the year notching 9 goals, 26 points for a plus-16.
With Ovechkin’s new captaincy, Washington has surged to the top of the Eastern Conference with 80 points while making their Southeast lead a joke leading the Florida Panthers by 23 points.
While all the attention as usual was focused on Ovie, Washington’s other Alex(Semin) had himself a big month finding the net 11 times for 23 points in the month’s 15 games. Semin finished the month on a nine-game point-scoring streak earning himself honorable mention from the league.
The timing couldn’t be any better for Russia’s top forwards with the first game against Latvia just 15 days away.
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Without making a separate post for a lone highlight we decided to include Evgeni Malkin’s shootout goal from yesterday’s 2-1 win over the Detroit Red Wings just to get you excited for the Olympics a bit more. Jimmy Howard as you can tell was not amused.
(Courtesy of Greg Fiume/Getty Images)
On Friday night Alexander Ovechkin recorded five points against the Toronto Maple Leafs to lead the Washington Capitals to a 6-1 victory. Captain Ovechkin would need just 49 seconds to get started beating Vesa Toskala glove side for his 29th goal of the season.
Ovechkin would add an assist on the next four goals for a career-high. All four would be primary assists as the Capitals most exciting player could not be stopped. Ovechkin now has a point in each of the Caps’ last five games and jumped into second place behind Henrik Sedin for tops in the NHL with 62.
Below is the goal couresty as always of the NHL and NHL.com
(Courtesy of Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post )
Prior to Tuesday night’s game against the Montreal Canadiens, the Washington Capitals announced Alexander Ovechkin would be the team’s newest captain after the departure of Chris Clark to Columbus.
Ovechkin becomes the team’s 14th captain and the first European-born one and will most likely remain captain until his contract expires in 2020-21. He becomes the third-youngest captain at 24 in the NHL behind Jason Toews, 21 and Sidney Crosby,22.
Ovechkin becomes the seventh Russian-born player to captain an NHL team joining the likes of Alexei Yashin (Ottawa & Islanders), Alexei Kovalev (Montreal), Pavel Bure (Florida), Alexander Mogilny (Buffalo), Alexei Zhamnov (Chicago), and Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta).
Kovalchuk and Ovechkin are the only two active captains and both will be essential to Team Russia next month in Vancouver. Ovechkin was voted unanimously by his teammates and was greeted to applause when it was revealed.
Ovie was originally offered the captain’s ‘C’ three years ago but declined due to a poor grasp on the English language. Now three years later the face of the Capitals franchise is the voice of reason on and off the ice.
Below are videos of Ovechkin putting on the jersey for the first time followed by his post-game interview on the captaincy courtesy of the NHL and NHL.com.
Further below you will find a video to a famous Russian song that translates to captain, captain smile! which could not be more appropriate for the newest Capitals captain who has hockey’s most recognizable smile.
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On Saturday night after defeating the New Jersey Devils, Alexander Semin signed a one-year extension with the Washington Capitals for $6 million.
The 25-year-old Krasnoyarsk native already ranks 26th in team history with 248 points. “I am extremely happy to sign here,” he said through an interpreter. “I like this team; I like everything here. It’s native to me here now.”
Semin, who was named to the Russian Olympic team on Friday has 14 goals and 18 assists on the season.
(Courtesy of Richard Wolowicz/Getty Images)
On a night when Alexander Ovechkin returned to the Washington Capitals line-up following his first career suspension, keeper Semyon Varlamov posted his second shutout of the season against the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Varly stopped all 26 shots to improve his record to 12-1-2 as the 21-year-old Samara native propelled the Caps over their division rivals for the 12th consecutive time. If he hopes of cracking the Russian Olympic squad in February, Varlamov has some ground to make up to catch Evgeni Nabokov and Ilya Bryzgalov who have 16 and 17 wins respectively.
Congrats to Varly for his first COTN nod this year. Here are his two best saves of the night courtesy as always of the NHL and NHL.com
(Courtesy of Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
Tuesday night marked the return of Alexander Ovechkin who spent the last two weeks nursing an upper body injury. His return came at the scene where the Washington Capitals had great success in last years playoffs against the New York Rangers in Madison Square Garden. Ovechkin wasted no time familiarizing himself with the score sheet and tallied his 15th goal of the year.
His return gave the Caps an offensive boost which was used for the 4-2 win. He didn’t do too much but we sure are glad he’s back. Congratulations to Ovie for his COTN nomination. Below is his goal courtesy as always by the NHL and NHL.com
