SovetskySport's Dmitry Chesnokov passed along an audio file of an interview he conducted this week with Capitals' Head Coach Bruce Boudreau. It was an illuminating exchange, with much of it focused on Alexander Semin's development as an NHLer. Chesnokov asked the coach to assign a numerical rating, ...

One of the many story lines coming out of Sunday's victory over the Penguins was the fiery rivalry between Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby. For the first time the rivalry between the two became physical. Along with their rivalry Bruce Boudreau also discussed the Caps's rivalries with the two Pe...

If the Capitals play focused and disciplined and hard during their three home games this week against three beleagured opponents they will have a terrific opportunity to make up some serious ground on first-in-the-East Boston. Montreal, Colorado, and Pittsburgh -- all once-proud teams that have bee...

With last week's unseasonable warmth behind us and Winter returning to the District, let's check in with Patrick Loewen, the Capitals supporter who may very well stake the claim to northernmost latitude (50° 46' 60 N) in the Caps' fanbase . . . though any living farther north are encouraged to comm...

It was terrifically interesting for me to learn of the latest outrage associated with Verizon Center's ice this past weekend, as Hershey's Giant Center, where I was watching hockey, hosted some manner of wrestling event there most of Saturday, and the changeover to hockey wasn't completed until 3 ho...

Partly because the rest of the Washington sporting landscape is so bleak from a competitive standpoint, our favorite question is being asked these days in conspicuous volume: just how far along has Washington come in its appreciation for hockey -- is Washington in fact becoming a hockey to...

Some OFB readers -- a small but still spirited minority -- expressed two positions in comments last week that struck me as odd. The first was that by virtue of last Tuesday's overtime defeat in Boston, which followed another late-game undoing in Ottawa immediately before the All-Star break, which wa...

There. I said it. I know that’s an unpopular opinion in some places, where it seems it’s better to say nothing at all than actually compliment the National Hockey League, but what the hell. I have gotten really, really tired of the hyper-serious criticism of the All-Star game. It’s...

For those of you who consume All-Star weekend as the league would have you (uncritically, with all the vapid non-demands of substance characteristic of reality television viewers), remind me why my ignoring it in its entirety is a shortcoming? What is it exactly I'm missing? I'm not opposed to games...

So what to do about the NHL All-Star Game, which started as a nice idea (as a fund-raiser for the injured Ace Bailey in February, 1934) and once upon a time, actually bore a reasonable facsimile to the way the game of hockey is played: With passion, intensity and in a hard-edged physical manner. Now...