GAMEDAY PREVIEW: Buffalo @ Capitals

After other nights loss to New Jersey things may be starting to look up.  the team played well killed penalties and even put a few on the baord themselves and actually showed some heart...
i hope that was a sign of the rush starting to go away and some real focus returning to the team..
on to today.

today the Buffalo Sabers who have been having a decent start will come into town to face Micheal Nuevrth and the Washington capitals. today is the real litmus test. its time to win in your own barn boys. hope everyone in attendance today will be loud for our boys in red.

GAMEDAY: Capitals @Devils...

well here we go again. last night was ugly. we finally witnessed the divorce of Carlzner and we saw some pretty bad hockey....been par for the course so far this season.
tonight we head into the armpit of america to face the stanley cup runner up New jersey Devils...
oh and look whos still in net for them...that old go Marty brodeur..
what to expect from the caps tonight..I have no clue.
im just hoping not last night.
in better news though last night joey Crabb!!!! got his first goal of the season.
I suspect Nuevirth will get the start between the pipes again tonight and dont expect any post divorce relapsing of carlson and alzner..
COME ON GUYS WE NEED THIS ONE!
game time is at 7:00

GAME DAY. game 3 Montreal....du wha????

PREGAME READING: HABS@CAPS 1/24/13

Tonight the capitals look to rebound from a 2 game losing skid against the Montreal Canadians…this is a team that is a big question mark of what the y can do and how they can do it.

The capitals look tonight for their first win of the season and hopefully are able to shake some of the cobwebs and rust out from the extended lockout.(thank you owners…..)

Game time will be at 7 tonight with Nuevirth starting in net for the boys in red. And most likely Carey price for the out of town chums.

Get down to VC and get loud. This is our team don’t let them down!

Pregame reading-Winnipeg @Washington

Here we go. Tonight is the home opener for the Washington capitals.

The caps hope to turn things around after a sluggish finish in Tampa on Saturday night.

Tonight's goaltending matchup will be Andre Pavlec in his third straight start for the jets and at the other end Braden Holtby for the capitals.

Also to note tonight's healthy scratches are Erskine, Shultz, and Fehr with call up Thomas kundatrek getting the jersey from Hershey

OVIE KILLS THE PENALTY?!

Ovie on the PK is ok!

I’m going out on a limb right here, right now in saying that Ovechkin could afford some time on the PK. Yes it’s going to take some time for him to learn the finer details of playing defense a man down. But I feel it’s better for him in the long run.

The one complaint we have all had about Ovie is probably his lack of defensive ability or inability to be responsible in his own end. I feel by putting him on the Penalty kill even if for the last 30 seconds will teach him this. He has already said he learned a lot about defensive play under dale hunter. Giving him a situation where he can possibly turn a game around at the end of a pk is where we want him.

How many times have we seen Ovie create a play at the blue line to put one in the back of the net? I believe doing this will help create more assists for him coming off the PK and in general make him an all-around better player. I can honestly see him becoming more of a forward playing Brooks Orpik if all goes well. He’s got a lot of size and ability I think it’s time we look at more than one use for this big gun.

Caps to scrimmage Reading Royals

This morning the Washington Capitals will have a warm up friendly match with ECHL affilate Reading as part of this weeks shortened training camp. The scrimmage is set for 10:30 am at Kettler iceplex in Balston. Follow @vogscaps or other caps twitter feeds if you are unable to make the game.
HERE WE GO!

some caps365 pregrame  video pregame video from CAPS365

the schedule is up

Thoughts on this shortened season schedule.

Looking at the schedule here’s what I think the season should look like

January should be a good month for 7 games to break out of the gate. The toughest matchup is probably New Jersey. I feel it should be easy for the caps to come out of January 4-2 or 6-1

February things start to ramp up starting the month off with Philly and then Pittsburgh on super bowl Sunday. 6-6 I feel will be respectable but would rather see something like 8-4

March seems to be the toughest month for caps hockey. With key matchups against Rangers, Canes Bruins and flyers and then there’s those pesky march matchups with buffalo that tend to give us issues…I’m going to predict an optimistic 10-6

And that brings us to April, The final month of the regular season. Trade deadline is April 3^rd but I don’t see there being much trade deadline action this year I think too many teams will still be in the hunt for playoff spots. Out of 13 games I feel the caps can come away with at least 5-6 and will make the playoffs. I would hope as second or third seed but I’ll take another 7^th seed finish again this year. All that really matters are we make it to the dance. Then it’s anyone’s game.

If you would like to take a look for your self the schedule can be found at Washington Capitals Schedule 2013

Fly into the danger zone...

First order of business for the Capitals apparently to sign another scoring winger. So they brought back MR F-16. That's right Eric Fehr will be rejoining the caps this season under a 600k 1yr contract.
Welcome back F-16.

And we wait..

The other day the NHL board of governors voted unanimously to ratify the new CBA. Now it's the players turn. The vote started Thursday night and was set to end Saturday morning at 8am. It's now almost 10 and were still waiting.

another note

The other thing that the lockout brings is finally the debut of our new head coach ADAM OATES. cant wait to see if he will take the cuffs off of Ovi. like i think he will.!!

NEW CBA!!!!!!!

Here are some of the key details that are in the new CBA. it honestly looks alot like the Dec 6 NHLPA proposal but that is splitting hairs at this point.

• 10-year agreement (either side can opt out after eight years).

• 50-50 split in revenues.

• $70.2 million prorated salary cap this season; $64.3 million ceiling in 2013-14 with $44 million floor.

• Maximum contract lengths of seven years (eight years for teams re-signing own players).

• Year-to-year variance of salaries is a maximum 35 percent; the lowest season cannot be less than 50 percent of the highest.

• $200 million in revenue sharing.

• Defined player pension plan with owners accepting liability.

• Two compliance buyouts per team for 2013-14 that wouldn't count vs. the salary cap.

• Minimum salary starts at $525,000, increases to $750,000 by Year 9.

• Suspensions longer than six games go to a third party for appeal.

• All 14 non-playoff teams will have a shot at the No. 1 overall draft pick.

• Olympics and realignment will be agreed upon at a later date between the NHL and NHLPA.

To be honest I am still stoked as hell that the NHL is back. Part of me also wont believe it till i hear the first goal horn of the season

look actual hockey talk!!!

in case you were wondering here are the players who are still left as RFA since the lockout started.

Player	Pos	Team	Age	Cap Hit	Expiry
Kulikov, Dmitry »	D	FLA	22	$1,325,000	2012 (RFA)
Petrecki, Nick »	D	SAN	23	$1,125,000	2012 (RFA)
Del Zotto, Michael »	D	NYR	22	$1,087,500	2012 (RFA)
O'Reilly, Ryan »	C	COL	21	$900,000	2012 (RFA)
Subban, P.K. »	D	MTL	23	$875,000	2012 (RFA)
Benn, Jamie »	C	DAL	23	$821,667	2012 (RFA)
Palmieri, Nick »	R	MIN	23	$801,667	2012 (RFA)
Franson, Cody »	D	TOR	25	$800,000	2012 (RFA)
MacLean, Brett »	L	PHO	24	$735,000	2012 (RFA)
Sheppard, James »	C	SAN	24	$725,000	2012 (RFA)

HOCKEY IS BACK!!!

Been waiting all year for this post. Well ladies and gentleman we are going to have a season!!!. last night after a marathon session the NHL and NHLPA both reaches a tentative agreement to get the season started. Expecting #Caps and other #NHL training camps to begin before next weekend. Not sure yet 48 or 50 game season.  

Happy new year

Well lemme get it out of the way now merry Christmas and happy new year everyone

With that done lets talk puck:

CBA:

At this point I believe there will be a season there has finally been real move my from both sides. There are some optimists close to the dealings who are saying a deal can come as early as today
From what I've seen I'm saying the weekend but I can see the point here's to hoping for the best

World juniors/
What a tournament. The caps are lucky in this one we've been able to watch caps prospect Riley barber really just improve through this tourney. This is a guy who will be able to score goals. Great hands great positioning can't wait to see him. GO UsA


Well that's all I got for now keep your stick on the ice