Washington Capitals

Fleischman’s Status and Other Caps Notes By Scott Lowe You can put an end to the Tomas Fleischmann trade rumors, at least according to Washington Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau. The offensively gifted young winger, who may find himself shifted to center and battling for a spot as the second-line pivot, has been rumored to be on the trading block since a sub-par playoff performance against Montreal that ended up with an unceremonious Game 7 benching. Yesterday, in a short story published on SportingNews.com, Boudreau put an end to the trade speculation, stating that he expects Fleischmann to have a “breakout year.” Boudreau thinks Fleischmann will improve upon last year’s 23 goa...

Washington Capitals Free Agent Analysis at a Glance By Scott Lowe Caps’ UFAs – Eric Belanger, Scott Walker, Joe Corvo, Milan Jurcina, Brendan Morrison, Shaone Morrisonn, Quintin Laing, Jose Theodore Caps’ RFAs – Eric Fehr, Boyd Gordon, Tomas Fleischmann, Jeff Schultz Caps’/Hershey RFAs – Jay Beagle, Chris Borque, Andrew Gordon, Alexandre Giroux All RFAs have been extended qualifying offers. Looking for a Shot: Giroux, Matthieu Perreault, Keith Aucoin, Boyd Kane, Marcus Johansson, Michael Neuvirth, Beagle, Borque, A. Gordon On the Block?: Tomas Fleischmann, Alexander Semin Needs: Second-line center, mobile/stay-at-home defenseman, big/physical forward, enfo...

Often in difficult, stressful times in which things don’t go exactly the way we had hoped or planned, many of us let our emotions get the best of us. For hockey players this may manifest itself in the form of a stupid penalty, a player breaking his stick intentionally in frustration (sorry Sid), a fight or a poorly thought-out, off-the-cuff remark during a postgame press conference that makes the player or coach look like a whiner or poor sport (or both). For hockey fans, the emotional or knee-jerk response usually results in whining about the officials (consider me guilty), belief in wild conspiracy theories (no longer guilty thanks to weeks of listening to others do this and seeing se...

By Scott Lowe Tonight's Eastern Conference quarterfinal Game 7 between Washington and Montreal doesn't come down to anything more than playing harder and smarter than the other team. Goaltending obviously can have a huge impact, too, but the reality is that hard work and intelligent play can even defeat hot goaltending - but there has to be a commitment to playing the right style of hockey from all 20 players who are in the lineup. Yes, Jaroslav Halak has stolen three games of this series from the Caps, and if he saves 45 out of 47 or 53 out of 54 shots again he will steal a fourth. But, the reality is, that Washington does have some say in that. If the Caps continue to give him a ...