Goalies Get Practice and Get Psyched: Goalie Chris Mason, who was traded to the Blues during the off-season, seems like a pretty cool guy. Mason is back in goaltending school, trying to sharpen his skills. I know guys work with trainers and coaches during the off-season,...... , posted on July 10, 2008 more

Free Agents: No 404 For Us: Larry Brooks points out no one wants to play in Atlanta, Edmonton, or Long Island. I get the Isle burn, because they still have that crazy management reputation, even if it's much calmer out there, but I'm not sure why...... , posted on July 07, 2008 more

Capitals: 'Can Someone Sign Green for Us? We're Swamped': Yesterday, I mentioned the Caps are low-balling restricted free agent defenseman Mike Green. Today, Tarik El-Bashir reports the Caps will match any offer sheets Green gets. In other words, the Caps are going to let another team negotiate an inflated...... , posted on June 17, 2008 more

Isles and Yashin Reconciling?: Alexei Yashin returning to the Islanders? Would anyone be happy with that? Would the Isles be happy to have him back in the locker room? Would GM Garth Snow be happy to be paying Yashin even more money on top...... , posted on June 16, 2008 more

Usually Just a T-Shirt: I'm sorry but I just can't get excited about the NHL's awards. Not when they're missing a Best Performance in Drawing a Whistle award. Not like Sidney Crosby needs more hardware or anything. After the awards ceremony, Tarik El-Bashir from...... , posted on June 13, 2008 more

Don't Forget the Losers: I love the time between playoff rounds because it lets me catch up a little bit. Not so much on the playoff teams, but on the teams that were bounced out of the playoffs. Or in the case of the...... , posted on May 06, 2008 more

Blur (to the tune of "Song 2"): 'Round Two!': Here are some quick notes: Franchise goalie turned bench decoration Olie Kolzig is still pretty pissed at the Caps. Also, coach Bruce Boudreau signed some kind of contract extension. Kolzig would be a great coach. I don't see him joining...... , posted on April 24, 2008 more

Roenick Rises: When aging NHL superstars sign with teams in nice climates, I tend to think they're career is pretty much over. Look at Brett Hull in Phoenix. Look at Jeremy Roenick in Phoenix. Of course, Roenick decided his career wasn't over...... , posted on April 23, 2008 more

Ovechkin Forces Game Seven: Obviously, Alex Ovechkin was having kind of a quiet series against the Flyers. Of course, when this guy finds an opportunity, he really finds an opportunity. He scored the game-winner off a turnover in the Caps end. The Flyers had...... , posted on April 22, 2008 more

Thornton Steps Up: The book on Joe Thornton, to a certain extent, has always been that he's not a leader. That he's not a big game guy. There was never any denying his talent, but there were always rumblings about his impact in...... , posted on April 16, 2008 more

Southeast Gets Hot; Shockingly Not Humid: It's so funny that the Southeast division champion will basically be determined by Tampa Bay and Florida. Washington and Carolina's final games are against those two teams. Last night, Carolina beat Tampa Bay to keep them in the playoff hunt....... , posted on April 03, 2008 more

Washington Playoff Bound?: I've got to say, I'm very, very impressed by the playoff run the Caps are making. Last night's win over Carolina puts them in a tie for the South(l)east division lead. It was also their fifth win in a row....... , posted on April 02, 2008 more

Don't Speak on Any Given Sunday: Today, we have a tribute to assistant coaches, those unheralded heroes of the bench. Over in Detroit, please meet Paul MacLean and Todd McLellan, who work for Red Wings coach Mike Babcock. Sadly, Babcock takes a lesson from NFL coaches...... , posted on March 13, 2008 more

They Could Have Been the Chicago Blackhulls: OK. Daylight Savings Time is really kicking my butt. I don't know how, but I managed to skip ahead like six hours. I feel like a LOST character. Still. I must press on. How cool is it the the Blackhawks...... , posted on March 10, 2008 more

Huet Who?: OK. I think this is it for trade deadline stuff. I've just been slow going through all of it. Much like the rest of the hockey world, Caps goalie Olie Kolzig's agent is a little confused as to why the...... , posted on February 29, 2008 more

Trading Places: Is it me or is trade deadline day exhausting? And I didn't have to pack, unlike a lot of NHLers. Apparently my 2001-Avs-Reunion-Is-Not-Happening theory was a bit off. In addition to Peter Forsberg, Colorado also re-acquired defenseman Adam Foote. I...... , posted on February 27, 2008 more

Feeling Healthy: Call it the Curse of the Washington Post: You know. All healthy except for Michael Nylander, who's out for the rest of the season. Obviously, Alexander Ovechkin represents a disproportionate percentage of Washington's goals, but without Nylander, things are going...... , posted on January 16, 2008 more

Lucky 13: I guess pretty much everyone has heard Alex Ovechkin signed some kind of contract extension? Thirteen years is pretty insane, though. I understand the desire to get one of the NHL's best young players locked up, especially before other teams...... , posted on January 14, 2008 more

Isles Stock Up...Finally: You really have to respect the Islanders. They were shut out of the top-tier free agents big time, but they didn't fold. They're still working hard. They just landed Bill Guerin and Mike Comrie . Depending on which Guerin shows...... , posted on July 06, 2007 more

Free Will/Free Agency: I'm really surprised about all of the no-trades being given out. Chris Drury and Scott Gomez supposedly got one from the Rangers. And Ryan Smyth got one from the Avs. Of course, Todd Marchant had one in Columbus and that...... , posted on July 03, 2007 more

Reshuffling the Deck and Deck Chairs: Wow. Crazy night. The Rangers got both Scott Gomez and Chris Drury, somehow. Gomez is pretty interesting since his dangling style is a little bit like Michael Nylander's. Interestingly, TSN sees Drury on the top line. Obviously, a big concern...... , posted on July 01, 2007 more

Oh Yeah. There Was a Draft, Too: OK. Islanders Army has a great screen grab of ENTOURAGE's Kevin Connolly sporting his Isles pride. I didn't see last night's episode, so I can't confirm the rumor that Mike Bossy is going to join the cast as Vince's life...... , posted on June 25, 2007 more

New Year Baby: 'Who's Watching the NHL Store?': Happy New Year! What's in the NHL's future? Everyone's been talking about a proposed realignment to basically get Alexander Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby seen out west. The Blackhawks' Rick Dudley has the most accurate take on the situation (login info.):...... , posted on January 02, 2007 more

Witt: 'What Are Fans?': Islanders' defenseman Brendan Witt: the world's loneliest rearguard. Play in Washington or on Long Island, and you're not going to see a lot of fans in the stands. Ever. Sad, but true. Now, I'm off to tend to my Don...... , posted on October 31, 2006 more

Ranger Gossip: The Journal News recently launched a nice Rangers blog. A day or so ago, Sam Weinman used it to report New York Post gossip columnist Cindy Adams had visited the Rangers' training facility. It was a nice heads-up as Adams...... , posted on October 06, 2006 more

NHL: 'Dribble the Puck, Boys!': The NHL is opening a retail store in midtown Manhattan, a la the NBA store. Interestingly, where the NBA store is a chance to turn basketball fans into consumers, the NHL store seems to be an attempt to turn random...... , posted on October 02, 2006 more

Hanlon: '...And Drive the Zamboni, Too': I know a lot of people around the hockey blogosphere aren't huge fans of Damien Cox's blog, but I think it's a good read. It's not very bloggy, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. For instance, Cox tipped...... , posted on March 22, 2006 more

New Year, New News, Good Times: There are a lot of great hockey tidbits floating around out there, this weekend. Larry Brooks reports that the CBA has a provision that allows incentives to come off of the cap, once they can no longer be met (login...... , posted on January 02, 2006 more

Dynamo: 'We Also Own the Rights to Ice': The Caps have got to love Alexander Ovechkin's former Russian club saying they still own his rights (login info.). I actually heard that Dynamo Moscow is also planning to claim the rights to Sidney Crosby, Simon Gagne, and oddest of...... , posted on November 21, 2005 more

Owners: 'Save Us from Ourselves': A reader sent me a link to Tim Panaccio's Sunday NHL column, which I missed this week (login info.). It's a pretty interesting one, where he talks about the refusal of the big market NHL owners to step up and...... , posted on February 09, 2005 more

Locked Out? Start a Band: You know who's really hating the lockout? The Canadian beer companies. You know why? Without hockey, they don't have a way to reach their core audience. Another sad side effect of the lockout is that Canadian TV is showing more...... , posted on November 30, 2004 more

Players: 'Where Are Our Keys? Oh Dip. We're Locked Out': Lockout shmockout. A University of British Columbia law review article suggests the NHL can improve financially without a blanket salary cap. Professor Stephen Ross writes that revenue sharing and team-specific salary caps can fix the NHL. Oh. And allowing players...... , posted on September 27, 2004 more

Arbitrary Arbitration and Brodeur Writes Tough on Hockey: David Naylor at the Globe and Mail takes down the NHL's arbitration process. Basically, he argues that it allows bad (and extreme) economic moves to dictate salary for players. And he's right. But teams have options. They can try to...... , posted on August 09, 2004 more

Tiny Son: So Chris Bourque, son of legendary defenseman Ray Bourque, is doing OK in the Capitals development camp (login info.). Why shockingly? He's just 18 and 5' 7", 170 lbs. He's young and tiny, but apparently fast and clever. He's like...... , posted on July 21, 2004 more

Jumping the Gun; Caps Worse as a Whole: We're going to jump the gun and give this postseason's JUMPING THE GUN award to ESPN's Bill Clement and Gary Thorn. Nashville was up 1-0 on Detroit in the second when the two, discussing Predator goalie Tomas Vokoun, both started...... , posted on April 08, 2004 more

Buffalo Goes For It; Don't Save Your Goalies: Geez. The trade deadline always blows my mind. So busy! I never know where to look. And this year's deadline was especially manic. The big shock for me? Buffalo grabbing Mike Grier and Jeff Jillson. It's funny. Yesterday I was...... , posted on March 10, 2004 more

Pronger Piling On; Carter a King: Do you believe this? Chris Pronger wants to be dealt to the Senators. Does he feel they don't have enough good players in Ottawa? That's just piling on the other teams now. And seriously. St. Louis is still holding on...... , posted on March 09, 2004 more

Gonchar Almost Dealt: I'm curious what's going on with Sergei Gonchar. Caps GM George McPhee says he's about to pull the trigger on a deal. But since everyone knows how desperate the Capitals are to unload Gonchar and his $3.65 million contract, you...... , posted on March 03, 2004 more

Senator Bondra: So the Senators got Peter Bondra from the Capitals. I know they wanted him really badly, but I really thought another Eastern team would make a stronger bid for him. Call it the A-Rod strategy. While it's great to have...... , posted on February 19, 2004 more

Bondra and Zhamnov Moving?: Where is Peter Bondra going? Who knows. Just about every team is rumored to land him. But it seems the strongest murmurings are coming out of Ottawa. Bondra with the Senators is a pretty scary thought. The Senators are just...... , posted on January 29, 2004 more

My Owner Can Beat Up Your Owner: Geez. Maybe the Capitals should suit up Teddy Leonsis. The 48-year-old team owner got into an altercation with a fan. Obviously, no one knows who started it. It seems the main ingredients were an obnoxious (I'm going to assume) fan...... , posted on January 28, 2004 more

Cassidy Fired: It seemed like Islander GM Mike Milbury and Capitals coach Bruce Cassidy were in a tense race to see who would be fired first. The Islanders pulled out of their skid. The Caps, still looking for that elusive ninth win...... , posted on December 11, 2003 more

Owners: 'Help! We Hate Our Teams!': I think the 2003/04 season will be remembered as the time when owners really hated their teams. First Capitals owner Ted Leonis says his team "stinks." Then Dallas owner Tom Hicks tops that, and says his team is playing like...... , posted on December 10, 2003 more

Kip Miller: Class Act: Say what you will about the crazy-ass Capitals, who only play well when their owner berates them, but they have some nice guys. Watching Washington destroy Detroit 4-1 last night (I had to watch — it was like Halley's Comet;...... , posted on November 25, 2003 more

Kariya Hurts Wrist: Well you get what you pay for. Colorado got Paul Kariya for pennies, and now he's injured. He hurt his wrist against the Bruins and now he's out indefinitely. Interestingly, upon hearing the Kariya news, Colorado grabbed Steve Konowalchuk from...... , posted on October 23, 2003 more

The Jagr Blues: I sort of didn't realize it, but Jaromir Jagr, who looked so freaking sharp in that first game of the season against the Islanders, is having a rough time of it. He has no points in the last four games....... , posted on October 22, 2003 more

Johansson Retires: Oh man. I hope I'm not stepping on Off Wing Opinion's Capital-knowledgeable toes. Super defenseman Calle Johansson is retiring from the Caps. He was a Capital for 15 seasons (983 games) and didn't want to finish his career in another...... , posted on August 08, 2003 more

Wanted: Chris Simon Photos: Hey! Capitals fans! Does anyone have a relatively recent picture of Chris Simon? Like from the playoffs? How long is his hair now? I know it's been short for a while — I'm just trying to make sure it's still...... , posted on July 31, 2003 more

Lang a Wing?: Speaking of the Capitals, everyone knows they're shopping Robert Lang. You know. Because he's good and the Caps seem to be trying to shed talent. Anyway, guess who might be interested. Rangers? Probably. But that's not who I was going...... , posted on July 31, 2003 more

Rangers and Caps: No Trade!; Forsberg Staying?: It's oppressively hot here at PuckUpdate Central. Let's get to it then. Wednesday afternoon, FoxSports.com reported the Rangers were about to trade Petr Nedved, Jamie Lundmark and Matthew Barnaby for Jaromir Jagr (and didn't FoxSports.com layoff all their writers, including...... , posted on June 26, 2003 more

Ranger Jagr?: So the Rangers might be taking Jaromir Jagr off Washington's hands. Eric Lindros and/or Pavel Bure are also supposed to be a part of any happenings. Is it me or isn't Bure's knee pretty messed up? Would anyone want him?...... , posted on June 23, 2003 more

Lindros for Jagr?: The New York Daily News reports that the Capitals are willing to trade Jaromir Jagr for Eric Lindros straight up. It's kind of like trading invisible pictures. Neither team is going to see much of a difference after the trade....... , posted on June 09, 2003 more

Lightning Strikes: Wow. Tampa Bay clinched. Washington just isn't very good at the playoffs, are they? This series was the fourth time they've blown a two-game lead since 1992. It couldn't help that the Caps were using Jaromir Jagr's line to shut-down...... , posted on April 21, 2003 more

Guest Blogger: PuckUpdate has never hid from controversy. From our controversial "Groin Kick" promotions to our pioneering use of invisible ink, PuckUpdate has always been at the forefront of controversy. Today, PuckUpdate continues that tradition by allowing Iraqi Information Minister Mohammed Saeed...... , posted on April 11, 2003 more

Carson Kolzig: This one will break your heart. Ollie Kolzig, the Captial goaltender (who's having a great season, by the way), has an autistic son. Carson Kolzig is just two years old. Autism is a tough. No one really knows what causes...... , posted on March 28, 2003 more

You Can't Hurry Puck: Washington has been looking a lot stronger. How come? Who knows? Stable lines have got to factor in, though. Jaromir Jagr seems pretty comfortable with Kip Miller and breaking up Robert Lang and Peter Bondra looks like it was a...... , posted on January 27, 2003 more

Clawless Panthers: I don't understand how Florida can ever play hockey again after losing to the painfully average Capitals 12-2. Most shocking of all, Florida coach Mike Keenan didn't explode: "I think it's so off the chart that you just pack your...... , posted on January 13, 2003 more

The Not-As-Good-As-They-Should-Be Cup: There's something about the Caps playing San Jose. It's the battle of two teams that shouldn't be as bad as they are. At least now we know San Jose is better than Washington — they beat them 2-0. Of course...... , posted on December 16, 2002 more

Jagr Haters: Interesting. Pittsburgh doesn't care about Jaromir Jagr. No one showed up to see him play. And those that did show up booed him, which I can understand. Poor Jagr. His career has been a little sad since leaving Pittsburgh. Not...... , posted on December 04, 2002 more

Goalie Needed: What's with Craig Billington? It seems like every time he's in net, he just gets creamed. He gave up four goals on 12 shots before Washington pulled the veteran goaltender for rookie Sebastian Charpentier. Billington was also pulled against Dallas...... , posted on October 31, 2002 more

The Jagr-meister: It's kind of a cliche to say a team is one player away from being a great team, but the Washington Capitals really are a player away from a great team. Watching them play Dallas and the Rangers this season...... , posted on October 24, 2002 more

Fitting In: Mike Grier is fitting in with the Caps. Grier, who arrived in DC via Edmonton at the start of the season, has an interesting background. His dad played and coached football. His brother is also a coach. The Boston native...... , posted on October 15, 2002 more