As the regular season inches closer, day by day, the time has come to predict and begin to take a look at what the Caps and their fans can expect from each player on the roster.  Today's player is new centerman Jeff Halpern, who will begin his seventh season overall, but first since 2005-06, with the Caps this fall.  George McPhee brought him back to Washington this summer on a one-year, $825,000 contract after DC lost Boyd Gordon to Phoenix.

Recap of Last Season: Halpern spent last year with the Montreal Canadiens, where he played in 72 games and registered 11 goals and 15 assists.  Halpern filled in on every line except the top line for the Habs during the course of the year, but spent almost all of his time on the third and fourth units.  In terms of point production, last year was his best since 07-08 with Dallas.  
Expectations for this Season: Halpern is going to be expected to be a lunchpail player for Bruce Boudreau this year, being able to do a little bit of everything. He's going to play on the penalty kill, probably be a primary penalty killer, and he will be counted upon as a leader in the locker room, even if he doesn't wear an A on his chest.  In short, I think, as do many Caps fans, that Halpy will be a great pickup for Washington as they go after the ultimate goal.  For more in depth analysis of what Halpern will bring this year, click here.
Playing Time: Fourth line; third line; primary penalty killer.  Halpern isn't a big enough offensive catalyst to play any higher than the fourth line regularly, but he might get some spot time on the third line if necessary.  But to be honest, you want him on the fourth line; that's the ideal spot for a guy like Halpern at this stage in his career.
Projections: 70 GP, 5 G, 9 A, +3 rating, 11:15 ATOI.

The next season preview will feature defenseman Jeff Schultz.

As the regular season inches closer, day by day, the time has come to predict and begin to take a look at what the Caps and their fans can expect from each player on the roster.  Today's player is "figher" DJ King, who will begin his second season in the organization in the fall.

Recap of Last Season: King proved to be pretty much useless last season, as he only played 16 games and only registered two points.  He was a minus player, he rarely fought when he did get a chance to play, and he was just bad.  Kinger was even waived after the trade deadline, but no one claimed him (SUPRISE!). For my full post-season analysis of King's 2010-11, click here.

As first reported by himself on Twitter, the Washington Capitals have signed forward Stanislav Galiev to a three-year entry level contract.  The financial terms of the deal are not disclosed at this time.

Galiev, 19, was the Capitals' third round selection in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft, and spent last year playing for the Saint John Sea Dogs of the QMJHL.  Galiev won the Memorial Cup with the Sea Dogs last year, talling 37 goals and 28 assists in 64 games.  For my full prospect breakdown of Galiev, click here.

While it's good that Stan is under contract, you have to wonder why the Caps signed Galiev this early.  He's going to play in Juniors another year, and EL deals are valuable for the club.  Nevertheless, he's now officially a member of the organization.

As the regular season inches closer, day by day, the time has come to predict and begin to take a look at what the Caps and their fans can expect from each player on the roster.  Today's player is Big John Studd Erskine, who will begin his sixth season in the organization in the fall.

Recap of Last Season: Erskine had a great year last season, compiling career highs in goals, games, points, blocks, and hits, and serving his purpose as a very good backup defenseman who was forced into regular duty because of injuries. He filled this role admirably and often without any glaring mistakes, so he deserves props for that. For my full post-season thoughts on Erskine, click here.

Undoubtedly part of his off-season nutrition routine, Alex Ovechkin has signed on with the Canadian candy bar manufacturer Mr. Big. In order to help brand the Great Eight as the face of the company, Mr. Big is offering three mortals the chance to have Alex as their "life coach" by entering upc codes online. The winner of the contest will have their choice of various Ovi-esque activities, including sitting at the front row at Washington Fashion Week, going to a restaurant dinner or video arcade session, or having a home cooked meal at Ovechkin’s home. No word if dessert following the meal will consist of all Mr. Big candy bars or not.

I have a lot of respect for Matt Bradley. He was rarely the best player on the ice in terms of talent, but he was always the best player on the ice in terms of effort. He also never had a problem telling it like it is. For a consummate team player and all around good guy like Matt Bradley, calling out a teammate by name for not performing, even a former teammate, is remarkable.

We all know that Alexander Semin is one of the most sublimely talent hockey players in the world, but very few of us really know what’s going on inside his head, and not least because most of it is in Russian.  While Bradley has a much better insight than almost everyone, Semin is still an enigma, a more talented version of Alexei Kovalev who still hasn’t won a Stanley Cup on the coattails of Mark Messier and Brian Leetch. He is every bit as capable of scoring 60 goals as Alexander Ovechkin but hasn’t put up the kind of numbers expected of him.  He is also hockey-wise more like a snooty artiste, so when he’s teamed with Alex Ovechkin, a fun-loving bull in a China shop, it makes the contrast ever so much more glaring.

But to say that Alexander Semin doesn’t care is going too far.

We want you to go farther, though.

Update:  Amazing Bar Graph of how much Semin Cares at RMNB!

As the dog days of August continue and about five weeks left until training camp, it's time to hypothesize and have fun predicting things again.  Today we visit special teams: the penalty kill and power play.  Last season, the Caps' power play percentage dropped meteorically compared to the previous season, while their penalty kill did exactly the opposite.  The result was a still successful regular season team, but the Caps still struggled to come up with the big goals that they needed when they were on the power play in the postseason, particularly against Tampa.  This year?  They aim to become the Canucks, who were near the top of the league in both power play and penalty kill last season.  And Washington has the talent to do it.

Predictions after the Jump!

Dear Washington Capitals Fans,

The Caps Blogosphere is abuzz with the recent news of John Walton’s call-up to the Big Club.  There are tons of articles and blog posts out there telling you how deserving this promotion is, and how it was only a matter of time before John realized his dream.  This is not one of them.

As a long-time Hershey season ticket holder and die hard fan, I’ve had the pleasure of listening to John call the Hershey Bears away games for years (never the home ones, as I’m always there).  What you’re getting in Mr. Walton is not just good, it’s amazing.  And we Bears fans want to make sure that you appreciate the gem you’re receiving in the radio booth.

You see, Bears’ games are not televised (unless they’re deep into the playoffs).  If you can’t get to the game to see it in person, you can either drop some money to watch online, or listen to the radio (or stream the audio broadcast on the internet).  What many of us in Hershey have known for years is that you don’t need to watch the game to know what’s happening.  With John Walton behind the mic, you can visualize each pass, stride, goal, and even fight on the ice as its happening.  Mr. Walton has a rare gift for being able to keep up with the play, paint a full picture of the action, and yet keep his diction and pronunciation flawless, crisp, and easy to follow (even the older, hard of hearing fans will attest to that).  In fact, it’s not uncommon to find fans scattered in the seats of the Giant Center with headphones – listening to John’s broadcast as they’re taking the game in.  Yes, Greater DC area, you are certainly getting the best of the best.

But that’s not all.  John has always been incredibly accessible to Bears Nation.  Whether it be through Facebook, Twitter, Email, blogs, or around town – he always takes the time to respond to questions from curious fans.  He was a key player in starting up the Old Barn Hockey Show, The Saturday night post game fan call-in radio show, and the Hershey Bears directives in Social Media.  It’s only fitting that this fan-friendly media guru would be called up to continue those roles with the NHL organization that holds the same beliefs and mindset regarding new media and the involvement of grassroots blogs.

So embrace what you have, Caps fans.  Listening to the radio just got a whole lot more exciting.  And if you take nothing else from this, please remember this key piece of advice – if you choose to listen to a broadcast while driving, the high energy and excitement of John calling a short-handed, come from behind, game tying goal may cause you to suddenly veer off the road (I know this from experience).

Now on to try and figure out my new dilemma… mute Joe B. & Locker to listen to John Walton, or just watch the CSN broadcast?  In a 3 period game, it’s hard to decide how to evenly distribute fair listening time to all of the quality broadcasters covering the Caps…

Hey Caps fans! This is Kim Hendricks, wife of Caps forward Matt Hendricks. Rock the Red has graciously allowed me to use the blog to post about a great event both Matt and I are excited to be part of.

Over the past year we have both been honored to help out a great organization called Defending the Blue Line. It was started in Minnesota, our home state, by National Guard members who wanted to help children of deployed military families afford the extremely high cost of playing hockey. After getting to know Shane, the head honcho at DTBL, we learned so much about the many great things this program does in our beloved state, we wanted to do anything we could to help them expand.

The 2011 Ice Pack Hockey League Charity Golf Tournament will take place in Rockville, MD, at Needwood Golf Course to benefit Defending the Blue Line. Aside from a great day of golf, and the usual shenanigans that occur at golf tournaments , there will be great prizes such as tickets to Redskins and Capitals preseason games, as well as various other things including hockey gloves and rounds of golf. Matt will be golfing in the event as well, although I must admit he didn’t hit the golf course too many times this summer, his fishing rod was too hard to set down when he had some free time!

For more information on the event and to sign up please visit http://defendingtheblueline.org/New-Events.html.

Thank you for all of the support you continue to give Matt and the Caps, and with camp about a month away, we’ll see you soon!

Go Caps!

Okay, it's official.  A week into August, with Development Camp long done, all contracts signed, and no more free agents left to pursue, the dog days of summer are officially upon us.  There is no hockey to pay attention to and no news to wait for.  So, it's time to hypothesize and have some fun.  Todays topic: the opening night roster.  For my lines, defensive pairings, and camp cuts, take a look below.

First Line: Alex Ovechkin, L; Nicklas Backstrom, C; Mike Knuble, R:

After a truly pathetic year last year by all of their standards, I think that the top trio will stay intact as Bruce Boudreau hopes for some of the magic of 2009-10. Knuble can still go to the net and score goals, as he proved towards the end of last season, but he's not good enough to be the second best player on his line anymore, as he would be anywhere else in the lineup.  It stands to reason that after such awful luck last year, a bounce back can be expected.

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