This year’s Hart trophy for the most valuable player is a no-brainer. All bias aside, Washington’s Alex Ovechkin is the clear winner. For one of the first times since being elected captain, Ovechkin has stepped up into his leadership role. Ovechkin’s statistics show that he’s deserving of the reward. He scored 21.9 percent of the team’s regular season goals with 32, and added 24 assists to boot. Of those 32 goals, 16 came on the [...]

Playoff is by far the most exciting kind of hockey. Really, there’s no more coveted trophy than the Stanley Cup. It takes 16 wins to be named the best team in the league and in such a physically demanding sport, only the strongest of the strong deserve the honor. Starting with the Eastern Conference, here’s a breakdown of the first round of the 2013 Stanley Cup Playoffs: No. 1 Pittsburgh Penguins vs. No. 8 New [...]

I wrote on Feb. 7 that the Washington Capitals wouldn’t be successful this season. As a Caps fan, I’ve never been so happy to be proven wrong. So what changed? Well, for starters, Adam Oates’ system finally started clicking.  The players believed in the system, learned the system, and locked it down. Another key factor is the power of Braden Holtby. The young goaltender is easily the best goalie Washington has had in a long [...]

The Washington Capitals have a history of anti-climactic trade deadlines. But this year was different for all the wrong reasons. At the 2013 deadline, Washington traded Swedish prospect Filip Forsberg to the Nashville Predators for forwards Martin Erat and Michael Latta. It’s not a bad trade on paper, but after even basic analysis, this is a terrible idea. First of all, Latta is an AHL-level player. And Erat, he’s a right wing with four goals [...]

The Southeast division has a reputation of being the weakest division. This season it’s especially bad. But why? It certainly isn’t because of scoring. The Southeast has the current goal-scoring leader in Steven Stamkos from the Tampa Bay Lightning, who is also the second-highest points-scorer in the league. Tampa’s Martin St. Louis is second in assists, and Carolina’s Eric Staal and Alexander Semin are second and third respectively in plus-minus. The reason falls to goaltending. [...]

The Chicago Blackhawks are the NHL right now. They are killing the competition with a dominant 35 points and the next highest scoring team is Anaheim with 29 points. This is also the team that, over the weekend, set a new NHL record for the number of games a team starts the season without a regulation loss. Chicago broke the record with its 17th win and still have yet to break the streak 19 games [...]

While on the East coast, the Western Conference teams are often forgotten, but right now, they are tearing up the National Hockey League. Chicago has yet to lose a game in regulation and is 7-0-3 in their last 10 games. With 23 points, they are leading the league and don’t look to be slowing down any time soon. Patrick Kane and captain Jonathan Toews lead the team in points with 20 and 13 points respectively. [...]

With the NHL officially back in action, it’s time for a new column devoted to the great sport of hockey. I’m a Washington Capitals fan. Technically born in Baltimore but raised in D.C., I’m a Washington sports girl to the end. That being said, this column is devoted to all hockey. But since most people reading this column are likely Capitals fans, I’ll start with them. Despite the poor start to the season, Washington is [...]