That's Alex Ovechkin's penalty shot from last night.

This is your Open Thread.

TSN is reporting that the Caps have resigned Sergei Fedorov to a one-year, $4 million contract.

The Caps are reporting that Brooks Laich has re-upped for three years. Terms were not disclosed (update: Laich will earn $1.7 million, $2.1 million and $2.4 million for a cap hit of $2.07M per year). From the Press Release,

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals have signed forward Brooks Laich to a three-year contract, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today. In keeping with club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed. Laich, 25, established career highs in goals (21), assists (16) and points (37) in 2007-08 and was one of four Capitals to play in all 82 games. He finished third on the team in goals and seventh in points, with a team-high two shorthanded goals.

A 6’2", 210-pound native of Wawota, Saskatchewan, Laich finished his third full NHL season with 12 goals and 20 points in the final 22 games as the Capitals made their late-season run to the Southeast Division title. He recorded three two-goal games, a four-point game and seven of his eight power-play goals on the season during that stretch.

Laich led the team (among players with at least 20 games played) with a 17.2 shooting percentage and led all Capitals forwards with 56 blocked shots. Laich scored more than half of his goals in the first period and scored the Capitals’ first goal of the game nine times.

Laich tied for fourth on the team with six points (one goal, five assists) in seven playoff games, including points in each of the last five games of the series. That matched the longest point streak in the NHL in the first round of the 2008 playoffs.

A three-year veteran of the Western Hockey League with Seattle and Moose Jaw, Laich was acquired by the Capitals via trade with Ottawa on Feb. 18, 2004. He has played 233 career NHL games, all but one with Washington, recording 36 goals and 41 assists (77 points). In 2006 Laich helped lead the Hershey Bears to the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup championship, recording 15 points (eight goals, seven assists) in 21 playoff games.

University of North Dakota Senior-to-be and Caps prospect Joe Finley has decided to stay in school for his final year of eligibilty rather than turning pro. Of course, that doesn't mean we won't see the mascot-beating blueliner at the Verizon Center this season - UND has made it to three straight Frozen Fours, and next year's is being held at... Verizon Center.

Hat tip to Tuvan Hillbilly for translating SovSport's interview with Alex Ovechkin upon the Great Eight's third Kharlamov Trophy win as Russia's best hockey player.

No doubt a fitting way to cap off a super season.

Per the team:

ARLINGTON, VA., – The Washington Capitals have re-signed right wing Matt Bradley to a three-year contract, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today. In keeping with club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Bradley, 29, appeared in 77 games last season for the Capitals, recording 18 points (seven goals, 11 assists) in his third year with the team. Bradley also added two assists in seven playoff games against Philadelphia. He finished the year fourth on the team with 74 penalty minutes, fifth with 126 hits and eighth with a career-high 111 shots on goal.

A 6'3", 210-pound native of Stittsville, Ontario, Bradley was selected by San Jose in the fourth round of the 1996 NHL Entry Draft, 102nd overall. In his seven NHL seasons, he has played for San Jose, Pittsburgh and Washington totaling 411 games. Bradley has 95 career points (37 goals and 58 assists) and 359 penalty minutes. He was signed by Washington as a free agent on Aug. 18, 2005.

Here's what you all thought about Bradley a month ago. Without knowing the dollars involved, what do you think of the deal?

UPDATE: Per Tarik, Bradley will make one million dollars in each of the next three years. Now what do you think?

GMGM spoke with Dan Dunleavy and Mark Osbourne yesterday from the World Hockey Championships in Halifax. Topics included "the emergence of Mike Green as a stalwart at the defensive end and as a top offensive defenseman in the NHL (18 goals and 38 assists for 56 points)," and "having to fire coach and close friend Glen Hanlon and then replace him with Bruce Boudreau who took the team to a 37-17 record the rest of the season to make the playoffs." Money quote: when asked about Cristobal Huet's future with the team, GMGM notes, "We expect to sign him."

Click here for the audio.

If I told you that one of the Caps' Russian superstars was at one time engaged to a mediocre, young female tennis player, you'd think nothing of it - the whole world knows about Sergei Fedorov and Anna Kournikova's history.

But if I told you I was talking about Alex Ovechkin, that might be news.

According to The Charlottesville Daily Progress, Olga Puchkova, the No. 2 seed at this week's Boyd Tinsley (of Dave Matthews Band fame) USTA Women's Pro Tennis Championships, "says she was once engaged to Washington Capitals superstar Alexander Ovechkin."

I knew plenty of the younger Russian NHLers had idolized Fedorov growing up... I guess I just didn't know how much.

"'For the last month, our team has been playing Game 7,' Kolzig said."

No, that's not a week-old quote from Olie on the pressure his NHL squad had been under from early-March on, but rather a reference to the Tri-City Americans, the WHL team Olie and Stu Barnes co-own - it's good to see Olie going green and recycling talking points.

Kolzig's Amerks now find themselves in a 3-2 hole in their series with Spokane, which featured one of the biggest hits you'll ever see in Game 5, with Game 6 on tap tonight.

Surprising absolutely no one who saw him play from Thanksgiving on, Caps rookie pivot Nicklas Backstrom was named a finalist for the Calder Trophy (for NHL rookie of the year) earlier today.

Some numbers, per the Caps:

• Backstrom, who was one of four Caps to play every game, turned in the second most prolific season ever for a Capitals rookie, as he helped lead Washington to the playoffs for the first time since 2003. He finished second in rookie scoring with 69 points (Kane led with 72) and lead all rookies and set a new Capitals' rookie record with 55 assists.
• He had 60 points (13g-47a) in his last 61 games, was a +18 in that time and had three four-point games. In the last 18 games of the regular season, and with the playoffs on the line, he had 18 points (5g-13a) and had a +16 rating. Backstrom tied for third among rookies with a +13 rating and had the highest rating among the top 15 rookie scorers.
• His four game-winning goals ranked second among rookies and his +19 rating outside of the Southeast Division paced all rookies against non-divisional opponents. Backstrom finished the season as the only rookie with at least 45 points to have a plus-rating in both home and road games. He also became the first rookie in NHL history to post back-to-back four-assist games (1/19 vs. Florida and 1/21 at Pittsburgh.)
• The 20-year-old turned in successful numbers of the power play as well. He tied for first among rookies with 22 power-play assists and ranked third in rookie power-play points with 25.

And while playoff performance isn't considered in Calder voting (sidenote: if Alex Ovechkin wasn't Hart-worthy if the Caps didn't make the playoffs, why are Pat Kane and Jonathan Toews Calder-worthy?), Backstrom - who struggled mightily early in the Flyers series - came to life in the first round once he and Sergei Fedorov swapped spots on the top two lines (his 16 shots in games four through seven were the most he had over a four-game stretch all year), and ended up tied for the team lead in goals with four.

So here are some questions I'll throw out to the group - Does Nicky have a chance of winning the Calder? Looking forward to next year, would you rather see him back with Alex Ovechkin or centering Alex Semin on the second line? What part of his game do you think needs the most improvement?

Photo via Flickr

If the Caps and Flyers haven't satisfied your bloodlust through two games, take a look at what their AHL affiliates did over the weekend:

Add another vote to the "Ovechkin for MVP" campaign, this from rival Evgeni Malkin:

"I still have chances to become the MVP this season, however I am sure that Alexander Ovechkin is the best player in NHL this season and he will win this award."

"He is a leader of his club as he leads his partners to play-offs, that is why I have no chances to become the season's MVP."

Maybe Geno isn't as dumb as he looks.

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Alex Ovechkin is listed at 6'2", 217 pounds. Judging from the picture below currently running on NHL.com, Sidney Crosby must be 6'5", 275. Funny...I thought he was smaller than that.

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Thanks to the "The Girlfriend Curse", trade deadline day, and the Google gold that is "2 Girls, 1 Cup" (ya buncha pervs), The Rink established a new record for page views, visits, and visitors in February (this, on the heels of setting new marks in January). Of course, the acquisitions of three new players from three of the most hockey obsessed media markets in the world (Montreal, Vancouver, and Columbus Russia) didn't hurt either. So welcome to The Rink, new peeps, and continued thanks to long-time readers.

Your top ten most-read posts in February:

1. Romovechkin?
2. Caps Get Huet For A Second Round Pick
3. 2 Girls, 1 Cup
4. Get To Know Joe Corvo
5. Japers' Rink Blogroll: 1,670 Hockey Links And Counting
6. How Much Green For Green?
7. Raise Your Hand If You're A Douchebag
8. How Do You Say "Rebuild" In Finnish?
9. Breaking Down Ovechkin's Goals
10. Today's Front Page

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The Madden Curse. The Sports Illustrated Cover Jinx. The Curse of the Bambino. The Tiki Curse (no, not that Tiki, but the Vincent Price version). All examples of supposed supernatural forces negatively affecting athletic performance.

This past December, thanks to Dallas quarterback Tony Romo's very public canoodling with Jessica Simpson, football fans added another hex to the list - The Girlfriend Curse. Simpson's pink presence at a late season game was seen by some as the reason the Cowboy QB had the worst outing of his career in a 10-6 home loss to the woeful Philadelphia Eagles.

Now the question is raised locally - do Caps fans have reason to fear a Girlfriend Curse of their own?

The other day, the Alex Ovetjkin blog shared a Sovetsky Sport interview with Capitals superstar Alex Ovechkin's new girlfriend Katja, which FanHouse followed up with the darling picture below (and others), and video evidence of which Agent Steinz brought us.


Awww.

But since Katja first arrived in D.C. - February 7, according to the interview - Alex's on-ice game has cooled off as his off-ice life has heated up. Four times in six games since the two met in person Ovechkin has been held off the scoresheet (after having been held pointless in four of his previous 22 games) and he has had a minus rating in each of those whitewashes (after having been on the wrong side of zero in that stat only four times since December 15). As a result of his first three-game scoreless drought of the season, AO has been caught and passed in the NHL scoring race by Evgeni Malkin and the Hart Trophy front-runner's Caps have won just twice in the six games after having won 10 of their prior 14 games.

One of sport's all-time wise men, Burgess Meredith's Mickey Goldmill, famously warned his prized pupil to quit chasing tail, as "[w]omen weaken legs." Casey Stengel, another of athletics' great thinkers, took a slightly different point of view when he noted that "[b]eing with a woman all night never hurt no professional [athlete]. It's staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in" - and scientists seem to agree.

So while Ovechkin's new-found love and this little bump in the road in his otherwise phenomenal season may have curiously coincidental timing, and given the wisdom of the The Old Professor and actual science, I'm not ready to attribute the latter to the former - there is no Girlfriend Curse plaguing Number Eight (after all, Ovie has already proven impervious to such superstitious triflings). But if we see Katja sporting one of these with her man's name and number at some point in the near future, I may be forced to reconsider and side with ol' Mick.

According to reports out of Finland, former Caps coach Glen Hanlon will be coaching Helsinki Jokerit of the SM-liiga next season. Terms were not disclosed.

"I love international hockey and the Finnish style of play," said Hanlon. And with Jokerit alums that include Teemu Selänne, (Sami Lepisto's godfather) Jari Kurri, and Esa Tikkanen, what's not to love? Other than Tikkanen, that is.

In recognition of National Pancake Day, we serve up the following:

And, as it turns out, we're not the only ones recognizing this holiday.

Yesterday's game had it all - great goals, big saves, crunching hits and... wait. Yesterday's game didn't have it all, as it lacked what has become the one constant in Caps/Rangers games: Donald Brashear beating the crap out of Colton Orr.

So because Orr didn't dance with his most frequent dance partner yesterday, here's a reminder of what we were forced to go without:

You'll get 'im next time, eh, Colton?

An interesting word choice by the CBC staff writers here: "Ovechkin will need to keep turning tricks to fend off the visiting Carolina Hurricanes on Friday."

And speaking of the 'Canes and innuendo...