The Hockey Stop

It's been 37 years since the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts joined the National Hockey League. The Scouts became the Colorado Rockies and then the New Jersey Devils. The Caps are still going strong in the nation's capital, but the team has only been to the Stanley Cup finals once -- in 1998 Washington was swept in four games by the Detroit Red Wings.

Is this the year the Caps capture the Cup?

That question will be definitely answered next spring. But the hopes were high and the energy was positive at the third annual Caps Convention last Saturday, which took place for the second straight year downtown at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center (the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation was holding their annual gathering there at the same time, so it was an interesting assortment of well-dressed men and women and red-clad Caps fans in Ovechkin and Backstrom jerseys).

New additions in the offseason have brought optimism to a beaten down fan base that has been disappointed by heartbreaking early playoff exits the past three years. The hope is that the new teammates will push the core group of Caps over the edge when it counts in the postseason. Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Alex Semin and Mike Green are now in the prime of their careers and have been through the battles and crushing defeats and are learning how to win the big games. Now they have help from former Caps Captain and Potomac, Maryland native center Jeff Halpern, Stanley Cup winner with the Chicago Blackhawks right wing Troy Brouwer, veteran defenseman Roman Hamrlik, gritty right wing Joel Ward and veteran goaltender Tomas Vokoun.

Have the Caps learned how to win? Will a Cup winner like Brouwer stand up in the locker room the next time the Caps face adversity and the "here we go again" negativity creeps in? Will he tell his teammates that "no, it doesn't have to be like this. We can do this!"? Did General Manager George McPhee make the right moves? Will Head Coach Bruce Boudreau prove his critics wrong?

Many questions. Few answers. But it is a new season and the Caps and 29 other teams all have a shot at glory.

There were some interesting panel discussions at the Caps Convention, including "20 Questions with Ted," with former Washington Redskins linebacker and current local TV and radio personality LaVar Arrington interviewing Capitals Majority Owner Ted Leonsis, pictured below left, about subjects ranging from changing the name of the Wizards back to the Bullets ("I don't comment on NBA matters") to offseason speculation about Ovechkin's weight ("pinch his stomach at the autograph session").

At the panel discussion "Embracing Your New Teammates," new Caps Halpern, pictured below left, and Brouwer talked about the difficult transition of changing teams and cities, especially when there is family involved. Brouwer was asked if there are any hard feelings with new teammates because of past experiences as the opponent. He said not with a team like Washington that Chicago only plays once a year, but that it would have been difficult if he went to a divisional rival like the Vancouver Canucks.

Perhaps the most anticipated and interesting discussion took place on the main stage. "24/7 Behind the Scenes" took a look back at what it was like filming the highly acclaimed Emmy-nominated HBO reality series "24/7 Caps-Pens: Road to the Winter Classic." Ovechkin, Boudreau and WashingtonCaps.com Senior Writer and panel moderator Mike Vogel were joined on the stage by HBO Producers Scott Boggins and Michael Oliver (pictured below left to right).

Boudreau said he was looking forward to watching the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers on this season's "24/7," which will culminate in the Winter Classic at Citizens Bank Park in Philly.

Here are more photos from the Caps Convention.

Next month I am moving from the land of the Kings and Ducks to the place the Capitals call home.

After nearly nine eventful years covering hockey in Southern California I'm heading back to my hometown of Washington, D.C. where I will continue to post the latest news and analysis from the world of professional hockey.

It's been a wild ride reporting on hockey here in SoCal. Until I lived here for a while I had no idea how popular the sport is in this "non-traditional" market. There are so many Californians who came of age during the Gretzky era and have instilled the love of the game in their children that hockey will continue to get bigger and bigger here. Plus there is a constant influx of people from cold climes such as Canada, the Midwest and Northeast who bring their love of hockey here.

I started out covering the now defunct Long Beach Ice Dogs minor league team for a community newspaper called The Beachcomber and what struck me the first time I entered the Long Beach Ice Arena was how many fans were in the stands and how passionate people were for this scrappy Montreal Canadiens affiliate. It was a pleasure writing about the ups and downs of the Dogs.

But the passion in Anaheim for the Ducks and L.A. for the Kings is something I'll never forget. Despite the stereotype of laid-back and apathetic sports fans in Southern California, the Kings and Ducks followers are some of the most loyal fans in the entire National Hockey League.

It was incredibly exciting living in SoCal in 2007 when the Ducks brought the first Stanley Cup to the Golden State. And it has been awesome witnessing the rise of the Kings to playoff contenders.

There is also a very active grassroots youth hockey community across California that is going to breed some future NHL players. That is one reason why the league decided to locate this year's NHL Entry Draft at the Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles. I'll be there this Friday for the first round and will be live-blogging the event so check in to The Hockey Stop this Friday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. for instant draft results for each team.

I will also miss playing street hockey every Sunday with my crazy Canadian buddies as part of the Hangover Hockey League. We started out playing on the basketball court at Veterans Park in Westwood and then alternated between roller hockey rinks in North Hollywood and Mar Vista. I usually went home after a game bruised and sore for the next week but it was all worth it. Good luck to all my street hockey comrades!

While I'll be blogging from the draft this Friday, if my blog posts are less frequent the next couple of weeks it is because I'm busy preparing for my move. But as soon as I'm settled in D.C. I'll be ramping up the posting again.

There are a couple of stories of note from today's news.

Anaheim Ducks defenseman Scott Niedermayer, 36, retired today after 18 NHL seasons. The Norris and Conn Smythe Trophy winner is the only hockey player in the world to win the Stanley Cup, Olympic Gold Medal, World Championship, World Junior Championship, World Cup and Memorial Cup.

Also, the NHL released the 2010-2011 regular season schedule. Click here for each team's complete 82-game schedule.

Lastly, a reminder that the NHL Awards will be televised live from Las Vegas on Versus tomorrow evening at 7:30 p.m. EST/4:30 p.m. PST.

I just got back from the Verizon Center and what a game! The hero for the Washington Capitals tonight was not Alex Ovechkin but center Niklas Backstrom who is known around the league more for his sensational passes than his scoring ability.

But on a night when the Caps had to win against a resurgent Montreal Canadiens team that shocked them in a 3-2 Game 1 overtime victory, it was not Alex the Great who grabbed the headlines but his unheralded linemate from Sweden who capped off a hat trick in overtime for a 6-5 comeback win that sent myself and 18,000 other long-suffering Caps fans into a frenzy.

This was the most unlikeliest victory with the way the game started. The Canadiens scored on their first two shots against Caps netminder Jose Theodore, and coach Bruce Boudreau's long leash disappeared as he pulled Theodore for backup Semyon Varlamov with the Caps' backs against the wall down 2-0 in the first period.

But the Habs kept charging as they built up a 4-1 lead in the second period off two goals by Andrei Kostitsyn as the stunned crowd at VC sat in silence.

After Backstrom scored to make it 4-2 at the end of the second period, Ovechkin, who was already playing a much more physical game than the first, scored his first playoff goal to make it 4-3 at 2:56 into the third period. Ovechkin then had one of his three assists on the night to feed Backstrom to tie the game at 4.

But Les Habs came right back to the take the lead off a goal by Tomas Plekanec with only 5:06 remaining.

With the Caps almost down and out, talented rookie defenseman John Carlson tied the game with 1:21 left.

That set up Backstrom's heroics in overtime as he scored 31 seconds into the extra session to send the series back to Montreal tied at 1.

The atmosphere is absolutely electric right now in this win-starved city. Even as I type this from my parent's condo in downtown Washington, I can hear Caps fans honking on the streets in celebration and walking the sidewalks screaming in victory, "Let's Go Caps!"

The Bell Centre will be rocking in hockey's holy city of Montreal, but for one night at least I'm going to enjoy the greatest victory I've ever witnessed in my many years as a Washington Capitals fan.

Saturday night as I sat in a bar at the Verizon Center that Abe Pollin, who died Tuesday at 85, built, and watched the professional hockey team on TV that Pollin founded, and as I sat with my parents who are reliving the city life of their Chicago youth in a condo located in an area of Washington, D.C. that was once as dangerous as Afghanistan but is now the Times Square of our nation's capital, all thanks to Pollin, it hit me that this kind and generous man has touched my life in such a positive way and countless others as well.

Little was I to know that Mr. Pollin would pass a few days later on the day his beloved Wizards were to play the 76ers at The Phone Booth.

When I learned of Pollin's passing today my initial reaction was as if my own grandfather had died. For Pollin had so much influence on the lives of those connected to Washington, D.C. that he felt like everyone's grandfather.

Yes, he was criticized at times for putting loyalty above winning, but his legacy will be nothing less than the transformation of the most powerful city in the world.

This reminder was everywhere this misty, cool fall evening as I left my parent's condo, which again they would not have been living in if Pollin didn't decide to build the Verizon Center in a rundown part of D.C.

As we walked by the sleek new office buildings, stylish restaurants, upscale hotels and condos, lively bars, and the new convention center, they were all vivid reminders of the economic floodgates Pollin helped open over 10 years ago.

And to see the beehive of activity in Gallery Place-Chinatown is the ultimate testament to Pollin's lasting legacy.

As the Verizon Center crowd exited the arena following a Wizards win, a picture of Abe Pollin was displayed on the big screen at F St. and Abe Pollin Way.

At that moment I wanted to simply say thank you.

So here it is -- thank you, Abe Pollin for the Washington Capitals, for making downtown D.C. the place to be, for strengthening my relationship with my father and his wife, and for exemplifying Hope and Yes We Can long before another visionary became a resident of Washington.