Cody Eakin

Blues at Capitals In-Game Blog: 11-29-11

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Tonight marks the beginning of a new era for the Washington Capitals as legendary center Dale Hunter makes his return to Washington behind the bench as the franchise’s 15th head coach.

Hunter made his mark in the NHL as a talented offensive player with the Quebec Nordiques and with the Capitals after being involved in a 1987 trade to D.C. that began a 12-year career in Washington. He evolved into one of the most feared players in the league, racking up 3,565 career penalty minutes, which is second most in NHL history.

For the past 11 seasons, he has owned and coached the London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League and in the process, turned a struggling franchise into one of the most respected teams in the OHL for the past decade. Among his notable achievements in London, Hunter became the fastest coach in OHL history to reach 300 and 400 wins.

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Rangers at Capitals In-Game Blog: 11-25-11

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The Capitals are coming off two exciting 4-3 wins against the Phoenix Coyotes and Winnipeg Jets and are hoping to head to Buffalo this weekend with a 9-1-1 home record. They close out their three-game homestand today against the New York Rangers today at 4 p.m.

The Caps lost their last three regular season contests against New York and were outscored 15-1 in those games. However, the Caps handled the Rangers in the opening round of the playoffs, eliminating them in five games.

The Rangers come into Verizon Center as one of the hottest teams in the league riding a seven-game winning streak before dropping the last two by a total of six goals to one.

The Rangers boast the league’s third best goals against average while the Caps are third in the league in goals scored. It will be very interesting to see how the Capitals offense matches up against the Rangers defense.

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Coyotes at Capitals In-Game Blog: 11-21-2011

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The Caps return to the Verizon Center tonight to begin a three-game homestand against the Phoenix Coyotes. Since starting out the season red hot with a 7-0 record, Washington has gone 3-7-1 since and are currently on a four game losing streak. In the last three games, the Caps have been anemic on offense and defense and were outscored 14-3, including a 7-1 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday.

Coach Bruce Boudreau is continuing to alter the lineup, this time recalling defenseman Dmitry Orlov from Hershey to make his NHL debut. The addition of the 20-year old to the roster is in the hope of improving a team who has given up almost five times as many goals as they have scored in the past six days.

The Coyotes, however, are hot as of late, posting a record 6-2-1 in their last nine contests to put them at 10-5-3 on the season. They currently trail San Jose by two points for the Pacific division lead.

Boyd Gordon makes his return to D.C. after signing with the Coyotes as a free agent this past July. In 60 games during the 2010-2011 season, Gordon posted 9 points and averaged just over 13 minutes on the ice per game as a Capital. In 18 games this season, he already matched last season’s point total and averages over 16 minutes of ice time per game.

The Caps lead the all-time series against the Phoenix franchise with a record of 28-25-12-1.

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