(photo by Mitchell Layton)

As you’ve no doubt heard by now, Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin was suspended three games for a hit on Pittsburgh defenseman Zbynek Michalek in Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Penguins.

Although no penalty was called at the time, Brendan Shanahan, the NHL’s head disciplinarian, saw fit to sit The Great 8.

“The moment Ovechkin launches himself into the air prior to the hit he becomes responsible for any contact to the head,” Shanahan said.

While it was disappointing to see the NHL suspend Ovechkin, I can’t pretend to be surprised by Shanahan’s decision. In his eyes, Ovechkin is a repeat offender (he was suspended twice during the 2009-10 season) who should know better.

With Ovechkin off for an impromptu vacation, it means the Capitals – who continue to fight with several other middle-of-the-pack teams for a playoff spot – obviously need a player or two to step and fill the void. Especially since Ovechkin isn’t the only top-tier player out of action these days.

Top-line center Nicklas Backstrom is still out of action due to a concussion and top defenseman Mike Green remains out of the lineup as he deals with a groin injury.

Think about that for a second – in a season in which the salary cap stands at $64.3 million, Ovechkin, Backstrom and Green account for roughly $21.5 million.

When three players eat up a third of your total salary cap space, you’re obviously expecting them to be your workhorses and carry the proverbial load for your team day in and day out.

Conversely, when three of your four highest-paid players are out of the lineup, it’s safe to say your team is typically in trouble.

That, of course, was the backdrop as the Caps took the ice against the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins.

While the sweaters remained the same, the players wearing them for the home team looked a lot more like the Hershey Bears than the Washington Capitals we’ve come to know and love.

On the surface, there was little reason for optimism heading into this one. The Bruins have been in beast mode all season long.*

*Case in point: their 15-6 record on the road was better than most team’s home record and they had scored 168 goals while only allowing 97 for the season. That’s pretty good.

And yet, I was more excited to see this game than any other since Dale Hunter took over as the new coach. Why?

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(photo by Brian Murphy)

Growing up, the Washington Capitals were the epitome of a blue-collar team.

They never had the biggest names in hockey, but they earned respect thanks to their desire to outwork and outhustle opponents into submission.

While our nation’s capital will never be confused for a blue-collar town, that lunch pail mentality served the franchise well as the team qualified for the postseason 14 consecutive seasons – starting with the 1982-83 season and running through the 1995-96 campaign.

The Capitals typically lost in the first round of the playoffs, but the bar was set low enough locally that simply qualifying for the postseason was good enough to keep most fans happy.

And then there was the 1997-98 season, where everything came together for the Caps in a perfect storm of skill, determination and a lot of luck.

Goalie Olaf Kolzig, playing some of the best hockey* of his stellar career, backstopped the team’s run to the Stanley Cup Finals and for a brief moment it seemed like the Capitals might actually be capable of shocking the hockey-watching world.

Unfortunately, the Detroit Red Wings never got the memo and any dreams of seeing Peter Bondra raise the most storied hardware in all of sports were snuffed out in a hurry.

After 24 seasons of good, but rarely great hockey, the Capitals had finally elevated their play to hockey’s grandest stage – only to get steamrolled by a franchise that has drank from Lord Stanley’s Cup 11 times.

*Even after being swept by Detroit, Kolzig finished the playoffs with a 12-9 record, a 1.95 goals against average, a .941 save percentage and four shutouts. That’s called getting it done, boys and girls.

And yet, although Washington suffered a beatdown in the finals, most Caps fans were just thankful for the experience. When you root for a team with little to no expectations, you’re able to celebrate the victories and brush off the setbacks easier than most.

Fast forward to the 2003-04 season when Capitals owner Ted Leonsis and his general manager, George McPhee, took a critical look at their roster and came to the gutsy decision to blow it all up and start over from scratch.

By their own admission, Leonsis and McPhee saw a team that was good enough to make the playoffs each year, but wasn’t much of a threat to do anything once the postseason began.

The new regime refused to accept mediocrity, so they traded away aging veterans to stockpile young prospects and draft picks while bracing for a painful rebuilding process known simply as “the plan.”

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(photo by Tom Boland)

I’m going to be completely honest with you – the Washington Capitals, at times this season, have been painful to watch.

Take, for example, the team’s pitiful effort at home in a 3-0 loss to the New York Islanders Tuesday night.

After 60 minutes of uninspired hockey by the home team it was tough to tell which team was tied for the fewest points in the Eastern Conference and which team was fighting for first place in their division.

And then, 24 hours later, the Capitals responded with an impressive 3-0 road victory over the Montreal Canadiens that had me scratching my head.

Did the players in the Capitals’ locker room show up for the Montreal game because of their lackluster performance the previous night?

Was the team fired up because the game represented a chance for retribution against Rene Bourque – Montreal’s newly-acquired player who knocked center Nicklas Backstrom out of action with a cheapshot elbow to the head?

Or is this team just schizophrenic and there’s no true way of knowing what anyone is going to see on any given night?

At this point, each of those answers seems to make sense. But when push comes to shove, I’m more inclined to believe it’s the third option that fits these days.

This team, as best as I can tell, still lacks a true identity. They’re no longer a run and gun team hoping to win a shootout every night. They’re not quite the lockdown defense juggernaut they hope to someday become.

Instead, the Caps are essentially a team that rarely gets shots on net, has trouble scoring goals consistently and almost never gets sustained pressure on an opponent.

How does a team earn a shutout victory on the road and still manage to leave a sour taste in your mouth? It probably has something to do with being limited to just 16 shots on net.

Against the Islanders, eight Washington players were held without a shot and six more had just one paltry shot on goal.

Against Montreal, six players were unable to register a single shot, while eight players had a single shot on net.

In fact, no player had more than two shots on goal against the Canadiens and captain Alex Ovechkin managed just one shot* for the entire game.

*Considering Ovechkin scored the one time he managed to put a shot in the general direction of Habs goalie Carey Price, it’s inexcusable that the $100-million man wouldn’t or couldn’t get another shot on target the rest of the evening.

Although Ovechkin averages more than five shots a game for his career, he’s failed to do so in each of his last eight games. Let’s go ahead and make it a priority to get him back on track.

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(photo by Brian Murphy)

Hello friends. Sorry for the lack of posts over the last week, but I was out of town and had very little access to the internet.

On the plus side though, I had the pleasure of spending a week out in San Francisco and was more than happy to enjoy a week of fantastic weather and playoff football.

While much of the east coast was stuck dealing with cold and rainy weather, I was loving life while rocking short sleeves as the temperature never dipped below 60 degrees.

If that wasn’t enough, I was also fortunate enough to be in a city that was absolutely ecstatic over hosting a playoff game.

Considering how rare home playoff games are here locally, it was a sight for sore eyes to see everyone wearing their favorite jerseys, etc. in the days leading up to the San Francisco 49ers hosting the New Orleans Saints.

Although I had little rooting interest in the 49ers prior to the Saints game, it was nearly impossible to not get caught up in the sense of pride shown by seemingly everyone I ran into.

And the more I looked into the 49ers, the easier it was to get behind the team as it is presently constructed.

Seriously Redskins fans, take a quick look at San Francisco’s roster and try not to start weeping.

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(photo by Brian Murphy)

Once again, the NFL playoffs are in full effect while the Washington Redskins are left on the outside looking in.

Because the franchise has just one playoff victory over the last decade, you’d think this would get easier to swallow, but that’s never the case.

With losses far outnumbering the wins in Washington, it’s not unreasonable to think that management might try to cut corners during a slow and painful rebuilding process, but mercifully, it appears those days are a thing of the past.

Instead, head coach Mike Shanahan appears to be attempting to build legitimate depth the old fashioned way – focusing the bulk of his energy on the NFL Draft as the primary method of acquiring talent while judiciously utilizing trades and free agency to round out the roster.

This conventional mindset might be “old hat” for most NFL teams, but the Redskins aren’t most NFL teams.

Seeing the front office target younger, cheaper talent as opposed to chasing the biggest names in free agency was a pleasant surprise last offseason, and the hope is that trend continues again this time around.

Before the Redskins can turn their attention to this year’s crop of free agents and college standouts who will enter the draft though, Washington must first make some tough decisions in-house.

Namely, which of the team’s free agents are worthy of a new contract and which players it’s time to part ways with. Here’s my take on some of the players Shanahan and friends will likely focus on between now and the start of free agency in early March.

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(photos by Brian Murphy)

For better or for worse, another year of disappointing football has come and gone in our nation’s capital. And while the 2011 season wasn’t exactly what fans of the Washington Redskins hoped for, it wasn’t all bad.

Head coach Mike Shanahan continues to retool and reshape his roster — dumping overpaid and underwhelming players in hopes of building a younger and hungrier roster.

The Redskins are no longer the oldest team in football. Nor are they the automatic punchline when an aging veteran hopes to collect one last payday before heading off into the sunset. These are obviously positives that a beleaguered fanbase can take pride in.

On a personal level, the 2011 campaign represented the first time in my seven years covering the team that I was able to cover all 16 regular season games.

In fact, the only time the Redskins took the field without me on the sidelines the entire year was when they traveled to Indianapolis for a meaningless exhibition game during the preseason.

Otherwise, I was there for the highest of the highs (also known as Week 1) and the lowest of the lows (a.k.a. – The John Beck Experiment).

Additionally, this was also the year I made a conscientious effort to push myself as a photographer. I figured it was well past time to take the training wheels off and see if I could keep up with the big boys on my own.

Once the season finally ended, I wanted to go back through my photos from 19 weeks of football to see what I was able to come up with.

With that in mind, here are the most compelling photos I was able to capture during the 2011 season. Please take a moment to look through them and let me know which ones, if any, stand out to you.

And finally, I’d like to sincerely thank all of you for your amazing support throughout the years. It really does make all of the long hours and travel worth it.

Hail.

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(photo by Brian Murphy)

As I walked into the locker room of the Washington Redskins following the team’s season-ending 34-10 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, I happened to catch a sincere moment between two teammates.

Middle linebacker London Fletcher, the 36-year-old grizzled veteran, was quietly chatting with rookie linebacker Ryan Kerrigan as the two finished getting dressed.

“You’re going to be so much better next year,” Fletcher said. “You’re going to have another year in this system, so you’re going to spend less time thinking and be able to react more naturally.”

It was clear by the tone of the conversation that Fletcher is excited to see the Purdue standout build off of his impressive rookie campaign – which featured 7.5 sacks, four forced fumbles and an interception returned for a touchdown.

Kerrigan, who the Redskins landed with the 16th overall pick in the 2011 NFL Draft, made a strong case for defensive rookie of the year.

His chief competition for the award is Denver linebacker Von Miller, who finished with one more tackle (64 to 63), four more sacks (11.5 to 7.5), but had two less forced fumbles (two to four), zero interceptions and zero touchdowns.

Regardless of whether or not Kerrigan beats out Miller for the award, he’s my pick for the Redskins’ player of the year because of one amazing statistic – Kerrigan played every single snap for Washington this season.

Even though the lockout caused him to miss out on the organized team activities and minicamps that rookies are usually afforded, Kerrigan came into a brand-new 3-4 scheme for the first time and was still able to take the field on day one and never look back.

You figure a defense is typically on the field for about 60 plays a game. Over the span of 16 games, that works out to roughly 960 plays in a season. And if that’s how many plays the Redskins’ defense faced, then Kerrigan was on the field for all 960 of them – making him the only player on either side of the ball to play every single down.

“It’s not surprising to me,” Atogwe said in regards to Kerrigan playing every snap of the 2011 season. “Ever since he fell from planet Krypton he’s been making plays. He’s durable and he’s the man of steel, so I’m not surprised.”

Count Atogwe as another individual who feels Kerrigan deserves to be recognized for his outstanding rookie season.

“Ryan was spectacular from the first game to the last,” said safety Oshiomogho Atogwe. “He’s going to be a phenomenal player.”

Off the field, Kerrigan’s impact could be even bigger for Washington.

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