Kettler Capitals Iceplex

When: Today-Oct. 5. Sessions begin at 10 a.m. daily. Where: Kettler Capitals Iceplex. Admission: All sessions are free and open to the public. Preseason opener : Wednesday, 7 p.m. vs. Carolina Hurricanes at RBC Center, Raleigh, N.C.

This is what the Washington Capitals can afford over the next month, by which time their season will be nearly a third over: A player out of position. A misunderstanding about what Coach Adam Oates wants. A miscommunication between two players, each with a different interpretation of Oates's new system. A goal allowed because of any or all of that. This is what the Capitals, who have lost their first two games and given up twice as many goals as they have scored, can't afford: Blips...

Time Opponent TV Tonight 7 p.m. at Thrashers CSN Friday 7:30 at Panthers CSN Saturday 7:30 at Lightning CSN ALL GAMES ON WWWT (107.7 FM, 1500 AM) Prospect Sami Lepisto was recalled yesterday morning and then reassigned to Hershey of the American Hockey League after practice at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. The 23-year-old was promoted in case John Erskine (undisclosed injury)

T here is this Washington media and entertainment company in search of new revenue streams as it tries to update its decades-old business model. Faced with perennial losses from key divisions, the company is going aggressively digital, asking employees to broaden their skill sets, collaborate more, produce extra content and find innovative ways to deliver it. Meet the Monumental Network, a Web site that NBA Wizards and NHL Capitals owner Ted Leonsis is launching this week in a search for new...

As the Washington Capitals gear up for their season opener, single-game tickets are poised to go on sale this afternoon. Ticket sales will begin Tuesday at 2 p.m. They will be available online at WashingtonCaps.com and by phone at 202-397-SEAT. Fans can also buy tickets in person at the Verizon Center, Kettler Capitals Iceplex and at any local Ticketmaster outlet. Convenience fees on ticket purchases will be waived through Feb. 13, according to the organization. The Capitals' first game of the season is...

With roughly a week remaining until the Washington Capitals must settle on a 23-man opening night roster, Coach Bruce Boudreau and General Manager George McPhee continue to weigh all options. During yesterday's practice, Boudreau had veteran center Sergei Fedorov line up as a defenseman, a position Fedorov has played sporadically throughout his NHL career. "Do we want to carry seven natural defensemen?" Boudreau said at Kettler Capitals Iceplex. "Do we want to carry six natural defensemen?

One of the most important tests of Coach Bruce Boudreau's tenure behind the Washington Capitals ' bench arrived Tuesday night at Verizon Center. The Capitals needed a goal to force the game against the Anaheim Ducks to overtime, and after calling a timeout to draw up a play, Boudreau put out the players he felt gave his team the best chance of snagging a point in the standings. To everyone's surprise — especially Alex Ovechkin's — the team captain was not among them . Ovechkin was...

One day after watching his backup goalie almost single-handedly steal a game, Washington Capitals Coach Bruce Boudreau said he intends to give Brent Johnson a second straight start tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes at Verizon Center. Boudreau dismissed the notion that there's a burgeoning goalie controversy between Johnson and José Theodore. Instead, Boudreau insisted, he plans to go with the "hot hand. " Recently, that has belonged to Johnson, who made a team-high 42 saves in the Capitals' 2-1...

When the Washington Capitals host the Eastern Conference-leading New York Rangers tonight at Verizon Center, they could be without two important players. Defenseman Shaone Morrisonn suffered a groin muscle pull in the first period of Thursday's 3-2 victory over Carolina and center Sergei Fedorov left the game early in the third with an undisclosed ailment. Neither participated in yesterday's optional practice at Kettler Capitals Iceplex, and both are listed as day-to-day, Coach Bruce Boudreau said.

When Washington Capitals prospect Joe Finley hits the ice this week, the 6-foot-7, 245-pounder will line up at a position he hasn't played full-time since, well, he can't remember when. Finley was drafted as a defenseman 27th overall in 2005, but he'll be a left wing when he joins 22 of the organization's other prospects at Kettler Capitals Iceplex for the team's annual rookie camp, which begins Monday. Coach Bruce Boudreau hopes the rare-but-not-unheard-of move jumpstarts Finley's career.

As the Washington Capitals gear up for their season opener, single-game tickets are poised to go on sale this afternoon. Ticket sales will begin Tuesday at 2 p.m. They will be available online at WashingtonCaps.com and by phone at 202-397-SEAT. Fans can also buy tickets in person at the Verizon Center, Kettler Capitals Iceplex and at any local Ticketmaster outlet. Convenience fees on ticket purchases will be waived through Feb. 13, according to the organization. The Capitals' first game of the season is...

Adam Oates should rise Sunday morning and drive to the top floor of the Ballston Common Mall's parking deck, pulling into his spot at Kettler Capitals Iceplex almost unconsciously, with so much else filling a mind that processes information nimbly. He should be reviewing Saturday night's game against Tampa Bay and thinking ahead to Monday night's against Florida, both scheduled for Verizon Center, both canceled. He should have 30 games as an NHL head coach behind him. He has...

Dale Hunter likes to say that he considers the Washington Capitals to be his team , no matter where his career takes him. But once again they will be his team from afar, following the announcement Monday that he will not come back to Washington for another season as coach. Two days after the Capitals were eliminated from the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs by the New York Rangers, Hunter decided to return to his home, family and the junior hockey team he co-owns with his brother in...

As the Washington Capitals trickled onto the ice Friday morning at Kettler Capitals Iceplex, each player was greeted by a warm round of applause from the approximately 100 fans in attendance. When it was Joel Ward's turn, those claps gave way to a standing ovation. His teammates, meantime, tapped their sticks on the ice in unison. The reason of their appreciation was twofold: Ward, of course, scored the series-clinching goal against the Boston Bruins in overtime of Game 7 ...

Since the Washington Capitals began training camp in September, the mantra around Kettler Capitals Iceplex has been accountability. After consecutive playoff disappointments, Coach Bruce Boudreau tried to install a more disciplined approach in the dressing room and on the ice. But from Boudreau, a gregarious players' coach known affectionately as "Gabby," the message, to some, did not seem genuine. When the Capitals began to struggle in November, Alex Ovechkin and many of his teammates stopped...

Bruce Boudreau was driving to Kettler Capitals Iceplex shortly after 6 a.m. on Monday when his cellphone beeped. Washington Capitals General Manager George McPhee had sent him a text message. "He said, ‘Call me when you wake up,' " Boudreau said. "I said, ‘Uh oh, that's not good.' " McPhee fired Boudreau , the Capitals' coach the previous four seasons, in a meeting at McPhee's house and replaced him with former Capitals captain Dale Hunter in...

Yesterday had been a scheduled day off from practice for the Washington Capitals, a rare chance to recharge before the regular season grind intensifies later this month. But after Saturday's 5-0 blowout in Buffalo, the Capitals' most lopsided defeat since March, Coach Bruce Boudreau revoked their respite. Instead, a scowling Boudreau presided over a practice he called the toughest of his tenure. The hour-long session, conducted with General Manager George McPhee and majority owner Ted Leonsis watching from a perch above the rink at...

The Washington Capitals' development camp roster has three first-round draft picks and four players who were chosen in the second round. There's another who won a gold medal as a member of Canada's world junior championship team. But after the camp's first two days at Kettler Capitals Iceplex, the spotlight focused on one prospect in particular -- defenseman John Carlson, whom Coach Bruce Boudreau said is "easily" the most NHL-ready of the two dozen prospects in attendance. "You notice him out here right...

I will miss Bruce Boudreau, and not just in the plethora of commercials he starred in while coaching the Washington Capitals . Boudreau had a dry wit and did not suffer fools, at least among the media contingent at Kettler Capitals Iceplex and Verizon Center. He was never dull, and for a columnist, that's great. But coaches don't have to please columnists; they have to please general managers, and owners, and fans. Increasingly, Boudreau was failing to do that. And he certainly wasn't pleasing his players, at...

The Washington Capitals didn't have a day off Sunday as originally scheduled. Instead, they were on the ice for practice about 15 hours after their dreadful 7-1 loss in Toronto , one of four straight defeats and an even longer stretch of games featuring poor, unfocused play. With another game Monday against the Phoenix Coyotes and a total of four contests in the next six nights, there's no rest for a team that has made a trend out of careless defensive-zone...