On February 3, the Capitals began a partnership with the Examiner, running an advertisement section wrapped around the cover of the daily titled ‘Caps Extra.’ It’s an eye-catching, highly visual, four-page, color supplement that features color photos, four feature files bylined by Comcast Sportsnet’s Corey Masisak, and previews of upcoming Capitals’ games. The hockey section supplement will run weekly through April 21.

The Examiner has emerged in the past couple of years as a popular paper for commuters in particular, and its prevalence among Metro’s sizable ridership represented just the sort of the audience the Caps wanted to reach, Nate Ewell, the team’s senior director of media relations, told us. And the partnership with the Examiner allows the team to literally take over the front of the paper once a week.

Masisak’s participation in the project, Ewell added, represented a “perfect fit” for what the Caps wanted to do with it. Presently, ‘Caps Extra’ is available only as hard copy, with the distributed Examiner copy, but the Capitals own the rights to the section’s content, and they are entertaining ideas for incorporating it into the team’s web site down the road a bit. There’s good reason to do that; one of Masisak’s ongoing storylines in the section is identifying the top dozen moments in Capitals’ history, what he’s termed ‘The Defining Dozen.’ Here’s a rundown of Corey’s dozen best moments in Capitals’ history thus far:

• THE DEFINING DOZEN: No. 12: Ovechkin bests Crosby in ‘trick’-y affair

• THE DEFINING DOZEN: No. 11: Capitals move into their downtown digs

• THE DEFINING DOZEN: No. 10: Sergei Fedorov provides one last bit of heroism

• THE DEFINING DOZEN: No. 9: Bondra becomes Caps’ first goal-scoring champ

• DEFINING DOZEN: No. 8: The Jagr Era ends; rebuilding begins

• THE DEFINING DOZEN: No. 7: Ovechkin is all Hart for Capitals

• THE DEFINING DOZEN: No. 6: Furious finish sparks city’s interest

We run into Corey at Caps’ home games regularly, and if he doesn’t work in a certain Dale Hunter game 7 goal in his list there’ll be a heavy reckoning.

Speaking of Comcast Sportsnet, another new weekly media product, ‘Caps OT,’ a short online video program hosted by Michelle Scalise, debuted this week. It’s the brainchild of Scalise and her Comcast colleague Sebastian Salazar. Comcast conducted research as to how long the program should be to best engage online audiences, and found 4-5 minutes the favored length. The project has been a priority pursuit for Scalise since her arrival at Comcast last fall.

When we spoke with her about the new product this week she cited the Caps’ own weekly program ‘Red Line,‘ which airs in-season on Comcast, as a powerful influence because of its features on players off the ice. Comcast’s own research bolstered Scalise’s instincts about such content: Fans really dig it.  So ‘Caps OT’ will offer similar features capturing players and their interests and enthusiasms off the ice.

Scalise and her digital team at Comcast want the show to drive traffic to the site, but they are open to adapting and evolving it and offering it in new and fresh applications (such as iTunes, perhaps). ‘Caps OT’ will regularly offer a ‘Play of the week’ highlight with local hockey media reacting to it; interviews of hockey analysts; and fresh, non-traditional player features. For instance, in a recent interview of John Carlson, Scalise asked the young defender to cite the most recent instance of his singing out loud.

Full disclosure: OFB was informally consulted to assist the outlet with a name for the new program. Initially, the product was going to be a blog with video content, so we had a little fun in our creative thinking. We also took into consideration the outlet’s alluring and hockey-savvy on-camera talent. Here’s a partial list of names we suggested:

• Zamboni Dreamin’

• Hockey Hotties in Heels

• The Estrogen Enforcement Zone

• The Hanson Sisters

• Heels ‘n Knuckles

• Head Turners on a Swivel

• Five for Cat Fighting

• Lipstick ‘n Stitches

The latter was a particular favorite, and as you can probably tell, we didn’t much involve DC Sports Chick in the suggestion process.

Update: Here is the debut editition of Caps OT.

The party: Eric McErlain, founder of Off Wing Opinion; Corey Masisak and Michelle Scalise from Comcast Sportsnet; and Jon Press, founder of Japer’s Rink.  Our Gary Kriebel will be perched down low snapping scores of photos during Saturday night’s game at Giant Center. Masisak was up at Giant Center last weekend covering the Bears, and will be making a return engagement with us. We’ll generate video files as well. And in a fun bit of warehousing of our new media products this weekend, we’ll have for Facebook users a central access home, a Hershey Bears Weekend page. The Hershey Bears’ Jess Mikula, who has her own blog, Thoughts on Goal, will help out as well, and she’s even baking cookies today for the arrival of the D.C. bloggers. 

We’re highly likely to catch up with John Walton a bit once his radio and blogging labor is completed on Saturday night. And Gabby co-author and Bears’ beat reporter Tim Leone will impart his wisdom to the blogger newcomers, perhaps even regale us with some tales of covering the Bears in great old Hersheypark Arena. This morning Leone noted that Hershey has won 23 straight games with Chris Bourque in the lineup.   

It’s a pretty special time to be making a visit to our farm club. Like the Capitals, the Hershey Bears in mid-February rank as the best club in their league. They’ve won an incredible 18 consecutive games at home — a streak that began all the way back last November 29. That’s just one victory shy of the AHL’s all-time mark for excellence in home ice play. Perhaps even more incredibly, the Bears have won 24 of the past 26 games they’ve played — the best 26-game stretch in franchise history. And if that weren’t impressive enough, they also own two separate double-digit win streaks: 12 wins in a row beginning December 12 and ending on January 9; and 11 wins in a row from January 16 through February 12.

The Bears sit perched atop the AHL’s East division with 84 points — 22 points better than second-place Albany. They are on pace to obliterate their all-time best season of 2006-07, when they won 51 games under head coach Bruce Boudreau. During that historic season the Bears at this juncture has 32 wins. This season’s club already has 41. Wow.

We think we’ll have just a few good storylines to follow. And the roadtrip will help us get a much-needed fix of some high-quality live hockey, in one of the best of all hockey settings.

“It’s been genuinely exciting for me, watching and listening to Corey formulate questions of Capitals’ players and coaches during press conferences the past couple of seasons, mature from being a quiet, respectful young reporter into one of the most thoughtful and astute observers of the game night after night. Here’s how respected he is: this past Monday night, mere minutes after the Capitals suffered a disheartening and embarrassing defeat at home to last-place Carolina, Capitals’ head coach Bruce Boudreau concluded his press conference by directly addressing the trauma at the Times: “Corey, if this is your last game, I’d like to thank you for everything you’ve done in the covering of our team for the last couple of years.”

I also shared with my Canadian readers my favorite anecdote involving Corey. Just as he was arriving on the Caps’ beat three years ago he agreed to meet me for dinner and a chat before a Caps’ game one evening. He told me that night that he was convinced from being on the Navy football beat that no matter how long his career in sports journalism lasted he’d never meet a caliber of athlete whose character rivaled that of the Midshipmen in Annapolis. If you know anything about the profiles of the men and women who attend the U.S. Naval Academy, and commit to serving their country for years after graduating, you’d understand why he said that. And then Corey followed with this observation: “But already on the hockey beat I’ve found that hockey players are even more impressive.”

Please take some time this holiday weekend, if you haven’t already, and read the reminiscences of Corey and the Times’ coverage offered by Eric McErlain and JP.

nateewell Who will be the first ice-level TV guy to jump out and help his home team? I got $ on Bob Errey.

dcsportschick What’s funnier, that the Caps are up 7-1 or that Crosby is resting his groin?

JohnMKeeley Department of Homeland Security needed in Philly: #Caps going Al Qaeda on Flyers

cmasisak22 Oh my god — a referee just got hit in the face with the puck and this place erupted in cheers. Pathetic.

brettleonhardt Always Sunny in Philadelphia? Not Dec. 5th 2009

kaaaali I bet my neighbors wonder what is going on in my apartment when I’m clapping and screaming “Yesssss!” or ”Noooo!” during a #Caps game. #NHL

JapersRink Semin’s biggest defenders like to martyr themselves and think everyone’s out to get their guy. It’s simply not true and not that simplistic.

jwaltonhockey Bears win 5-4, Chris Bourque number one star of the game with two goals and an assist. http://bit.ly/8y8uYN

VogsCaps Anyone remember a rash of “Gordie Howe must change” or “Mark Messier must change stories back in the day? Yeah, me neither. Grab a tissue.

dcsportsbog GMGM on Ovechkin: “I’m glad he’s not pulling back. He’ll learn to pick his spots a little bit…but I’m glad he’s defiant.”

brettleonhardt Shout out to @akeesee820 for being my 80th follower. If @akeesee820 can tell why 80 is so important you got two tickets to an upcoming game.

nateewell Don’t look now, but @GreenLife52 has 25% more points than any other Canadian d-man

timleone Caps just announced they reclaimed Chris Bourque and assigned him to Hershey.

DanaWalker_chat Will Joe B. & Locker FINALLY discuss food and/or their moms tonight? I think so… #caps

dchesnokov Bengt-Åke Gustafsson is considering coaching a KHL club if he doesn’t carry on coaching Team Sweden. A few KHL clubs show interest.

bmcnally14 Matt Bradley in 81 games last year: 5 goals. Matt Bradley in 28 games this year: 5 goals.

cmasisak22 Crosby: “You can’t judge guys on one hit. Some guys see suspensions as something they learn from. Other guys brush it off and do it again.”

dchesnokov A rare sighting. Too rare. RT @SlavaKM I just saw M.Nylander practice alone at Rockville rink wearing full NYR gear and Jagr jersey.

nateewell All lies. This interview is making him look even more deceitful, dishonest, biased and wrong.

nateewell I think I might have lost a Dick Dillman vote today.

HockeyWashington, alighted in vigil, needing good news about a Russian knee

Also, don’t forget to follow us: @OnFrozenBlog

“Green is an atypical offensive defenseman,” Masisak wrote. “He enjoys carrying the puck, which often leads to exhilarating rushes from one end of the ice to the other. His stick-handling and creativity rivals that of Alex Ovechkin and Alexander Semin, while his vision and passing ability is equivalent of a playmaking pivot like Nicklas Backstrom.”

A team like Carolina proves that you don’t necessarily have to have a no. 1 blueline stud to win a Cup, but the vast majority of champions do. The Caps have theirs.
Another key ingredient is an elite playmaker for both the no. 1 line and the top unit power play. Nicklas Backstrom is that. Swedish hockey media years ago identified Backstrom as an heir apparent to Peter Forsberg. That may have been an unfair comparison, but in his rookie season in ’08-09 Backstrom made a magnificent, Calder finalist transition to star center status in North America. His stock, too, is one you buy.
The center position on the Caps was one thought to be improved but still a work in progress this time a year ago. This season a healthy Michael Nylander — the team’s top scorer in the preseason — will in all likelihood center the team’s third line. The Caps will skate three productive lines this season, and that helps out a bit in the playoffs.
In the cumulative, all of these factors are significant and indicative perhaps of a good-bet-for-the-playoffs kind of club. But if I had to point to a catalyst cause for all the truly heady predictions it’d be to the perception that the Capitals’ well drafted and assembled core of young talent, which certainly includes the likes of Alexander Semin, Brooks Laich, Shaone Morrisonn, Jeff Schultz, Boyd Gordon, and Tomas Fleischmann, is collectively skating impressively now but also with their best NHL days still ahead of them. It’s a 95-to-100-pt. club on paper in the early October moment, absent the achievement of any notable production improvement among all the skilled youth. Who believes they’ve all plateaued?
Ultimately, a Stanley Cup caliber team is forged by distinctive chemistry, and this, too, is a calling card of these Caps. Something obviously special took hold in that room last spring. And it’s basically all back, ripening.

We’re underway with period two. Neuvirth and Holtby now in net. The French (Canadian) Connection (Perreault and Bouchard) are seated together in the stands, taking in the action.
If squad B’s to get back in this — and they’ll need 3 goals at a minimum to win — you have to think that the line of Semin-Fedorov-Laich will have to play a large role in the effort.
Holtby snuffs out an Ovechkin breakaway with 13:15 left in the second frame! He’ll be placing a phone call or seven home tonight, methinks.
Chris Bourque is really moving well this camp — he’s been very active in the two scrimmages I’ve seen him compete in. And his Bears’ teammate Andrew Gordon has also been really active in this scrimmage.
Alexander Semin made a nifty no-look, backhand dish to Feds in the slot that # 91 snapped into Michal Neuvirth’s glove. The young goalie came out in a challenge and well eliminated a lot of shooting area for the legend.
Boyd Gordon was smarting on a shift just now — he may have taken a cross-check to the lower back. correction, a slapshot to the leg. He was visibly wincing trying to help clear the zone. A few minutes later, he was back out on his regular shift, seemingly no worse for wear.
We lost 10 minutes in the second frame (20 minutes of running clock), and it’s still 2-0 A squad. That’s how the stanza ended.
Boyd Gordon poked in a loose puck in tight past Simeon Varlamov a little more than 3 minutes into the final frame. Then, just 7 seconds later, Alexandre Giroux tallied to even it at 2! Sean Collins was announced with a helper on Giroux’s score. We’ve a little over 5 minutes remaining, and we’re all knotted at 2. I know that Mike Vogel is hoping that the first-ever Gaetan Duschene Cup is settled via shootout.
Boyd Gordon power rushed down the left side of the ice with a little more than a minute left in this tied-up affair, and Alexander Ovechkin two-hand-chopped his stick for a slash that he got called for. So A squad is shortanded for the final 1:06.
John Carlson blasted a point drive that Varlamov snagged with his glove in spectacular fashion with just 30 seconds left.
Oh No Vogs, it’s a shootout! 2-2 after 60 minutes.
Eric Fehr and Viktor Kozlov both missed their shootout attempts, and Alex Semin missed for Squad B. That brought up Ovi of the Four Trophies. He put a slick stop-and-go move on Holtby and tucked the puck in 5-hole for a 1-0 A lead. But Boyd Gordon, who really came on strong in the third period, knotted it moments later.  Keith Aucoin missed, so we went to . . .
Extended shootout, Vogs!
Brooks Laich put a seriously YouTube-worthy corkscrew move on Varlamov, roofing it to wild Kettler applause. This of course meant that Matt Bradley had to match. Which he did, backhanding a real nice water-bottle-shaker. Sergei Fedorov then went through his own legs in a bit of razzle-dazzle that he tucked 5-hole. And the Duchesne Cup went the way of B when Chris Bourque went wide with his effort.
“I thought [the Duchesne Cup] was a good idea,” Bruce Boudreau said afterward. “You never knew how it was gonna work out . . . I’ve done this and been a part of it before where it’s not worked out as good where the scores get out of hand and ends up with some fights, but this all worked out really well.
“To win it in a shootout, and to come from behind on the last shot to win it in a shootout, I thought it had a bit of drama.”
This blogger’s three stars of the entire Duchesne Cup:

3. Jose Theodore
2. Alexander Ovechkin
1. Bruce Boudreau, for hatching the idea