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3 Days Washington Capitals Karl Alzner is a restricted free agent this summer. He made $1.27 million last season and carried a cap hit of $1,285,000. The steady, 24-year-old defenseman will no doubt be getting a raise and given his importance to the team it will probably be a long-term deal. | 11 Days Washington Capitals The growing concern for the Capitals is whether they will ever make the leap in the playoffs with their current homegrown stars. Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green are no longer young players in the league. Yet they also don't have an Eastern Conference final appearance between them and have two first-round-and-outs in the past four years. Will the Caps ever get over the hump? "Funny you ask that," Karl Alzner said. "A little bit. I don't know if that's the right mentality. I'm sure it's not the right mentality. But we all play this game to win and when you see one year after another year disappointments - and I know it's only been three playoffs for me. ... You don't want to see the time tick away. You want to at least get a taste of it before you're done.' So I hopefully have a long time. But, yeah, I've thought about it." | 14 Days Washington Capitals The Capitals have a chance to advance to the second round by winning their first game at Madison Square Garden in the series in Game 6. In fact, the Rangers haven't won on the road in this series either. The Capitals know MSG will be rocking, but they believe it's a matter of adjusting to the way New York played in Games 3 and 4, which they believe has happened now. "They made adjustments for Game 3 and it took us two games to figure that out," Karl Alzner said. "We thought we had it figured out in Game 4, but they came out really hard again. So it's just all about being able to adapt, and they changed and we didn't get there quick enough. There's no doubt that it's a tough building to play in; they'll have more energy and more emotion but we've got to use that [to our advantage]." | 3 Months Washington Capitals Karl Alzner got his first point of the year in Tuesday's comeback win over Florida. He scored on a slapshot at the 5:33 mark of the second to even the score at 2-2 in what would eventually become a 6-5 overtime win. Alzner is known more for his defensive game than offense, so it isn't surprising that he had been pointless in the team's previous 12 games. He has averaged nearly 21 minutes of ice time per contest and has 25 blocked shots to his credit. | 4 Months Washington Capitals The Capitals say the little mistakes are adding up to big problems through the season's first 10 games. The Caps have been a big disappointment at 2-7-1, which is the worst record in the NHL. They rank among the bottom third in goals for (2.30 per game) and top three in the most goals given up (3.60 per game). "I don't think there's one big gaping problem, but I think there's a couple little things that are really hurting us," defenseman Karl Alzner said. "I think that our [power play and penalty kill] haven't been very good. . And I think that some of the little mental errors that we're making, it doesn't seem like we're getting the same thing for. A lot of it's just going against." Sure, the little mistakes add up but it seems like there are bigger issues right now for this team. | 4 Months Washington Capitals Karl Alzner was happy with the resiliency the Capitals showed in their 3-2 overtime loss to the Devils. Coach Adam Oates had described his team as "fragile" a day earlier. The message was sent, as they went down 2-0 but came back to grab a point. "We've been a pretty weak minded team the last few games," defenseman Karl Alzner said. "Tonight was the first night we showed a little bit of resilience and actually battled. ... Everyone was just so mad at the way we were playing and the results that we're not getting. No one's happy about that, so guys were battling as hard as they possibly could." | 6 Months Washington Capitals Karl Alzner doesn't see conflicting viewpoints on the lockout standing in the way of team success once the Capitals take to the ice following a new CBA. Roman Hamrlik and Michal Neuvrith drew the ire of several locked-out players, including their Washington teammates Troy Brouwer and Alex Ovechkin, for criticizing NHLPA boss Donald Fehr. "It is what it is," Alzner said "You're not always going to be best friends or get along with everybody you play with. It's almost impossible with different personalities. But when it comes down to playing and doing what you have to do, it's going to work out." The Capitals defenseman has chosen the chalk up the disagreements to frustration during a tense time, but he doesn't see it becoming an issue. Neuvirth has already apologized for saying that the lockout is about "several superstars with big contracts," while Hamrlik has spoken to Brouwer to patch things up as well. | |
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