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The Washington Capitals of the NHL signed Russian winger Dmitry Kugryshev to an entry level rookie contract. He has been drafted by the Capitals during the second round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft, with the 58th overall pick.

Kugryshev, who turned 20 in January, has spent the latest two seasons with the Quebec Remparts of the QMJHL, scoring respectively 74 and 81 points. The Moscow, Russia, native won a gold medal with Team Russia U18 back in 2007, with a silver and bronze medal at the WJC stage. He has been included in this year's WJC long roster, but he has been cut during the preparation camp.

Kugryshev also skated with the Capitals in the training camp on September and during other rookie camps.

NHL star Alexander Semin gave an interview to Russian newspaper Sovsport.ru which was translated on the popular Washington Capitals' blog Japers' Rink. In this interview he talked about the upcoming Olympic Games in Vancouver, about 2008 WC final match and about his composed personality. Special guest of the interview: Ovechkin's dad.

RussianHockeyFans.com collected the most interesting parts of the interview.

Russian superstar Alexander Ovechkin was really close to battle in another NHL fight, but Matt Bradley stole him the scene and fought instead of him during the third period of the Tuesday's match between the Washington Capitals and the Tampa Bay Lightning.

The first brawl was started by Stewe Downie after a clean hit by Ovechkin, but it was quickly stopped by the refs, who gave the two players a minor penalty. When they got out of the penalty box Ovechkin was ready to go as he dropped the gloves and the helmet too, but when he and Downie were approaching each other, Matt Bradley intervened and started fighting Downie himself, not allowing his captain to fight.

"I didn't see him actually," said Ovechkin after the match to the Washington Post. "So I dropped my helmet, dropped my gloves, ready to fight, and Brads jumped in the fight for me. He do a great job."

"We had a guy like that going after our best player, obviously we can't let that happen," Bradley stated to the Washington Post. "I'll bet they would do the exact same thing if someone was squaring off with Stamkos. I mean, you don't let guys like that go after your best players, and he's our best player. And no matter who it is, we're not gonna allow someone like Downie to go after him."

Below is the video of the fight.

Right on Christmas time the Washington Capitals extended Alexander Semin's contract for one more year, with sources from TSN claiming that it was worth around six million dollars. Semin's contract will now run out in June 2011. This was the main topic of an interview that Alexander gave to Slava Malamud of Sport Express.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.

Russian NHL superstar Alexander Ovechkin was named Washington Capitals' captain on Tuesday. The position was vacant after the former captain Chris Clark has been traded with defenseman Milan Jurcina for Columbus Blue Jackets' Jason Chimera.

"If I need to say something, I will say something," Ovechkin told the Washington Post. "But I will show what I can do on the ice. It's a big honor for me. I'm going to do my best, but I don't want to concentrate on having a 'C' on my heart. I'm just going to play the same."

The Capitals won the match 4-2, but Ovechkin has been left out of the score sheet. Alexander Semin scored two goals, including the game winning one.

"I had talked to a lot of [players] the last couple of days and they said Alex is the only choice," said Bodreau to the Washington Post. "He's our leader, he's our guy. What shows he was ready was when I talked to him two or three days ago, he said he would accept the responsibility but 'only if my teammates want it.' He was already thinking about the team instead of himself, which is what captains do."

Ovechkin is the fourteenth captain in the Capitals' history and the sixth Russian player who to have the same honor. He succeeds Pavel Bure (Florida Panthers), Alexander Mogilny (Buffalo Sabres), Alexei Yashin (Ottawa Senators and New York Islanders), Alexei Zhamnov (Chicago Blackhawks) and Ilya Kovalchuk (Atlanta Thrashers).

Washington Capitals head coach Bruce Bodreau, as reported by Tarik El-Bashir in his Capitals Insider, feels that Semyon Varlamov is quickly improving in the recover from the groin injury he suffered on December 7th.

Bodreau: "Semyon Varlamov is inching toward returning to the lineup. He's getting betterm the week after Christmas, he's going to be playing one of those games. I don't know which one it will be, but it will be one of them."

Semyon Varlamov is a strong candidate for the third goalkeeper spot at the upcoming Olympic Games in Vancouver. This season he has posted so far a .927 save percentage with a GAA of 2.21.

Alexander Ovechkin of the Washington Capitals took part in a photo shoot for Men's Journal.

The photo shoot took place last September in New York.

The photo will appear in the December-January issue of Men's Journal.

Below is a video of the shoot:

Alexander Ovechkin gave an interview to Anna Nasekina of Sovetskiy Sport in Montreal where his Capitals faced the Canadiens. Ovechkin talked about being a caveman, not caring about what others think of him, the Olympics, girls, and a lot of other funny stuff.

RussianHockeyFans.com offers you a translation.

Alexander Ovechkin talked to media about his knee injury after skating for 4 minutes in today's practice before leaving the ice.

It's not a bad injury. I thought it was going to be worse, but thank God I can walk, I can skate. Of course, it's a little bit sore, but it's not that serious.

I can do nothing about it. It's just a moment of the game. I turned and realize I don't have time to stop.

Why do I have to listen to somebody who say, 'Hey, you have to change your game, and somebody going to kill you'. Well, nobody going to kill me. I just play my game and I just enjoy my time and I enjoy my life. It's me, and it is what it is.

The Washington Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau says that it is hard to tell Ovechkin to change the way he plays, reports Corey Masisak of The Washington Times in his twitter.

He's pretty reckless. It is hard telling a guy who scores 60 goals a year to change the way he plays. At the same time, you don't want to see him getting hurt. Maybe he needs to pick his spots a little better.

I just don't want him to put himself in harm's way. I don't think anything being said will change the way he plays. I don't think there is a malicious bone of him trying to hurt anybody. He just plays hard and he plays to win every shift. It is a really fine line between taking that away from him and I don't see how you can take it away without talking to him.

Alexander Ovechkin, who got injured in Monday's game after going knee-on-knee with Tim Gleason, skated on ice for about four minutes during today's practice, reports Corey Masisak of The Washington Times in his twitter.

Alex Ovechkin is on the ice right now, but not in full equipment -- just gloves, stick and skates.

Well, Alex Ovechkin's time on the ice this morning last about four minutes. He did bend his knee a few times, but not much.

Alexander Ovechkin was helped off the ice after his own hit on Tim Gleason.

Erik El-Bashir of the Washington Post is reporting that Ovechkin was walking after the game.

I caught up to Alex Ovechkin before he boarded the team bus following tonight's 3-2 win in Raleigh, but the star winger would only say "no comment" when I inquired about his knee and the first period hit that resulted in his ejection.

I did, however, get to observe him walking. He had a slight limp, but he did not appear to be wearing a brace and was not using crutches.

Here is the video of the hit: