BRADEN BROADENS HIS HORIZONS

FEW NHL TEAMS RELIED ON THEIR starting goalie more before the all-star break than the Capitals did upon Braden Holtby, who started 39 of 46 games. That was a welcome change for a player who struggled through a miserable 2013-14. He was asked to tweak his play¬ing style in net last year under former coach Adam Oates. Holtby struggled, lost confidence and was nowhere near the player who started 21 playoff games and looked like the team’s goalie of the future. But Holtby has found his game again under new coach Barry Trotz and Trotz’s longtime goalie coach Mitch Korn, both of whom arrived in the off-season from Nashville. Korn, especially, espouses a mental approach to the position that agrees with Holtby. Now the question for Washington: How much is too much?…

The Instigator

CLICHÉ$ FOR DOLLAR$

IT’S TIME FOR THE NHL TRADE DEADLINE, WHICH MEANS IT’S time for a torrent of clichés from players and team brass. So this year, why not have some fun with it? Print out this handy NHL Trade Deadline Cliché Bingo Card and by the time March 2 rolls around, it shouldn’t take you long to complete it-especially if you watch one of the Jedi masters of cliché, such as Blues defenseman and amateur verbal anesthesiologist Jay Bouwmeester, go to work in front of a microphone:…

GLOBAL WARMING

WAS THE NHL’S WORLD CUP ANNOUNCEMENT A STEP TOWARD OLYMPIC PARTICIPATION in 2018? Who knows? The two tournaments are separate entities. The Olympics and their revenues belong to the IIHF, whereas the 2016 World Cup of Hockey lines the NHL’s pockets. That’s the whole point of the thing. And perhaps it’s because the NHL wants to make an extra buck that it introduced such a gimmicky format when commissioner Gary Bettman announced the event at all-star weekend in Columbus. The field will include staple contenders Canada, the United States, Sweden, Russia, Finland and the Czech Republic but also manufactured squads Team Europe and the North American Youngstars. The former features players from every remaining European nation, from Slovakia to Denmark. The latter: Canadians and Americans 23 or younger when the tournament…