For more than 50 years, The Washington Post was the most authoritative source for coverage of the Washington Capitals. That era suddenly came to an end this week, when the company shut down its sports department amid layoffs and cost-savings initiatives.

Countless Washington Post reporters – including business writers, real estate writers, and bloggers – wrote about the team in one way or another. But no one knew the organization better than the beat writers, who followed the Capitals around the nation for half a century, meticulously chronicling the team’s complete story, from the day owner Abe Pollin made the decision to bring hockey to the nation’s capital, all the way to the team’s 4-1 win on Monday against Carolina.

Each of these beat writers surely has countless behind-the-scenes stories from the Capital Centre, Capital One Arena, Piney Orchard, MedStar Iceplex, and more than 30 arenas throughout the league. Instead of writing the book that this deserves, I’ll have to settle for telling a brief history of The Washington Post’s primary beat writers for the Washington Capitals. (Disclosure: I was spared from the layoffs at The Post but contributed to its Capitals coverage over the past 15 years.)

Post Sports, including video journalist Jonathan Forsythe, Caps editor Lindsay Applebaum, and stats analyst Neil Greenberg hosts a live discussion with Caps defenseman Steve Oleksy in 2013.

Despite the team’s lackluster beginnings, The Post led its coverage with a hockey journalism all-star in beat reporter Robert Fachet, who began his career at the paper as a copy editor in 1964. A hockey fan even before D.C. had a team, Fachet covered the Stanley Cup Finals for The Post and attended minor-league games in Baltimore and Hershey on his days off. He covered the Capitals from their inception through much of the 1980s, witnessing their rise from bottom-dwellers to playoff mainstays. Fachet died in 1998 at age 65. His photo hangs on the press box wall at Capital One Arena alongside other notable journalists and broadcasters.

Kathy Blumenstock had the beat for a time in the 1980s, the first woman in the job at a time when there weren’t too many female sports reporters. She was there to cover 18-year-old Scott Stevens, who scored in his debut game. She worked in sports for many years and was a deputy sports editor at The Post’s website in the late 1990s.

Dave Sell took over the beat for a few seasons in the early 1990s, covering rumors of Pollin exploring opportunities to sell the team, plus countless losses in the playoffs. The day after the Washington Redskins beat the Buffalo Bills in the Super Bowl XXVI, Sell began his game story about a Capitals win with the line, “Meanwhile, in other news…”

Len Hochberg had the Caps beat in the mid-1990s, covering the Olaf Kolzig and Peter Bondra era, plus more playoff losses. Hochberg is now a golf writer for Rotowire.

Alex Prewitt makes a face at my camera as he and Isabelle Khurshudyan wait for the press conference after the 2015 Winter Classic.

Starting in 1996, Rachel Alexander (now Nichols) covered the Capitals for several seasons, including the team’s run to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1998. She later left The Post, spending many years at ESPN and CNN, and now hosts Hometown with Rachel Nichols on Monumental Sports Network.

Jason La Canfora took over for Nichols in the early 2000s, covering the Jaromir Jagr era. He later worked for the NFL Network, and eventually returned to the Post as a football analyst.

Tarik El-Bashir is well known to Capitals fans and continues to cover the team for Monumental Sports Network, but he began as The Post’s beat writer prior to the 2004 lockout. He remained on the beat through the early years of the Alex Ovechkin era, attended “The Goal” game (his head was down when Ovechkin scored), and expanded coverage through the then-new medium of blogging. El-Bashir left the beat in 2010 but stayed with The Post before moving to Comcast SportsNet. After covering the Commanders, he returned to the Capitals full time, later working at The Athletic, and now covers the team again at Monumental.

Before Katie Carrera took over the Capitals beat, she worked in The Post’s sports department and essentially willed her way into the press box when El-Bashir stepped back from the daily grind. Carrera covered the team for many seasons. Some insiders have credited — or blamed — her for securing an interview with then-coach Adam Oates that included comments believed to have hastened his departure. Carrera later became a homepage editor for The Post before leaving to work for The Motley Fool.

Alex Prewitt’s tenure as the Caps reporter for The Post was short but memorable. He covered the first season of the Barry Trotz era, including a standout feature on Brooks Orpik’s eating habits. The two went grocery shopping together, where Orpik wandered the aisles, pointing things out, but didn’t buy anything. After one season, Prewitt left for Sports Illustrated, continued covering hockey, and later joined The Athletic.

The Post hosted a live event at the 2018 Stanley Cup parade in D.C. Isabelle Khurshudyan, right, with Neil Greenberg, center.

Isabelle Khurshudyan didn’t aspire to cover hockey, but after Prewitt’s departure, her editor, Matt Vita, asked whether her Russian language skills might provide greater access to Ovechkin. She ended up covering the greatest era in Capitals history, including multiple Presidents’ Trophies and the Stanley Cup. In early 2018, Khurshudyan temporarily left the beat to report from Russia, making sure to visit Ovechkin’s country home and to meet his pet sheep (not ‘ship,’ as Ovi’s pronunciation skills made reporters thing he had a boat). She later became The Post’s Russia correspondent, reported extensively on the war in Ukraine, and now works for CNN.

Samantha Pell took over the beat in 2019, a natural fit after frequently filling in for Khurshudyan. She had the fortune of covering Ovechkin’s late-career chase of the NHL goals record — and the misfortune of doing so during the COVID-19 pandemic, when league protocols severely limited access. Pell covered her final game in February 2023 at the All-Star Game in Florida before leaving journalism.

Fans held up this special newspaper after the Caps won the Cup.

Despite the misfortune of being laid off alongside the rest of The Post’s sports staff, Bailey Johnson covered the culmination of Ovechkin’s pursuit of 895 goals, surpassing Wayne Gretzky’s all-time record. The Post even published a book commemorating the achievement. After Johnson’s layoff, coach Spencer Carbery opened a press conference by saying, “I would be remiss not to say something about Bailey not being here today. Getting to know her over the last 2 1/2 years, yeah, I’m just thinking about her. And also know wherever her next stop is, whether it’s in the DC area or somewhere else, know she’ll do a fantastic job. She’s an incredible person and really, really good at what she does.”

Many other writers at The Post covered the Caps in one capacity or another, such as the late Jennifer Frey, Roman Stubbs, Gene Wang, DC. Sports Bog’s Dan Steinberg and Scott Allen, stats analyst Neil Greenberg, plus columnists such as Barry Svrluga, Michael Wilbon, and Tony Kornheiser.

The Capitals organization, too, showed deep appreciation for The Post. The team reserved the best press-box seat for the beat writer, decorated the walls with framed front pages from the Stanley Cup run, and routinely sent the general manager and head coach to The Post’s D.C. headquarters for preseason Q&A sessions.

No news organization covered the Capitals more thoroughly than The Washington Post, and no definitive history of the franchise exists without the reporting of these writers.

Worth The Wait: The Washington Capitals’ Memorable Journey to the 2018 Stanley Cup:

The Hockey History of Washington Capitals, by The Washington Post

The Stanley Cup visits The Post’s office.