By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in Sunrise, Florida, in the South Florida metropolitan area. They are members of the Southeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). They play their games at the BankAtlantic Center in Sunrise and are currently the southernmost team in the NHL. - Source: Wikipedia
Offensive catalyst Ilya Kovalchuk is returning to the New Jersey Devils' lineup for Saturday's game against the Florida Panthers.
Rick Nash had a goal and assist in the first period, and Ryan Callahan had a pair of assists as the New York Rangers hung on to eighth place in the Eastern Conference with a 6-1 victory over the Florida Panthers on Thursday night.
For the first 10 minutes Thursday night, the Caps didn't register a shot. But in beating the Carolina Hurricanes 3-1, they rolled to their sixth straight victory.
The Caps lead a division that could better be known as the Southeasy based largely on their 12-3 record against the Jets, Hurricanes, Lightning and Panthers. They're 9-14-2 against the rest of the Eastern Conference yet would earn the No. 3 seed in the playoffs if they maintain this lead.
A groin injury kept Laich out for the first 28 games of the season with a groin injury, and he has missed the past three. He suffered a lower-body injury Thursday that coach Adam Oates said negatively impacts Laich's groin.
Brooks Laich will see a groin specialist Tuesday as the Washington Capitals hope to pinpoint exactly what's wrong with the injured forward.
Ovechkin scored twice from in close on the power play, and weaved through traffic for his other goal, as the Capitals (19-17-2) improved to 8-2-1 in their last 11 games in completing a four-game season sweep of the Panthers.
Braden Holtby doesn't have the heaviest workload among goaltenders around the NHL. He's not even in the top 10 in starts. But Holtby is undoubtedly the man for the Washington Capitals, having started 10 straight games. He's 7-2-1 with 2.25 goals-against average and .925 save percentage in that time.
Alex Ovechkin knew the situation. The captain saw the Southeast Division-leading Winnipeg Jets were losing and realized the opportunity the Washington Capitals had in front of them Sunday night.
Beginning in 2013-14, the Caps will be in a yet-to-be-named division with the Penguins, Flyers, Rangers, Devils, Hurricanes, New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets.
EDITOR'S NOTE _ Phoenix Coyotes enforcer Paul Bissonnette adopted Twitter reluctantly but has now become an unlikely star on the social media network. In keeping with Twitter style, this story about Bissonnette's online personality is broken up into lines of 140 characters or less. Sections written by sports writer John Marshall are preceded by his Twitter handle (jmarshallap). Quotes from other sources are preceded by the handle or name of the person being quoted and set off by quotation marks. Actual tweets are clearly noted when they appear in the story.
What should the Washington Capitals take from a thorough beating of the Florida Panthers?
House of Pain's 'Jump Around' played in the victorious locker room, but players didn't celebrate like this was an emotional win.
Wolski broke his 11-game goal drought Tuesday, scoring at a crucial time in the Washington Capitals' victory over the Boston Bruins. But it was his all-around performance that kept the forward in the lineup for Thursday night's game against Florida.
Had the Caps not been able to erase a three-goal deficit to beat the Boston Bruins in overtime, they would have fallen into last place in the Eastern Conference.
