By John Solomon
How the government's punishing of the exposure of official wrongdoing can linger for years
The Caps will have to go through a tougher division to make the playoffs and then to reach the East finals. They won the Southeast Division five of the past six seasons but went 8-10-2 against the Penguins, Rangers, Islanders, Devils, Flyers and Hurricanes this year.
Ovechkin's resurgence after a slow start came in the form of 23 goals and 13 assists in the Caps' final 23 games, and they went 17-4-2.
Offensive catalyst Ilya Kovalchuk is returning to the New Jersey Devils' lineup for Saturday's game against the Florida Panthers.
Security has been tightened at the TD Garden, where the Boston Bruins were scheduled to play the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday night in the first major sporting event in the city since the marathon bombings.
The New Jersey Devils have acquired forward Steve Sullivan from the Phoenix Coyotes for a seventh-round pick in the 2014 NHL draft.
Cleared by doctors Wednesday to accompany Louisville to Atlanta, the sophomore tells The Associated Press he plans to be a full participant in the team's preparation for Saturday's game against Wichita State.
Duke won't get caught looking ahead in this NCAA tournament.
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.
With so many upsets in college basketball, there seems to be daily highlights of fans storming the court to celebrate.
After giving up a goal 23 seconds in to the second half of back-to-back games, players cite fatigue and want to move on. But going into Saturday's game at the Winnipeg Jets, they know the value of a good start.
Known for his offensive prowess, Eric Fehr was never used as a penalty killer during his NHL career. At least not until recently. Fehr has played on the penalty kill in the past five games, and Saturday the Washington Capitals were rewarded for that experiment with his first short-handed goal.
Alex Ovechkin hadn't scored a hat trick in more than two years. Even as Washington Capitals teammate Joel Ward asked, "How often you expect him to score hat tricks?" it was hard to believe that the most recent one before Saturday came Jan. 22, 2011.
The NHL season is one-third over already. Through the first portion of the schedule, the Capitals built up some pretty convincing evidence that they were not a good team. In fact, most signs pointed to them being a bad team.
Mike Ribeiro knew the situation. So when he had time, space and saw Alex Ovechkin with an open look at the net, he knew exactly where the pass was going.
Mike Green reported progress Friday, but the injured Washington Capitals defenseman remained questionable for Saturday afternoon's game against the New Jersey Devils.
