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.
The NHL fined the San Jose Sharks $100,000 on Saturday for general manager Doug Wilson's comments criticizing the league for forward Raffi Torres' suspension for the rest of the second round of the playoffs.
Pavel Datsyuk is one of the NHL's most feared scorers, a wizard with the puck who is equally adept at setting up his teammates for easy plays. Jonathan Toews has at least 23 goals in each of his six seasons in the league, and Patrice Bergeron is one of the top offensive threats for one of the league's best teams.
Islanders forward Matt Moulson, Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane and Lightning forward Martin St. Louis are the three finalists for the NHL's Lady Byng Trophy, the league's sportsmanship award.
Alex Ovechkin played the last two games of the Washington Capitals' season with what the team said Thursday is a hairline fracture in his left foot.
Islanders forward Matt Moulson, Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane and Lightning forward Martin St. Louis are the three finalists for the NHL's Lady Byng Trophy, the league's sportsmanship award.
The Caps spent much of the past couple of weeks making officials part of the story of the series. Maybe that was the problem.
After the marathon bombings, the cities of Boston and New York put aside their bitter rivalries and joined in their mutual love of sports and country.
The lawsuit doesn't read nearly as well as the story, which laid bare the life of an NHL enforcer for all to see. The way John Branch wrote about Derek Boogaard in the New York Times should have been enough to cause even the most hardcore hockey fan to reconsider the peculiar role that goons play in the sport.
