Washington Capitals

The NHL has suspended Washington Capitals forward Alex Ovechkin three games for his hit on Pittsburgh defenseman Zbynek Michalek. 

NHL Senior Vice President of Player Safety Brendan Shanahan said in his review of the incident that Ovechkin was suspended for charging and leaving his feet while delivering the check. 

Replay of the hit clearly showed Ovechkin launch himself into Michalek, which is a violation of the charging rule, rule No. 42. 

Further, as Ovechkin launched himself into Michalek, he raised his shoulder toward the head of the player, resulting in a headshot that was deemed "reckless" by Shanahan in...

Islanders get a huge victory over the streaking Capitals tonight, winning 3-0. The Islanders came into the game looking to rebound from a bad game yesterday against Nashville and rebound is definitely what they did. The Capitals who have been hot of late looked like a tall test for the tired Islanders who played yesterday and had to travel to get to Washington.

The game started slow as neither team could keep possession of the puck in the offensive zone. One play that stood out to me during the early going of the period was Nabokov’s handling of the puck. He came out to handle the puck in front of the net, mishandled it and left a great chance for the Capitals. Thankfully for the Islanders they were unable to get a good shot on net and Nabokov was able to recover. Nabokov needs to work on his puck handling as it has become a problem as of late and has cost the Islanders goals at certain points.

Sleepless in Seattle? More like listless in Buffalo for the Washington Capitals the day after Christmas. 

Buffalo jumped on the Capitals early with four first period goals from Jason Pominville, Matt Ellis, Christian Erhoff and rookie Brayden McNabb's first NHL tally in route to a 4-2 win over the visiting Caps at First Niagara Center. 

The Sabres scored just 51 seconds into the first, keying a period that would doom the Caps despite righting the ship in the second and third by pulling within two. Those goals came from Matt Hendricks, his first of the season late in the second, and Alex Ovechkin on a powerplay in the third. 

Roman Hamrlik's delay-o...

In the past three games, the Washington Capitals have mustered just three total goals. In that same three-game span, the NHL's leading goal scorer Steven Stamkos has managed four tallies. 

Yikes. 

The Caps' hunt for offense won't get any easier when they welcome the Nashville Predators to town tonight. The Predators allow just 2.59 goals per game, which ranks in the top half of the NHL in that department. 

They also boast one of the league's very best between the pipes in last year's Vezina Runner-up Pekka Rinne. But the Caps catch a break as it will be backup Anders LIndback in net for the Preds tonight as Rinne will get the night off ...