Mike Green News

During a 15-minute session with reporters a day after Washington's 5-0 home loss to the New York Rangers in Game 7 ended their first-round Eastern Conference series, Ovechkin avoided putting the onus on himself for his team's latest quick exit from the playoffs.

Derick Brassard scored the game's lone goal and Henrik Lundqvist posted a 27-save shutout to backstop the New York Rangers' 1-0 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday to force a Game 7 in this Eastern Conference quarterfinal series.

In the end, not even a shortened season could reverse the fate of a Washington Capitals franchise that just seems to find new ways to lose each spring.

Capitals coach Adam Oates continued the back-and-forth between the Rangers and Washington after their playoff series.

Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP Capitals general manager George McPhee said the officiating in Washington's series with the Rangers was subpar and "sure didn't feel right." Some came to the podium one at a time, others stood off to the side attempting to answer the question that still puzzles them: Why can't the Capitals win in the Stanley Cup ... (more)

Would an extra practice, or Eric Fehr's rollerblades, the day before Game 3 have helped the Caps maintain momentum in New York? A lot has been said about why the Caps lost to the Rangers.

A high-paying job where he's climbing the ladder pretty quickly. A sleek foreign car, with an occasional personal driver.

It was exciting for a game or two -- as the Wild clung to whatever chance they had to extend this thing past the standard 5-game loss, the NHL's way of telling a team, "You did pretty well to get that one win but you still got clobbered." This was actually a pretty good series.

The scene is all too familiar now. The long and tortured Stanley Cup playoff history of the Capitals means little to the current generation of players.

Neither the Washington Capitals nor New York Rangers possessed more than a two-goal lead at any point in their NHL playoff series before Monday night.

The Capitals were upset with a lot of calls on Sunday in a 1-0 loss to the New York Rangers.

Henrik Lundqvist slammed his stick in disgust when an overtime loss in Washington put the New York Rangers on the brink of elimination.

Last year the Capitals and the New York Rangers were tied 2-2 in a best-of-seven Stanley Cup playoff series and Washington was moments away from securing Game 5. Instead, a late Joel Ward penalty led to a game-tying goal by Brad Richards with just seconds remaining.

If there was no glass around the dasher boards, Mike Ribeiro might have run all the way into the stands.

Brooks Laich took a major step in his rehab from sports hernia surgery by skating with his teammates Wednesday, but the Washington Capitals forward is not close to returning to game action.

It seemed likely that Ryane Clowe would take Darroll Powe's place in the Rangers' lineup for Game 4 against the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.

Alex Ovechkin was nearly unstoppable during the second half of the 2013 NHL season, propelling the Washington Capitals into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

The frenzy over sports is such that nearly every game can now be labeled "must-win" by someone - players, coaches, fans, media, the annoying guy in the next cubicle.

Every team has players that they need to perform night in and night out if they want to win.

On Saturday, the Washington Capitals gave the Verizon Center faithful plenty to cheer about as they took a 2-0 series lead over the Rangers thanks to Mike Green 's OT tally.