ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Nicklas Backstrom gutted through a hip injury that caused him to miss the first two months of the season, and Tom Wilson as hard as he tried couldn’t do the same in the playoffs on a bad knee.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin thinks it's pretty messed up that the Washington Capitals haven't won a playoff series since hoisting the Stanley Cup in 2018.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Florida Panthers faced their first real adversity of the season trailing their playoff series against the Washington Capitals, players held a meeting to set things straight.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jonathan Huberdeau couldn't remember what it was like to be on the smiling side of a handshake line.
The feelings were so strong after he and the Florida Panthers beat the Washington Capitals 4-3 in overtime Friday night to win Game 6 and move on to the second round that Huberdeau wants to replicate it over and over.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Sidney Crosby made his way down the tunnel and out of sight. Any sense of security the Pittsburgh Penguins had in their first-round playoff series against the New York Rangers disappeared right along with their captain.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe set a Florida postseason record with a five-point night, and the Florida Panthers escaped a three-goal deficit to beat the Washington Capitals 5-3 and take a 3-2 lead in an Eastern Conference first-round series Wednesday night.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe was brought to the Florida Panthers for big postseason moments.
Like this one.
Verhaeghe set a Panthers franchise playoff record with a five-point night — two goals, three assists — and the Comeback Cats pulled off another rally, this one obviously the most important of their season.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The “Comeback Cats” are back — in playoff form.
Known for their propensity to play from behind and win on the way to the NHL's best regular season, the Florida Panthers finally delivered a little of that magic in the postseason, and not a minute too late.
Barry Trotz was fired as coach of the New York Islanders on Monday, with general manager Lou Lamoriello saying he felt the team needed a new voice.
Trotz lost his job after four seasons with the Islanders and the first without a playoff appearance.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Aaron Ekblad paused for almost 10 seconds to consider what the Florida Panthers need to do better to even their series against the Washington Capitals.
“I think there’s a lot of things that we could do better,” he said.
NEW YORK (AP) — Washington's Evgeny Kuznetsov and Jamie Benn of Dallas were fined $5,000 Sunday for high sticking on a pair of incidents that didn't get penalized during their games.
Kuznetsov's play against Florida's Noel Acciari came in the first period of the Capitals' 6-1 victory in Game 3 Saturday, which put Washington up 2-1 in the Eastern Conference first-round series.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Danton Heinen’s first playoff goal in three years just past the midway point of the third period broke a tie to lift the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 7-4 victory over the New York Rangers on Saturday night to take a 2-1 lead in their first-round Eastern Conference series.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fans' cheers brought Ilya Samsonov close to tears on the way to his first NHL playoff victory.
Chants of “Sammy! Sammy!” followed one of many important saves he made in Washington's 6-1 rout of Florida in Game 3 on Saturday.
There was a 6-foot-4, 220-pound hole in the Washington lineup in Game 2 against the Florida Panthers.
Tom Wilson's injury is one of many around the NHL playoffs that could tip the balance of a series.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The bounce-back game that the Florida Panthers needed started, perhaps fittingly, with a puck that took a fortuitous bounce.
A burst here. A burst there. And just like that, series tied.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — T.J. Oshie scored the go-ahead goal midway through the third period, Vitek Vanecek stopped 30 shots and the Washington Capitals rallied past the top-seeded Florida Panthers 4-2 in the opener of their Eastern Conference first-round series Tuesday night.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — T.J. Oshie didn't see his go-ahead goal get into the net. The Florida Panthers didn't see this coming, either.
And right away, the top overall seed in the Stanley Cup playoffs finds itself in some trouble.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida Panthers are aware of the narratives.
The franchise hasn’t won a playoff series in 26 years going back to the 1996 Eastern Conference finals, by far the longest active drought in the NHL.
The path to the Stanley Cup is rarely a straight line. Sometimes it’s the direction a puck takes when it banks off the post and in — or out.
Four years ago, Artemi Panarin clanked a shot off the post late in regulation that could have put Columbus up three games to none in the first round against Washington.
Two months after the eight playoff teams in the Eastern Conference were locked in before the NHL even reached the All-Star break, Rod Brind’Amour set Carolina’s lineup for a game against Pittsburgh with the future in mind.
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — Alex Ovechkin and Aaron Ekblad both practiced on Sunday. Those are excellent developments for the Washington Capitals and Florida Panthers.
All signs point to Ovechkin being in the lineup for Game 1 of an Eastern Conference first-round series against the Panthers on Tuesday night after missing the final three games of the regular season with what the team is calling an upper-body injury.
It took until the final game on the final night of the NHL regular season to set the matchups for the first round of the playoffs.
Naturally, the battle for the Stanley Cup starts in less than 72 hours.
NEW YORK (AP) — Dryden Hunt scored the go-ahead goal in the third period, Alexandar Georgiev made 34 saves and the New York Rangers downed the Washington Capitals 3-2 in the regular-season finale on Friday night.
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe scored twice and Spencer Knight stopped 27 shots for his second career shutout as the Florida Panthers beat the Ottawa Senators 4-0 on Thursday night.
With the victory and Nashville’s 5-4 shootout win over Western Conference-leading Colorado (56-18-7), the Panthers (58-17-6) clinched their first Presidents' Trophy for the best record in the regular season and home ice advantage throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs.
NEW YORK (AP) — Brock Nelson and Anders Lee scored first-period goals, Mathew Barzal had three assists and Semyon Varlamov made 26 saves as the New York Islanders routed the playoff-bound Washington Capitals 5-1 on Thursday night.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Peter Laviolette couldn't explain why his Washington Capitals fell flat in a 4-1 loss to the New York Islanders on Tuesday night with a chance to move up in the standings and improve their playoff positioning.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin missed a game because of injury for just the 25th time in his 17-year NHL career.
All of those have come in the regular season. He has never missed one in the playoffs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin was injured, and the Washington Capitals missed a major opportunity to move up in the standings on Sunday by blowing a lead and losing 4-3 in a shootout to the Toronto Maple Leafs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — There’s much for the Washington Capitals to evaluate after a tough loss late in the season and an injury that could cloud their entire playoff outlook.
Alex Ovechkin was injured early in the third period of a 4-3 shootout loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sunday night, crashing into the boards and getting ruled out with an upper-body injury.
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — Conor Sheary scored in the first period, John Carlson scored an empty-net goal and Vitek Vanecek picked up his fourth shutout of the season as the Washington Capitals beat the Arizona Coyotes 2-0 Friday night for their seventh win in nine games.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Casey DeSmith feels ready to step in as the Pittsburgh Penguins’ goaltender for the playoffs if injured starter Tristan Jarry can’t play.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Shea Theodore scored 2:09 into overtime to lift the Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.
Theodore dangled his way through two defenders and deked his way to a backhand winner past Washington goaltender Ilya Samsonov, keeping the Golden Knights’ slim playoff hopes alive.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin enjoyed the biggest moment of his career inside T-Mobile Arena in 2018, when he skated the Stanley Cup around the rink after defeating the Vegas Golden Knights in the Final.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Shea Theodore scored 2:09 into overtime to lift the Vegas Golden Knights to a 4-3 win over the Washington Capitals on Wednesday night.
Alec Martinez, Evgenii Dadonov and Chandler Stephenson scored for the Golden Knights in regulation.