Dale Hunter

The Capitals fired Bruce Boudreau on Monday and named former captain Dale Hunter as the team's next coach. Judging by this video, Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin might want to start back-checking and crashing the crease. [ via Hot Clicks ]

Finding a way to respond from demoralizing, soul-crushing defeats is nothing new for the Washington Capitals this season. They've managed to follow up disappointing losses by rallying around one another for weeks now, throughout the playoffs and dating to the end of the regular season. When they host the New York Rangers for Game 6 tonight, though, the Capitals will face the greatest challenge to their collective resiliency as they try to stave off elimination. Washington trails the top-seeded Rangers three games to two in their Eastern Conference semifinal series, and a loss at Verizon Center would end the Caps' season.

The Washington Capitals yesterday traded left wing Nick Kypreos to the Hartford Whalers for right wing Mark Hunter and future considerations.Hunter, 29, the brother of Capitals center Dale Hunter, was a member of Calgary's 1989 Stanley Cup championship team. He has played for Hartford for the past two seasons, getting 10 goals and 13 assists in 63 games last season. His 159 penalty minutes were the second most for the Whalers last season.Kypreos, 26, was acquired by Washington in the waiver draft from Philadelphia in 1989, and scored four goals and had six assists in 65 games last season.

As the Washington Capitals sat in the dressing room at their Arlington, Va., practice facility ahead of a flight to Boston for a final showdown with the Boston Bruins in this Eastern Conference quarterfinal series, the mood was noticeably loose. Players lobbed well-intended jabs at one another, exchanged jokes with reporters and seemed relaxed to the point that an uninformed observer might not have believed the team will be fighting to keep its season alive tonight in Game 7 at TDGarden.

Washington Capitals center Dale Hunter was found guilty by the NHL yesterday of "unwarranted, unsportsmanlike and excessive conduct" and will be suspended for slamming New York Islanders center Pierre Turgeon into the boards and causing him to suffer a concussion and a separated shoulder in Game 6 Wednesday.The incident came while Turgeon was celebrating scoring the Islanders' final goal with 8:31 left in a 5-3 victory that eliminated the Capitals from the Stanley Cup playoffs.Hunter will be suspended without pay for an unspecified number of games next season.

VS. LOS ANGELES KINGS* WHEN: Tonight, 7:35.* WHERE: Capital Centre.* TV/RADIO: HTS; WCAO-AM 600.* OUTLOOK: Surprisingly, 1,600 tickets remained today to see the Kings and Wayne Gretzky, who as usual leads the NHL in scoring with 37 goals and 96 assists. The Caps (29-32-5) trail New Jersey by four points for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Patrick Division. The Kings (39-20-7) are trying to seal first place in the Smythe. Right wing John Kordic has been suspended for the remainder of the season for alcohol abuse.

LANDOVER -- Washington defenseman Sylvain Cote, who has a fractured orbital bone, expects to be on the ice for tonight's Game 4 of the Capitals' Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Pittsburgh Penguins."

Twenty-one games wipes the smirk off Dale Hunter's face.Twenty-one games sets a match to Gil Stein's pantywaist system of "discipline," which suspended players only for practices and non-game, non-travel days.Twenty-one games dares any other player in the NHL to find out whether this is the outer limit of Gary Bettman's justice, or whether it's just the starting point.Twenty-one games leaves a massive hole in the heart of the Washington Capitals. Even if you hate him, and he certainly gives you reason, you cannot overlook the fact that Hunter is a pivotal performer for his team.

LANDOVER -- Washington Capitals coach Terry Murray has said all along that for his team to be productive in the playoffs, every line will need to chip in some offense. Any offense.Coming into last night's fourth game of the Patrick Division semifinals down 2-1, the woeful Caps had scored just three goals in as many games on Rangers goalie Mike Richter.During the regular season, in the various spells when Dino Ciccarelli and Mike Ridley, a pair of former scoring stars, didn't produce, it was often left to one of the fourth liners to decide the outcome.

NHL senior vice president Brian Burke suspended New York Rangers right wing Alexei Kovalev five games yesterday for a tripping incident involving Washington's Dale Hunter.Burke said Kovalev "intentionally kicked" Hunter's skate from beneath him in a "senseless and unnecessary" act that caused the Capitals' center to tear the medial collateral ligament in his left knee.Kovalev, who was suspended from the Rangers' game Tuesday against the New Jersey Devils, will also miss the next four games, beginning tomorrow in Toronto.

With all eight playoff teams in the NHL's Eastern Conference set after Thursday's games, all that remains to be determined are the seedings and first-round matchups. Though, to hear forward Alex Ovechkin explain it, where they finish isn't weighing too heavily on the Washington Capitals. "It doesn't matter which position you are [in]," Ovechkin said after Thursday's 4-2 victory over the Florida Panthers. "It doesn't matter what's the standings right now. It's most important thing to win. Next game [is]

PREDATORS @CAPITALS Tuesday, 7 p.m. TV: Comcast SportsNet In each of the past three games, the Capitals have mustered just one goal. Go back a little further, and Washington has scored just one goal in nine out of the past 16 games dating to Nov. 15 against the Nashville Predators. The Capitals have undergone a coaching and system change since that loss to Nashville, but some of the mistakes that plagued the team a month ago continue to arise: from sloppy defensive play to a failure to forecheck and crash the net to generate multiple chances when they gain the offensive zone.

Over the weekend at the Washington Capitals' practice facility in Arlington, Va., Jason Chimera sprayed water around the dressing room after his group won a scrimmage in a shootout. It was all in jest, as though the players had won the Stanley Cup, but it's the kind of thing that teammates have come to expect from the jovial veteran, who is on pace for a career-best season. Through the first third of the 2011-12 campaign, Chimera is tied for the team lead in goals (11), second in plus-minus rating (plus-9)

The Capitals fired Bruce Boudreau on Monday and named former captain Dale Hunter as the team's next coach. Judging by this video, Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin might want to start back-checking and crashing the crease. [ via Hot Clicks ]

QUEBEC -- If anyone thinks the Washington Capitals had a different look in their 3-0 shutout of the Florida Panthers on Friday night, he is right. And that look will continue tonight against the Quebec Nordiques.After that? Wait and see.Lines that had seemed set suddenly were shuffled. Capitals coach Jim Schoenfeld started moving his players around last Wednesday during a 2-1 loss to New Jersey. But Friday, the changes were even more startling.There on a line together was the team's leading scorer, Peter Bondra, and Michal Pivonka -- nothing unusual about that.

LANDOVER -- Michal Pivonka had a better idea yesterday afternoon and the result was that the Washington Capitals emerged from their showdown with the Philadelphia Flyers with a 2-2 tie."I'm going to make him assistant coach," said Capitals coach Jim Schoenfeld. "He designed the play."Pivonka had been facing off against the Flyers' Craig MacTavish all afternoon. He noticed that whenever he lost the draw, the puck invariably scooted out to MacTavish's forehand, which meant that Pivonka wanted someone with a left-handed shot along the boards.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman made his first disciplinary ruling yesterday, and, in the words of Washington Capitals general manager David Poile, it appears the "past is past."Bettman handed out the longest suspension in NHL history for an on-ice incident -- 21 games to Capitals center Dale Hunter for a blindside hit that dislocated Pierre Turgeon's shoulder in Game 6 of the first-round playoff series between Washington and the New York Islanders."I think this is a clear message of his tolerance," said Poile.

With all eight playoff teams in the NHL's Eastern Conference set after Thursday's games, all that remains to be determined are the seedings and first-round matchups. Though, to hear forward Alex Ovechkin explain it, where they finish isn't weighing too heavily on the Washington Capitals. "It doesn't matter which position you are [in]," Ovechkin said after Thursday's 4-2 victory over the Florida Panthers. "It doesn't matter what's the standings right now. It's most important thing to win. Next game [is]

PHILADELPHIA -- The Washington Capitals came searching for their first road victory of the season against the Philadelphia Flyers last night, but they didn't find it.For a few moments, it appeared that they might find their fourth straight tie, but the goal, that was forged by Keith Jones and Dale Hunter pushing the puck under Hextall, was called off. The officials said the "puck was frozen."Kind of like the Capitals, who seem to be sinking further into the deep freeze game-by-game.Last night, it was a goal by Shjon Podein with 4:43 gone in the third period that sent Washington to a 4-2 loss.

LANDOVER -- Washington defenseman Sylvain Cote, who has a fractured orbital bone, expects to be on the ice for tonight's Game 4 of the Capitals' Eastern Conference quarterfinal series with the Pittsburgh Penguins."