Mike Green and Nicklas Backstrom are still out for the Washington Capitals, but Alexander Ovechkin will be back in the lineup after serving his three game suspension. Puck drops at about 2pm EST and you can watch the game on CBC.

This is their second meeting of the season, the Capitals won 3-0 in Montreal about 2 weeks ago, while I was in attendance, I won’t make it out to see this one, but I’ll be watching on TV for sure.

That was the second straight game the Caps shutout the Habs including last season and they are 4-0-2 against Montreal in their last six regular season meetings. I’m hoping Ovechkin is primed to go and can come out with all cylinders firing.

Check out the NHL.com game preview before you watch the game!

The Capitals lost an important game against their Southeast division rivals last night, the Florida Panthers. The game finished 4-2 and put the Caps in ninth place down from third. Mike Green skated today for the third straight day and decided to speak to the media.

Green skated with equipment today but not with his teammates yet, but said he feels great and is happy to know that he has a time frame for his recovery, which is the original recovery time that George McPhee gave us, so he should be back in 2-4 weeks, hopefully sooner because Washington could really use him.

Here’s his full talk with the media from today after practice:

As for the game, the effort wasn’t horrible, but it wasn’t great, I guess its what to be expected from a Capitals team without Green, Ovie and Backstrom against a pretty complete Panthers lineup.

Again Washington was outshot, this time 38-28, and they loss more faceoffs, but as usual had more hits. The one difference was the number of giveaways, they only had one in the whole game, which is good but also shows the lack of risks that were taken, which isn’t always good.

Neuvirth got the start and stopped 34 of 37 shots, in a game that was relatively close. It almost looked like the Capitals were going to complete the comeback in the third until Matthias got the empty net goal to seal the game.

Here are the Caps vs Panthers video highlights:

The Capitals comeback last night from a 3-1 deficit against the Tampa Bay Lightning came up short, but they did manage to force overtime and get a very valuable point, and take first place in the Southeast Division. Tonight they face another divisional opponent when they visit the Florida Panthers.

Again last night without Ovechkin, Backstrom and Mike Green, the Capitals managed to put forward a good effort, even if they lost 4-3 in overtime they managed to 30 shots on goal, which has been a rare sight lately.  The part that hurt them the most was the Power Play and I think if just one of the missing big three were in the lineup, both the PP and the game would’ve been better.

Here are last night’s Capitals vs Lightning highlights:

The best part is that the point they managed to squeeze out put them in first place in the Southeast division, but only by that one point, as the Panthers are right behind them. As of right now it looks like only the division winner from the Southeast division will make it to the post season, so these games are extremely important for the Capitals.

Even if there are 33 games left for Washington, every single one of the potential 66 points is important, they are in the middle of the pack and it’s so competitive.

Tonight in Florida, the big three will still be missing, but it’s the last game of the Ovechkin suspension, and Mike Green could be back in about 2 weeks according to George McPhee‘s original statement on his injury, but there has been no update timeline, and no timeline at all for Backstrom.

This is their third meeting of the season with the Capitals taking the first game 3-0 back in October when Mike Green was playing, then losing the December contest 5-4 without Greenie.

Check out the NHL.com game preview.

A couple weeks ago Capitals defensemen Mike Green and Karl Alzner alongside Caps assistant coach Jim Johnson hosted a hockey school at Randolph Elementary in Arlington, Virginia. Check out the video below for some sweet moves by Green!

As you know, Mike Green had abdominal surgery just over a week ago, and will be out for another 3-5 weeks. Well you can now participate in something great, a Get Well Mike Green Book.

Basically the book will be filled with get well wishes from Capitals and Mike Green fans.

Twitter users @Green52Fan & @Love4Greenie have created an email address (getwellgreen@gmail.com) where you can send your wishes to put in the book that they will give to Mike Green, make sure you include your name.

You have until Sunday February 5th 2012 to do this, so do it now!

Who needs the big three (Ovechkin, Green and Backstrom)? Well apparently not the Washington Capitals last night, they defeated the Boston Bruins 5-3 on the strength of Mathieu Perreault’s natural hat trick. Not only did it give the Caps the win, but it also got him a face full of shaving cream courtesy of Captain Ovie! (See the video below)

It was weird, different and exciting to see the Washington Capitals beat one of the best, if not best, team in the league, the Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins. With the season both teams are having, and with the key Capital players missing, there’s no way I would’ve predicted a Caps win, in fact I predicted a Bruins win!

Of course, Boston outshot the Capitals, but the Caps outhit them by almost double and had three times as many takeaways than the Bruins. Vokoun played solid, but the big story was Perreault’s hat trick, all 3 goals where even strength, the third being the game winner, and he did that in under 14 minutes of ice time. Mathieu also had 2 minor penalties in the game and 5 shots.

All of the Capitals were on the plus side except for Brouwer, Chimera, Knuble and Eakin who were even and Hendricks who was a minus 1. Ten different Caps had at least one point, which came in handy with all the fire power they were missing. It was a great way to finish before the NHL All-Star game, which now only has 1 Washington Capital player, Denis Wideman.

Here are the highlights from the game:

And as promised the video of Alex Ovechkin giving Mathieu Perreault a face full of shaving cream:

The Washington Capitals will have to play their next three games without three of their best, if not best, players. Yesteday the NHL announced Alex Ovechkin would be suspended for three games for an illegal hit during Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

We know that Nicklas Backstrom hasn’t played in weeks due to a concussion, and yesterday was on the ice for the first time, but it only lasted 5 minutes and he did nothing strenuous, so he’s not likely to be back anytime son.

And of course, Mike Green is still out after his abdominal surgery, it has been one week, so according to Capitals VP and GM George McPhee, he should be back in 3 to 5 weeks, which gives between February 14th and 28th, my birthday is the 22nd, so maybe that would be a good day.

Despite the suspension, Alex Ovechkin will still participate in the NHL All-Star game this weekend in Ottawa, he will miss out on tonight’s contest against the Boston Bruins, the Bruins being one of the top teams in the league right now, I’m not sure how well the Capitals will be able to do against them without 3 of their top stars.

This is the first meeting of the season between the Caps and Bruins. By this time last year they had already finished playing 4 games against each other, with Boston taking three of those games by a combined score of 13-9. Backstrom and Ovechkin played in all 4 games, will Greenie only played in 2, so I can only hope for the best for tonight.

Check out the NHL.com Game Preview for tonight’s contest.

Up until this pas Tuesday when the Capitals got shutout 3-0 by the New York Islanders they hadn’t been shutout in a game this season, and now only a few days later they have been shutout again, this time at the hands of the Carolina Hurricanes.

Again it was a 3-0 game, the third consecutive game the Caps have played with that as a final score, at least the won the second game in Montreal against the Canadiens.

Special teams were the difference in this game, both teams had 3 power plays, and while the Caps didn’t convert once, the Canes did twice, they also had a shorthanded goal, which was the first of two goals of the game by Jussi Jokinen. Before last night the Capitals had beaten Carolina 3 times in as many meetings this season.

The Capitals were outshot again, this time 33-23. The thing that worries me the most is that down 2-0 in the third period, the Caps only managed 7 shots, in past seasons in similar situations they would come out roaring and make some amazing comebacks, but this definitely wasn’t the case last night.

In the end, I think missing Nicklas Backstrom and Mike Green is harder than it seems.

Here are the highlights from the Caps vs Canes game last night.

This is the fourth meeting between the divisional rivals, and the Caps have won the first three games by a combined score of 11 to 5. Mike Green scored his only game winning goal of the season in OT against Carolina back on October 8th when Washington won 4-3. Unfortunately due to his abdominal surgery Green won’t be available to win the game tonight, but the Caps won both games against the Canes without Green also, so hopefully that doesn’t stop tonight.

Washington beat the Montreal Canadiens 3-0 Wednesday night in Montreal, I attended the game and have to say Neuvirth was clearly the star of that game stopping all 31 shots against him, including 17 in the third period. Meanwhile the Capitals had a season low 16 shots on Montreal goalie Carey Price. It wasn’t a great effort and way too many penalties once again, but the important thing is the final score and it finished 3-0.

After a 4 game winning streak, the Caps lost 2 games, then a 3 game winning streak was ended with a loss, so if the trend continues they Capitals will win their second in a row tonight, but trends don’t win hockey games, the team does, so hopefully they will come to play tonight.

Florida and Washington have the same amount of points but the Caps are first in the division because they have more wins, and the Hurricanes are in last place in the division. They have only win 4 of their last 10 games, but Jeff Skinner is back for them which should help out.

Game time is 7pm EST, check out the NHL.com preview.

I’m going to the game tonight in my hometown of Montreal to watch the Caps take on the Habs, unfortunately Mike Green won’t take part in the game as his recovery from abdominal surgery starts today.

This is the first of four meetings this season between the two Eastern Conference teams, and both are in the middle of the pack in the playoff race, with Washington being higher up and more likely to make the postseason than the Montreal Canadiens, but there’s still a ways to go.

Washington has won 7 of their last 10 games, while Montreal has only be victorious 4 times in the same number of games, but if you take a look at each teams last game, the Canadiens have the edge because they beat one of the best teams in the NHL, the New York Rangers by a score of 4-1 while the Caps lost 3-0 to one of the worse teams in the NHL last night, the New York Islanders.

It was the first time Washington got shutout this season, and it was a tie for their least amount of shots in a game with 17, a very poor showing on their part for what could’ve been their 4th win in a row and could’ve put them in third place instead of eight in the East.

The Capitals will be looking to get right back up there, and they have a good shot against the Canadiens. Last season Washington beat them 3 out of 4 times, and shut them out twice. Mike only played in 2 of those games, Green scored a goal in their first meeting which was a 3-0 Capitals win, and notched an assist in the 3-2 shootout loss.

Both teams are very different, and Montreal will have newly acquired Rene Bourque in the line up, it will be only his 2nd game with the Canadiens, but the reason that is important is that he is the one that gave Nicklas Backstrom a shot in the head with his elbow, so he will be on the Caps radar tonight, but hopefully they won’t take any stupid penalties, considering they have been taking too many penalties this season in my opinion.

Puck drops at 7:30pm, I’ll be there!