Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin suffered an upper-body strain in Sunday evening’s game against the Columbus Blue Jackets and his status is week-to-week, the team determined Monday.

Ovechkin, the NHL leader in points (23) and goals (14) and the league’s Second Star of the Month for October, is expected to miss the fifth game of his five-year career on Wednesday at New Jersey. He has only missed two games due to injury in his first four seasons.

“We have to buckle down,” head coach Bruce Boudreau said earlier Monday. “A goal a game he scores, so we got to play better defense and cannot allow four or five goals a game. You have to win 3-1 and 2-1 and if you get lucky sometimes make it a 4-2 game. I think we have enough character players who understand what we will have to do without Alex.”

Ovechkin played just 7:43 of Sunday’s overtime loss to Columbus and was held without a point for just the third time this year. He was examined and treated by the team’s medical staff and underwent an MRI exam on Monday.

The two-time reigning most valuable player will travel with the Capitals this week to continue to receive medical treatment.

 More later.

Most newspapers place the sports section at the end of the caboose, forcing you to page your way to the baseball and football news. To command Washington eyeballs, Brady will turn that convention inside out by putting the sports "section" on the site's home page, and putting local news in the first back seat, and business news and national news in the third row. Just as Politico has made inroads on the Post's political coverage, Brady should steal the sports beat, making it the foundation of his site.

Memo to Brady: You could fill out your sports section mighty quick with a strong co-hort of talent from the local independent sports blogging community. Something tells me that more than a few of those folks would kill for the chance to cover local sports.

In any case, while the show was quickly pulled from the ABC schedule, apparently a number of Hollywood teens accidentally discovered that while the idea might have been a ratings dog, it still provided the outline of a viable business plan (somebody call Wharton!).  Here's the scoop from the AP.

Now, I'd really like to excerpt that AP piece, but I'm afraid we don't have a legal team here at Off Wing Opinion these days.  Instead, click and enjoy.

Monthly subscription to satellite television service: $100.

Yearly subscription to NHL Center Ice: $165.

Listening to an online radio feed of the Caps and Flyers after spending all of that money in order to ensure that you can watch any hockey game you want: Senseless.

There are some things money can't buy, and that apparently includes a simple regular season hockey game being played in your own hometown.  Thanks for nothing Versus, DirecTV and the NHL.

David Donovan, the Redskins' chief operating officer, disputed Powell's analysis, saying that team records show a 12 percent dip in merchandise sales, which he said was understandable in a down economy.

Donovan also said that the team hasn't detected a significant decline in fan loyalty and that the team's attendance figures are accurately gathered by bar-code scanners at the turnstiles.

"I think the relentless negative coverage in The Washington Post is a real difference from previous years," Donovan said. "But in terms of the way our actual fans are behaving, we don't see any difference."

Just a few hours later, Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis dispatched the following advice to the Obama Administration concerning their dispute with Fox News.  But as I read it, I couldn't help but wonder if the Redskins weren't the actual target of his advice:

Can you ever take on the media and blame them for your troubles?

I don’t think so.

Just look. Fox News ratings are way up. The President’s approval ratings are way down. Is it any wonder then that Fox News is hyping their disagreements with the White House? ”Oh woe is me. Watch what we do that has the White House so afraid of us.”

By talking about the media or a specific outlet, it only increases their value. And it diminishes you.

Sports teams that blame the media for their troubles are no different.

So what's the ultimate solution? According to Leonsis, "[J]ust win. The rest will take care of itself."

Theo Fleury Speaks Out on ESPN’s E:60 ESPN's award-winning primetime newsmagazine E:60 will feature a revealing interview with former NHL star Theo Fleury in the episode airing Tuesday, Oct. 27, at 7 p.m. ET. The program, which launched in October 2007, combines investigative reporting, in-depth profiles of intriguing sports personalities and features on emerging star athletes. These stories are presented in a fresh and innovative format that incorporates producer/correspondent meetings.

When he slid in jubilation after scoring an overtime goal in the 1991 Stanley Cup playoffs, Fleury produced an iconic image. Off the ice however, the hockey player careened out of control as he slid deeper into addictions of alcohol, cocaine, gambling and women. With the release of his new book, Fleury reveals the source of his demons: a two-year period of sexual molestation by Graham James, his junior hockey coach, beginning when Fleury was 14. In a U.S. television exclusive, Fleury speaks with E:60’s Jeremy Schaap about the shattering effects of the abuse and hiding the truth for 25 years. Fleury’s revelations come over 12 years after Sheldon Kennedy, who is interviewed by E:60, rocked Canadian hockey by accusing James of being a pedophile. In 1997, James pleaded guilty and began a jail sentence for molesting two players an estimated 350 times.

Normally ESPN provides a preview clip of interviews like this one, but Hall told me that this one was shot too late. "They are scrambling just to get the piece ready to air tomorrow night," said Hall.

Should they have thrown the book at Rob Scuderi?

Now, take another look at the video clip.  If what happened there isn't clipping, I don't really know why the rule is in the book at all.

So how did clipping wind up in the rule book in the first place? You need to go back to the 2002 Stanley Cup Playoffs, where Darcy Tucker took aim at Michael Peca during Game Five of the first round series between the Islanders and the Maple Leafs. Though the hit, one that changed the course of Peca's career, was legal at the time, the league later used footage of the incident as a textbook case of what constituted clipping:

So I'll write it again just to make sure I'm clear: If the Scuderi hit can't be considered clipping, why is it even in the rule book?

UPDATE: Aaron Brenner from Kings Vision has put together an extended highlight reel of the hit and the postgame reaction:

Apparently firing the owner isn't an option.