The Washington Capitals have yet another injury blow to deal with.

Nick Jensen, a stalwart on their blueline this season and one-half of the team’s shutdown pairing with Dmitry Orlov has been downgraded to week-to-week with an upper-body injury. Head coach Peter Laviolette gave the news to reporters after Monday’s morning skate before the Caps take on the Vegas Golden Knights.

The Capitals announced they were placing him on injured reserve through their PR channels. The move will require Jensen to miss at least a week of action retroactive to his last game. That means he will be forced to miss the next two games against the Golden Knights and San Jose Sharks.

“Jensen is week-to-week,” Laviolette updated the media. “It was an in-game thing, he got hit. Just for further evaluation, it’s week-to-week.”

Jensen last played January 20 against the Boston Bruins, skating 11:35 of ice time before leaving after the second period with the aforementioned upper-body injury. He had multiple, notable run-ins with Bruins forward Brad Marchand in the game.

The 31-year-old defenseman looked to try and make the morning skate before the Capitals game against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday but left the ice before the official skate began and hasn’t returned since.

Jensen plays the third-most minutes per game among the Capitals’ regular defensemen (20:00) and is heavily relied on with Orlov for defensive zone responsibilities. Only the forward line of Nic Dowd, Carl Hagelin, and Garnet Hathaway have more defensive zone shift starts this season at five-on-five than Jensen does (98). He only starts his shifts in the offensive zone 36.8-percent of the time.

In those minutes at five-on-five with Jensen on the ice, the Capitals see 52-percent of the shot attempts, 50.9-percent of the expected goals, and almost a dead-even split in scoring chances which is good given the zone start context earlier. He has 11 points in 39 games this season.

The Washington Capitals will look to start a winning streak Monday night as they host the Vegas Golden Knights in DC for the first time in more than two years.

They’ll do so with a very familiar top-line duo reunited and two of their top three defensemen returning to the lineup.

Samantha Pell of The Washington Post reports that John Carlson is out of COVID-protocol and took the morning skate, Dmitry Orlov is back in the lineup after serving his two-game suspension, and Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom have been reunited on the top line.

Here is the rest of the lineup via Pell.

Backstrom has six assists on the season in his nine games played and four of them have come on Alex Ovechkin goals. Conor Sheary joins them on the top line as Garnet Hathaway sees himself back in more familiar surroundings to the right of Nic Dowd. Carlson slots right back into his usual pair and Orlov will ride driver’s seat next to Justin Schultz. Connor McMichael, if he plays more than five minutes, will get a big chance next to two very good offensive players in Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson. Still no Nick Jensen or TJ Oshie due to injury and no Daniel Sprong as he looks to be a healthy scratch for a third straight game.

Ovechkin and Backstrom have played in 184 games together over the past three seasons and in those games over 1,411 minutes at five-on-five. The Capitals saw 51.7-percent of the shot attempts, 52.3-percent of the scoring chances, and out-scored opponents 81 to 73 with the dynamic duo on the ice.

Carlson and Orlov returning is a big boon as they are the only two regular defensemen this season for the Caps that average over 20 minutes of ice time per game. Carlson leads the team at 23:43 and Orlov comes fourth at 21:01.

Pell also reports that Vitek Vanecek was the first goaltender off the ice at the skate which indicates he will make his fourth start in a row and his fifth since January 15.

The Golden Knights come into Monday night’s play with a 24-15-2 record that sees them currently top of the NHL’s Pacific Division. They have an identical record to the Caps over their last ten games of 4-4-2.

Headline photo: @rashelle_wilcox

The Washington Capitals played a young, upstart Ottawa Senators team on Saturday that featured high-end skaters like Brady Tkachuk and Tim Stützle.

With almost all of Ottawa’s roster players in their twenties — they’re the third-youngest team in the NHL with an average age of 25.43 — Sportsnet crunched the numbers to put the Senators’ lack of NHL experience in perspective against Alex Ovechkin.

The players on the Senators’ roster had scored fewer goals in their careers combined (627) than Ovechkin (759) individually. And it wasn’t even close. Ovechkin, after scoring twice that night, led the entire Senators roster by 132 goals!

RMNB reposted the viral screenshot taken by @ratthewtkachuk on its Instagram account Sunday and the stat caught the attention of The Big Guy himself. Ovechkin, who had the day off, posted two heart eye emoji and a shocked face.

Further down in the comments, Ovechkin learned more detail about what the stat meant and replied again.

There’s been some debate among RMNB authors on what he meant by “@@##”. We’ve come to the conclusion that Ovi either accidentally butt-dialed a response on his phone — he was at Zavazone trampolining and playing with his family — or it was a shocked expletive. I personally think the latter.

Regardless, what an amazing stat dug up by Sportsnet. And awesome to get the second and third ever IG comments from Ovi. (Here was the first).

Jordan Subban, a defenseman for the Capitals’ ECHL affiliate South Carolina Stingrays, received racist taunts from Jacksonville Icemen player Jacob Panetta during an ECHL game between the Stingrays and Icemen on Saturday night.

Panetta was given multiple game misconducts, including one for a “racial gesture”. He has since been suspended indefinitely by the ECHL and released by the Icemen.

You can see the incident yourself in this video provided by Subban’s brother PK:

They don’t call the east coast league the jungle because my brother and the other black players are the monkeys! Hey @jacobpanetta you shouldn’t be so quick delete your Twitter or your Instagram account you will probably be able to play again… that’s what history says but things pic.twitter.com/8zOJ9q47pk

— P.K. Subban (@PKSubban1) January 23, 2022

Subban brought attention to the incident by quote-tweeting an anodyne description of the incident from the Icemen Twitter. The original tweet by the Icemen does not mention the racist gesture, even though the penalty was clearly announced in the arena.

More like @JPanetta12 was too much of a coward to fight me and as soon as I began to turn my back he started making monkey gestures at me so I punched him in the face multiple times and he turtled like the coward he is. There fixed it https://t.co/JtPqpN9wwE

— Jordan Subban (@jordansubban) January 23, 2022

Later, Jordan’s brother and current New Jersey Devils defenseman PK Subban also addressed the incident on social media.

“They don’t call the east coast league the jungle because my brother and the other black players are the monkeys!” PK wrote on his accounts while providing a clear video of the incident. “Hey @jacobpanetta you shouldn’t be so quick delete your Twitter or your Instagram account you will probably be able to play again… that’s what history says but things are changing.”

“Now not just the hockey world knows your true colours… your hometown of Belleville knows, your family and friends know you’re a fraud ..with everything that has gone on in the past couple years in the world I’ll say with all due respect to everyone who has an opinion, this isn’t a mistake. We all know what’s ok and what’s not. Even your own teammates wanted to see you get your clock cleaned. This happens a lot and it never gets exposed in the lower leagues. One thing that I love about this is Jordan’s teammates standing in there and showing support. Love that. Shout out to @robconcannon & @scstingrayshockey. Leave your comments below. I’m done.”

PK tagged Rob Concannon, the Stingrays President, who released a statement of his own condemning the “disgusting” and “appalling” actions of Panetta against his “friend” Jordan.

Statement from South Carolina Stingrays President Rob Concannon, regarding last night’s incident involving Jordan Subban.#HockeyIsForEveryone pic.twitter.com/SQOULichYM

— SC Stingrays (@SCStingrays) January 23, 2022

The Hershey Bears tweeted their own statement, saying “We condemn acts of racism in all forms” and offering “support to Jordan and the entire Stingrays organization.”

The Capitals then quote-retweeted that statement and added, “We must continue to eradicate this type of disgusting behavior from our game and society.”

The incident between Panetta and Subban comes directly on the heels of another racist gesture that took place in the American Hockey League last week. The AHL suspended Krystof Hrabik, a forward for the San Jose Barracuda who made a racist gesture toward Tucson Roadrunners forward Boko Imama, for 30 games.

Screenshot via ECHL

The Washington Capitals are 4-4-2 in their last ten games, placing them sixth out of the eight Metropolitan teams, one of which is Philadelphia, who haven’t won a game in regulation since December 14.

This is not to say Washington is bad; they’re not. But they’ve got some discrete problems that have gone unaddressed for too long. And the solutions they’re reportedly “considering” are even worse.

It’s time to do the snapshot.

Forwards

Defenders

Glossary

• GP – Games played.
• TOI – Time on ice in minutes
• SA% – Shot-attempt percentage. The share of total shots attempted by Washington while the skater is on the ice. 50% means even.
• SA% Rel – Relative shot-attempt percentage. The difference in SA% when the player is on the bench versus on the ice. 0% means even.
• GF% – Goals-for percentage. The share of total goals scored by Washington when the skater is on the ice. 50% means even.
• PDO – The sum of Washington’s shooting percentage and saving percentage when the skater is on the ice. 1 means even. The acronym doesn’t stand for anything, and yes, that it is annoying.

Notes

• Having returned from hip injury, Nicklas Backstrom still doesn’t look 100 percent to me, but Backstrom at sub-optimal performance is still a very good hockey player. His on-ice shot-attempt percentage is tops on the team (57.8 percent).
• Nick Jensen (plus-18 on-ice goal differential) and Dmitry Orlov (plus-16) have been Washington’s best defenders this season. Missing them both (one to injury, the other to a now-served two-game suspension) hurts a great deal. Let’s look at who’s been playing instead.
• Michal Kempny and Dennis Cholowski sport the lowest on-ice shot-attempt percentages among all skaters. “On-ice shot-attempt percentage” is just like saying how much offense each team gets — with fifty percent being even. Kempny is at 45.4 percent; Cholowski at 41.7 percent. Kempny looks good, having returned from a nightmarish couple years of injuries, but his on-ice statistics should give us pause. No such pause is needed for Cholowski, who is not up to the job of full-time NHL duty.
• In a perfectly healthy, COVID-free world that does not exist, the Caps have a fantastic top-six defensive corps: Orlov, Jensen, Carlson, Schultz, Fehervary, and TvR. In addition, Matt Irwin might be viable too, and Kempny could do in a pinch, but I suspect the Capitals will want more depth options at the trade deadline, which will lead to analysis and conjecture along the lines of: Is he any good? and Will he play at all? The answer to both questions will probably be “not really.”
• I love that the Capitals own 52.6 percent of the shot attempts when Alex Ovechkin is on the ice, and 52.6 percent of the shot attempts when he’s on the bench. Ovechkin is the nuclear core of this team. There’s not much snapshotty stuff to say about him today; his case to win the Hart is good —  and unprecedented for someone as disgustingly old as he is (i.e. a year younger than me), but I’ll leave that for another day.
• There is no good reason, on-ice or off, for the Capitals to sign free-agent/poison pill Evander Kane. He’s a good finisher, but anything else good you may remember about his impact has decayed since he left the Eastern Conference in 2018. There are far better options out there, even going strictly by on-ice play like a psychopath might do. Below is an RAPM chart from Evolving Hockey. It compares how two players perform at various statistics relative to “average” — so a bar going up means better, and a bar going down means worse. “Mystery Player X” is better at everything than Kane except finishing (GF/60 aka team goals per hour). The Caps should go for Mystery Player X instead of Kane.

• Spoiler alert: Mystery Player X is Connor McMichael, who has the worst combination of on-ice shooting and saving percentages among full-time forwards. His line is shooting under four percent when he’s with Sheary under three percent when he’s with Sprong, both good finishers. Brutal luck for a special player getting misevaluated by leadership right now.
• I want to do a brief and mild defense of Carl Hagelin, whose 51.6 on-ice goals percentage is near the bottom among forwards. I want to first dispel the idea that Hagelin is significantly overpaid for his role. Below are UFA forwards by salary and ice time; Hagelin is snug along the trendline.

• And Hagelin has been very good in that role. The Hathaway-Dowd-Hagelin line isn’t world-beater status anymore, but they’re still darn good with real chemistry. They’ve functionally been Washington’s third line this season, and I think they’ve been just fine there.

• Though I wasn’t expecting the line’s expected goals (xGF%) to be that weak. To be honest, that’s a huge gap from raw volume to volume times quality, and it merits a closer look. Also, we really need to see better discipline from Hathaway and Dowd, especially late in games.

And while we’re piling on Hags… (via @MoneyPuckdotcom) pic.twitter.com/p8FsdXimoo

— Japers’ Rink (@JapersRink) January 19, 2022

• Lastly, I want to discuss goaltending, which I think is the single biggest driver of Washington’s not-great performance in the last month. More so than special teams, more so than injuries, Ilya Samsonov and Vitek Vanecek are blowing starts on a regular basis, with maybe just three good performances since the new year. I’m ready to get off the goalie-duel train.

• I want the Caps to make a trade for a goaltender very real soon.

This story would not be possible without Natural Stat Trick and Hockey Viz. Please consider joining us in supporting them. An early version of this story and its underlying data appeared on RMNB’s own Patreon.

Headline photo: NBC Sports Washington

The Washington Capitals are back in the win column as they took down the lowly Ottawa Senators in overtime 3-2. Their captain did his usual captain things and his right-hand man finished things off in the extra frame.

Great comeback.

• It was a very sleepy and slow start for the Capitals that seemingly lasted the entire first forty minutes. They went into the third period down two goals but found a way to not only get the game to overtime but win it in the end. In the third period at five-on-five, the Caps out-scoring chanced the Sens 14 to 8 and out-high danger chanced them 6 to 2. That’s a good recipe for a comeback.
• The guy who would unquestionably deserve the Hart Trophy for MVP right now showed exactly why in this game. Alex Ovechkin put the team on his back and grabbed two goals to tie the game in the third. Ovi is now eight goals shy of passing Jaromir Jagr (766) for the third-most goals in NHL history and tied for this season’s league lead with 29.
• Nicklas Backstrom is getting back into the swing of things and has eight points in his first nine games of the season. He set up Ovi’s second goal and scored the overtime winner with a slick move to his backhand. King behavior.

The Capitals haven't had two consecutive regulation losses in 59 consecutive games, a streak that began on April 9, 2021, the third-longest such streak in franchise history.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 23, 2022

• Big game for Martin Fehervary who skated 24:14 of total ice time in the game which is the most in his NHL career in one game. Kid is good.
• Trevor van Riemsdyk had an absurd game at five-on-five. With him on the ice, the Caps out-attempted the Sens 29 to 14, out-shot them 13 to 5, out-scoring chanced them 17 to 7, out-high danger chanced them 9 to 2, and out-scored them 2-0. TVR is legit.
• Connor McMichael played a total of 5:49 in the game. Imagine a heavy sigh right here.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.

Alex Ovechkin scored twice in the third period against the Ottawa Senators on Saturday. Ovechkin’s superstar heroics sent the game to overtime where Nicklas Backstrom finished the job. “We are duo.”

Historically speaking, Ovechkin’s tallies — no. 758 and no. 759 — continued to raise him higher up the ladder of the NHL’s all-time goals list. The 36-year-old legend now trails third-place Jaromir Jagr by seven, second-place Gordie Howe by 42, and Wayne Gretzky by 135.

Ovechkin’s first goal of the evening came 1:39 into the third period with Trevor van Riemsdyk and Evgeny Kuznetsov collecting the assists.

Goal No. 2️⃣8️⃣ of the season for @ovi8 pic.twitter.com/b1nkT13VpB

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 23, 2022

The Capitals captain, parked in front of the net, beat Senators goaltender Matt Murray with a rebound short side as TVR’s shot clanged off the post.

ovi goals are good for the soul pic.twitter.com/uKLznoFJIW

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 23, 2022

Ovechkin scored again eight minutes later, chunking a one-timer off the far crossbar and out.

All hail. pic.twitter.com/SunoIstVKg

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 23, 2022

“I thought it hit the crossbar,” Ovechkin said after the game. “That’s why I played until the final whistle.”

The goals were Ovechkin’s 28th and 29th of the season, tying him for the league lead in goals with *checks notes* Chris Kreider?

9:12pm ET #NYR Chris Kreider scores his NHL-leading 29th goal

9:20pm ET #ALLCAPS Alex Ovechkin joins him with his 29th goal

Kreider held sole possession of the NHL goal-scoring lead for a grand total of….8 minutes of course.

— Sportsnet Stats (@SNstats) January 23, 2022

The outing was Ovechkin’s 155th career multi-goal game passing Mario Lemieux for third all-time.

Scoring 2 to help his @Capitals erase a 2-0 deficit en route to a 3-2 OT win vs OTT Saturday night, Alex Ovechkin moved 1 off registering yet another 30-goal season (and still on pace for a record-tying 9th season of 50+ G). He also has moved past a "Magnificent" one for 3rd here pic.twitter.com/h32pxiY3Vn

— StatsCentre (@StatsCentre) January 23, 2022

Alex Ovechkin scored twice to help the @Capitals rally from behind for an overtime win while climbing yet another NHL all-time list in the process.#NHLStats: https://t.co/9ATVdUrvKn pic.twitter.com/sEsu7frP6D

— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) January 23, 2022

OVI OVI OVI OVI
OVI OVI
OVI OVI
OVI OVI
OVI OVI
OVI OVI
OVI OVI
OVI OVI
OVI OVI OVI OVI

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 23, 2022

The Washington Capitals have struggled mightily in January, and that continued in its game against the Ottawa Senators. The Capitals fell behind 2-0 and went scoreless in the first two periods.

But then its stars took care of business. Alex Ovechkin scored twice in the third period and Nicklas Backstrom ended the game 1:13 in overtime to collect two key standings points.

After the Capitals celebrated their win, NBC Sports Washington’s Al Koken asked Ovechkin on the Capitals’ bench how he would describe Backstrom’s breakaway tally.

“Would you call it a pretty sick goal?” Koken asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Ovechkin said. The Capitals’ captain then began searching his cranium for the perfect adjectives.

“I call it sexy goal,” he replied.

sexy. pic.twitter.com/oXDHLdMSEl

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 23, 2022

Inside the Capitals’ interview room, Backstrom was asked by The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir if his somewhat ridiculous tally was just a waiting game where Senators’ goaltender Matt Murray blinked first.

“I guess so. I mean, this time it worked,” Backstrom said. “We got lucky there, I think. It hit my shin pads. Otherwise, it probably would have been a three-on-two the other way, but we’ll take it. Obviously, it’s nice to score a goal.”

Backstrom explained that he held onto the puck so long because the Capital One Arena ice was not playing kind to the biscuit.

“I felt like the puck was bouncing a little bit so I was trying to make it flat and then I got too close to shoot I thought,” Backstrom said. “You have to trust the good ol’ backhand sometime.”

As for Backstrom, the 3-2 win marked his first multi-point game of the season. The Swedish center has eight points (2g, 6a) in his first nine games.

“It was gonna take me a couple games,” Backstrom said. “I think I’m starting to get the timing back (after my hip injury). Obviously, conditioning, too. I’m feeling better. Getting some more touches. It’s all about that. Just feeling comfortable out there.”

gn pic.twitter.com/uxeqerhGFk

— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) January 23, 2022

Screenshot: NBC Sports Washington

HERSHEY, PA — The Hershey Bears defeated the Hartford Wolf Pack 5-0 on its world-record-setting Teddy Bear Toss night, Saturday. It was the first time the Bears have held their Teddy Bear Toss game since the pandemic began – a span of over two years.

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby had his biggest game as a pro, scoring three goals against the Wolf Pack and earning First Star of the Night honors. AJF seemed super motivated after the Capitals sent him down to the AHL a day earlier after playing his ninth career game in the NHL on Thursday.

Jonsson-Fjallby scored the game’s first goal of the night, the Teddy Bear Toss goal, 6:13 into the first period on a Hershey power play. Taking a pass from Shane Gersich, the Swedish forward prospect ripped a dart short side past a helpless Keith Kincaid.

AJF struck again 3:11 and 13:06 into the third period to complete the hat trick. Jonsson-Fjallby’s hat trick came on a breakaway.

FIRST THEY THREW THE BEARS

NOW THEY THROW THE HATS #TeddyBearTossHershey pic.twitter.com/dGhF7tLpNV

— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) January 23, 2022

And Bears fans made sure to participate in the second item-throwing event of the evening.

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby hatty!

Throw yer hats!

(And bring this man back up to DC) pic.twitter.com/BeNlxIgduI

— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 23, 2022

AJF was mostly expressionless after both of his big milestone goals giving off big “Been Here Before” vibes. He was one of the first players off the ice after the Teddy Bear Toss goal, not lingering to take photos or celebrate his tally.

The goals were Jonsson-Fjallby’s 11th, 12th, and 13th goals of the season. AJF now leads the Hershey Bears in goals despite playing in a half-dozen fewer games (27) that team-leading Joe Snively (33).

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby is the first star of the game. He’s the first player in Hershey Bears history to score a hat trick on Teddy Near Toss night. pic.twitter.com/IOjH7G9bRq

— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 23, 2022

“Extremely proud of how our guys performed tonight,” Hershey Bears head coach Scott Allen said after the game.

AJF was mostly expressionless after both of his big milestone goals giving off big “Been Here Before” vibes. He was one of the first players off the ice after the Teddy Bear Toss goal, not lingering to take photos in the giant bear piles.

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB

The Washington Capitals have lost six of their last eight coming into Saturday night’s action against the Ottawa Senators. Could the Caps start to turn the tides and get back into the win column?

Thomas Chabot slammed home a point drive to open the night’s scoring. Zach Sanford burned his former teammates, tapping one home in tight on Vitek Vanecek.

Alex Ovechkin got the Caps on the board with his 28th goal of the season. He tied the game up with his 29th. Nicklas Backstrom to the roof in overtime.

Capitals beat Senators 3-2!

• It took the Caps over 17 minutes to record their first shot on goal and they all came on the power play. The Sens, who are very bad by the way, held them shotless at five-on-five. The offense has seemingly just completely dried up lately and I don’t think first-line Garnet Hathaway and scratching Daniel Sprong for two straight games are helping.
• People are getting their RMNB jerseys in the mail and that’s super rad. If you get yours make sure to take a pic and tag us on the socials. If I see it, I’ll retweet for sure!
• Georegtown lost at home earlier today to Villanova in basketball right where the ice was laid down for hockey. You could definitely tell. There are few things that annoy me more watching hockey than horrendous home rink ice.

Feeling snazzy af rinkside in my new @rmnb sweater.

Hoping the real Russian Machine @ovi8 will tear it up tonight.

Let's Go Caps! @Capitals #CapsSens #ALLCAPS pic.twitter.com/zbbBQZ3kGh

— Charlie McManus (@CharlieMcManus9) January 22, 2022

• The energy was just completely absent in the second. Matt Murray was very good on the penalty kill but I mean the Caps were gliding and hardly in the game at five-on-five again. Just a listless, gloomy effort against a team with literally half the wins the Caps have.
• Matt Irwin and Dennis Cholowski were on for both goals against through forty minutes. Neither should be NHL players right now, but that’s what you have to deal with when your literal top three defensemen are out at the same time for various reasons.
• Zach Sanford, the owner of potentially pierced nipples, burned his old team with a goal in the second period. Was this bullet just an excuse to bring that story up again? Yes.
• 700th career game for Carl Hagelin. In my honest opinion, he should be traded to free up cap space to get an upgrade at wing at the deadline. Sorry, Hags. Too much offensive talent keeps leaving the lineup every other day it seems and this team needs a jolt.

The Hershey Bears' Teddy Bear Toss game returned tonight after a two year absence due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored the milestone goal. https://t.co/4c3gRa8bSg

— RMNB (@rmnb) January 23, 2022

• The captain scored early in the final frame and brought immediate life to his club. Pretty fantastic third period. Great win.
• The Capitals are apparently considering signing Evander Kane. Unfortunately.
• Chris Kreider is literally scoring on every fourth shot. He doesn’t exist. Ignore him. Alex Ovechkin is your true league leader in goals and he is the best. Fantastic pass from Nicklas Backstrom to set up Ovi’s second of the night.

A cool blue jacket for @JoeBpXp tonight, plus cameos from Walton and Vogs in the #joebsuitofthenight pic.twitter.com/uwymtNRCyd

— Good Tweet Pete (@peterhassett) January 22, 2022

Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights is when the Caps will next be at it. The game is the first that TJ Oshie will be eligible to come off the injured reserve. Let’s hope we see some Teej!

Screenshot via NBC Sports Washington

In Elliotte Friedman’s weekly gossip segment on Hockey Night in Canada, the insider reported that the Washington Capitals are “considering” signing troubled forward Evander Kane, which is a horrible idea.

Kane, 30, has not played since January of last year, since when he has since been drenched in controversy, including sexual assault and battery allegations, forging a vaccine passport, and gambling issues.

San Jose terminated Kane’s contract earlier this month. Though the NHLPA is pursuing a grievance about that termination, Kane is now technically a free agent.

The Capitals, have struggled lately, going 4-4-2 in their last ten games prior to Saturday. Irrelevant to the first-order matter of the player’s pattern of lying and abuse, Kane’s individual ability to drive games is not remotely what it used to be. Here’s a graph from HockeyViz, which, again, does not matter in context.

The team surely must be unaware of the degree of fan revolt they would face if they hire this person.

This story will be updated.

Headline photo: Sportsnet

HERSHEY, PA — On December 1, 2019, Capitals Stanley Cup champion defenseman, Christian Djoos, scored a milestone marker while playing for the AHL’s Hershey Bears. Firing the puck into the back of the Hartford Wolf Pack’s net, Djoos began what is considered one of the most fun events in hockey. Bears fans threw a world-record 45,650 plush toys onto the ice — all of which would benefit charities across the region — forcing the game to stop and go to intermission early.

The ’19 Toss was a feel-good night for Hershey and the crescendo for an event in its 19th iteration, earning an E60 feature. But then everything changed. The coronavirus pandemic moved into the United States months later, complicating everything from our lives to sports as a whole.

In 2021, the Bears held a “drive-thru” toss and collected over 30,000 stuffed animals to assuage fans’ wants to keep the event going. But finally, 783 days later, the Hershey Bears were able to host its Teddy Bear Toss game safely again. Sure, things were a little different than before. Fans and media were wearing masks, but the large outpouring of support from the local community remained the same.

Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored the goal 6:13 into the first period, unleashing a frenzy of stuffed animals being hurled towards the ice.

Video

WHAT A SCENE! #TeddyBearTossHershey #HersheyBearsCares pic.twitter.com/tXbK5UEPMe

— Hershey Bears (@TheHersheyBears) January 23, 2022

The goal was assisted by Shane Gersich and Alexander Alexeyev.

The #TeddyBearTossHershey after Axel Jonsson-Fjallby scored the milestone goal.

Here was my view and no I didn’t drop my phone this year! @TheHersheyBears pic.twitter.com/ATUpyfQ1RH

— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 23, 2022

After celebrating the goal, Bears players immediately took to the ice from the bench and helped volunteers collect the mass collection of stuffed toys.

Players took pics for media on the ice and jumped into the piles of stuffed animals, including Capitals defense prospect Alex Alexeyev.

Alex Alexeyev jumping into a huge pile of Bears@TheHersheyBears @Alexeyev04 #TeddyBearTossHershey pic.twitter.com/rT7zIkB56N

— Ian Oland (@ianoland) January 23, 2022

The Giant Center was sold out for the game.

The Hershey Bears will be donating the stuffed animals to more than 25 local organizations. Coming into this year’s event, the Bears have collected an estimated 269,858 plush toys since 2001. Since that year, Hershey’s all-time record on Teddy Bear Toss is 13-2-0-2 in addition to two ties. Hershey has won five straight Teddy Bear Toss games, scoring four or more goals in each of those contests.

Jonsson-Fjallby joins four other Hershey players on the roster who have scored a Teddy Bear Toss goal in the past. According to Bears PR, Matt Moulson scored the Ontario Reign’s Teddy Bear Toss goal only 1:06 into the game on Dec. 15, 2018. Forward Kale Kessy scored a Teddy Bear Toss goal with ECHL Bakersfield on Dec. 4, 2013. Fellow forward Colby McAuley scored a Teddy Bear Toss goal in his junior days with the Prince George Cougars on Dec. 19, 2015, while Mason Morelli notched a Teddy Bear Toss goal just 15 seconds into the game for the Minot Minotauros in 2012.

This story is developing and will be updated throughout the night, including RMNB’s photos from the night.

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB

The Washington Capitals have invited the Ottawa Senators to town for what better be two easy points for the home team.

The Capitals will miss Dmitry Orlov (one more game on suspension), John Carlson (COVID), and TJ Oshie (injury), but Conor Sheary (COVID) returns from his COVID absence game.

Vitek Vanecek will make yet another start, hoping to lay claim to the Capitals’ top goalie spot.

Tonight’s game is on NBC Sports Washington, which you can watch using a television.

Former Capitals defenseman and current Florida Panther, Radko Gudas was sent to the penalty box for holding Friday night as the Panthers took on the Vancouver Canucks. Instead of going to the box for two minutes and feeling shame, Gudas was just left feeling dehydrated.

None of the water bottles in the visitor’s penalty box had any water in them.

Gudas only finds empty water bottles in the box. pic.twitter.com/3FEJFHwanX

— Jameson Olive (@JamesonCoop) January 22, 2022

This is absolutely tragic.

Believe it or not, this isn’t Gudas’ first battle with H20 in the NHL. As a member of the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2013, Gudas was viciously attacked by a squirt of water sent in his direction by Panthers forward Scottie Upshall from the Florida bench.

Gudas retaliated by slashing the mess out of the boards in front of the Panthers’ players. Safe to say, Radko takes hydration seriously.

Screenshot: Bally Sports Florida

The Washington Capitals will take on the Ottawa Senators, Saturday night. They will do so with a defense that likely does not include Nick Jensen.

Jensen suffered an upper-body injury late in Thursday’s loss to the Boston Bruins. According to The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell, he took the ice this morning but left before the official skate began.

This is how the Caps and their makeshift defense lined up, via Pell.

Conor Sheary will take the ice for the first time in twelve games. Before ending up out due to COVID-19, Sheary had four points in his last four games which included a two-goal performance against the Bruins. Martin Fehervary will once again skate with a different partner in Justin Schultz on the top pairing as John Carlson remains out due to COVID protocol, Dmitry Orlov serves the last game of his suspension, and Jensen misses out through injury. TJ Oshie will miss out due to his injured reserve designation and Daniel Sprong looks to be a healthy scratch for a second straight game.

Jensen is the Capitals rock on the backend. He plays the third-most minutes per game among their regular defensemen (20:00) and is heavily relied on with Orlov for defensive zone shutdown responsibilities. Only the line of Nic Dowd, Carl Hagelin, and Garnet Hathaway have more defensive zone shift starts this season at five-on-five than Jensen does (98). He only starts his shifts in the offensive zone 36.8-percent of the time.

In those minutes at five-on-five with Jensen on the ice, the Capitals see 52-percent of the shot attempts, 50.9-percent of the expected goals, and almost a dead-even split in scoring chances which is good given the zone start context earlier. He has 11 points in 39 games this season.

Pell also reports that Vitek Vanecek was once again the first goaltender off of the ice at the skate. Vitek is set to make his fourth start in the last five games as head coach Peter Laviolette labeled this stretch of play Vanecek’s chance to “grab the reins” of the goaltending situation.

The Capitals have lost six of their last eight and will look to beat the annual cellar-dwelling Senators to try and turn that around. The Senators come into Saturday night’s action on a two-game losing streak and have half the wins (11) on the season than the Capitals do.

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB

The Washington Capitals announced that they re-assigned Axel Jonsson-Fjallby back to the AHL Hershey Bears on Friday.

Jonsson-Fjallby was called up earlier this week and played in the Capitals’ 4-3 loss to the Boston Bruins, Thursday. AJF skated on the third line with Lars Eller and Connor McMichael.

Jonsson-Fjallby received 8:04 of ice time from Peter Laviolette in the game. The Capitals were out-attempted with him on ice 8 to 3, and out-chanced 2-0. But those numbers were normal for most Capitals players as the Bruins nearly doubled up Washington in shots on goal during the evening, 33 to 17.

AJF has posted one point, an assist, in nine games on the season. Overall, his underlying stats are outstanding: 53.2% shot attempts for, 57.0% expected goals for, 51.8% scoring chances for, and 60.2% high danger chances for with him on the ice five-on-five.

The Capitals optioned AJF back to the minors with Conor Sheary out of COVID protocol — Sheary skated today during the team’s optional practice — and Daniel Sprong available on the bench. The Swedish prospect also is one NHL game away from having to be exposed again on waivers if the Capitals opt to send him back to the minor leagues.

This means that the next time we see Jonsson-Fjallby, it’ll either be because the team made room for him on the NHL roster long-term or the rosters have expanded for the playoffs.

More from the Capitals:

Capitals Re-assign Axel Jonsson-Fjallby to Hershey

ARLINGTON, Va. – The Washington Capitals have re-assigned forward Axel Jonsson-Fjallby to the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League (AHL), senior vice president and general manager Brian MacLellan announced today.

Jonsson-Fjallby, 23, has recorded one assist in nine games with Washington this season and made his NHL debut on Nov. 8, 2021, against the Buffalo Sabres. The 6’1”, 189-pound forward is tied for third on Hershey this season with 21 points (10g, 11a) in 26 games.

In 31 games with the Bears last season, the Stockholm, Sweden, native recorded 15 points (10g, 5a) and set an AHL career high in goals per game (0.32). Jonsson-Fjallby also played in 26 games with Vastervik IK in the Swedish Hockey League, where he recorded 15 points (4g, 11a).

In 134 career games with the Bears, Jonsson-Fjallby has recorded 62 points (34g, 28a).

The Capitals selected Jonsson-Fjallby with their fifth-round pick, 147th overall, in the 2016 NHL Draft.

The Ottawa Senators are in town to take on the Capitals Saturday night. Before they traveled to the district, they were in Pittsburgh to do battle with the Penguins.

Tim Stützle, the Senators’ young German star, scored a goal in the 6-4 loss but arguably scored something better during warmups.

A signed stick in exchange for some gummy bears? Deal and deal.

The Viersen, Germany native was propositioned the trade during warmups by a young fan. The sign was written in Tim’s native German tongue reading, “Hallo Tim! Swap gold bears for sticks!” The sign also featured the universal symbol for trade between a picture of a stick and a bag of gummy bears.

“Goldbears” are made by Haribo, a German confectionery company. Of course, Tim obliged, grabbing a stick from the bench, quickly signing it, and making the exchange before swiftly heading down the tunnel to stash his snack.

Stützle would go on to score his sixth goal of the season and it was probably, most definitely because he snuck a couple of gummy bears in pregame.

The next time Ottawa is hiring a new general manager, Stützle’s deal-making ability has to be considered.

Screenshot via TSN

The Washington Capitals held an optional practice at MedStar Capitals Iceplex after their 4-3 to the Boston Bruins.

Conor Sheary, who had been in COVID protocol, returned to the ice for the first time in six days per The Athletic’s Tarik El-Bashir.

But it was who wasn’t present for the skate who made more news than who was.

The Washington Post’s Samantha Pell reported that Nick Jensen, who suffered an upper-body injury against the Bruins, did not take the ice. Nor did John Carlson (COVID protocol) or TJ Oshie (upper-body injury).

Oshie was placed on injured reserve on Thursday and is not eligible to return to game action until Monday against the Vegas Golden Knights at the earliest. The talented right wing was last seen on the ice on Wednesday to do some work before Capitals practice.

The Capitals are coming off their second loss to the Bruins in two weeks. Boston outshot Washington 33 to 17 in the game and at one point, the Capitals went three consecutive power-plays without putting a puck on the net. The physical game saw several big hits, none of which would be penalized by the NHL’s Department of Player Safety according to Pell. The Bruins took Garnet Hathaway to task postgame for his hit to Brad Marchand.

Washington will suit up against the Ottawa Senators at home Saturday night. The Senators practiced at MedStar Capitals Iceplex before the Caps took the ice at noon.

The Senators have hit the ice for practice at Medstar Capitals Iceplex. They are the #Caps’ guests tomorrow night. pic.twitter.com/H2BqCRz8to

— Tarik El-Bashir (@Tarik_ElBashir) January 21, 2022

Headline photo: Elizabeth Kong/RMNB

Editor’s note: This is a special story from our friend Ben. You can follow Ben on Twitter. This story was originally written like two years ago, but it took forever to actually use the thing mentioned in the story.

This is a story of a RMNB miracle. If you haven’t noticed, the twitter handle for this beloved site has been @russianmachine since its inception. That is because some genius snatched the @RMNB handle back in 2007, probably with hopes of getting famous. We know this because his one and only tweet was this:

You may be saying, “Well, Ben, finder’s keepers.” And normally, I’d be like “Yep!”. But since April 30, 2007, that has been the only tweet that the @RMNB handle has ever tweeted. Day after day, month after month, year after year would go by and we never got an update. No, “All done” or “Yum!”… just “Breakfast !!”.. forever. And at some point in 2015 and 2016, ya boi Peter Hassett tweeted these delicious morsels:

A little morbid, but it was at that point I knew what I had to do. For the last three years I have been trying to figure out who this Rui is. Here’s the problem: Egg picture, no bio or background image, only following 24 people (mostly political), and only 10 followers (some lost fans of this website). Where the hell do you begin? I started with the followers, the people that actively chose to follow this riveting account.

I began by following anyone I didn’t recognize and would wait for the follow back so I could slide into those DMs. And then, I waited, and waited, and for the sake of brevity, I waited some more. Until I tweeted at one of @RMNB’s followers asking for help and I received a DM. What’s this!?

This follower of @RMNB gave me the first glint of hope I had in a long time. He gave me the possible name and email of who he thought the handle belong to. And over the next year, I would send the email address he gave me emails requesting more information. I’ll spare you all the details but let’s just say here’s a graph of every email I sent over the past year with dates and word count shown. I went a little hard in the beginning. I was getting frustrated.

With all these emails, you’d think “Oh wow, you definitely heard back.” And you’d be wrong. Over the year I began to think I was muted, or blocked, or even worse: ignored! But it turns out, it was just the wrong email address. Back to the drawing board. So, I began to take a look at the profiles of the other followers of @RMNB, and it just so happens one of them has his LinkedIn profile in his twitter. What did I do next? You guessed it, I connected with him on LinkedIn. After he accepted my request, I sent him a message asking if he knew who the account holder of the @RMNB account was. And on December 17, at 5:45 AM EST, I received this: “He his my brother. Make an offer!”

The good news, I found him. The bad news… money. After a few interactions, some insider information, and the realization I was GROSSLY out of my league to be in a negotiation, I contacted the jerk that started me down this whole path. I messaged Peter to find out what the site would be willing to do to get the handle.

A little insider baseball. I work for an architecture firm and I recognize the need for branding an acronym. And while Russian Machine Never Breaks is fun and historic. One day Ovechkin will retire and just simply be the greatest goal scorer ever. I’m sure the website would love to continue into the far future to cover the next round of Russian Capital babes. Changing your brand is an incredibly risky and difficult process. So owning the brand RMNB will make it easy for the future of the site. So while @RMNB isn’t extremely important for December 2019, it might be for July 2031.

So with a little guidance from Peter and Ian, and the confidence of a mediocre white man, I messaged the owner of @RMNB on LinkedIn. And after a schooling in the art of negotiation, some money, a t-shirt, and the promise of Capitals tickets if he was ever in Washington, D.C., the @RMNB account was mine. Now, you may think that’s the end of the story, right? But there was one last thing I needed to do before completely turning over the account:

On behalf of everyone at Russian Machine Never Breaks, we congratulate Ben for completing this odyssey and thank him for his kindness and friendship. As of today, we’re officially at twitter.com/rmnb

The Washington Capitals went to battle with the Boston Bruins on Thursday night and neither team would come out unscathed. The Bruins came out the happier of the two parties as they ended the night with the full two points in a 4-3 victory.

Special teams tend to matter a lot.

• The Capitals never looked great in this game. There was zero rhythm to their play and Boston seemingly had the puck for 85-percent of the three periods. The third period in particular was quite terrible for the Caps as they gave up eight high danger chances at five-on-five and created exactly zero of their own. They would have absolutely been lucky to come out of TD Garden with a point.
• Yet still it was only a one-goal loss. Do you know what could have prevented that one-goal loss? The power play working at any semblance of an NHL level. They went three power play opportunities in a row without recording a shot. Inexcusably god awful. Something has got to give. New eyes are needed.
• It has not been a great couple of weeks for that Nic Dowd centered line. The number of absolutely terrible penalties both Dowd and Garnet Hathaway have taken at some of the most inopportune times in games is unacceptable. If you’re double shifting that line late in games you cant have them doing that. The Bruins scored with 45 seconds left in regulation with Dowd in the box late. Hathaway also went out of his way to sit in the box for no reason earlier in the game.

Tom Wilson recorded the primary assist on Backstrom's goal, his 17th assist of the season. Wilson's 29 points (12g, 17a) in 37 games this season rank fourth on the Capitals.

— CapitalsPR (@CapitalsPR) January 21, 2022

• I don’t put a whole lot of this on Vitek Vanecek at all. His team was out-shot 34 to 17 in front of him. They gave up the aforementioned eight high danger chances in the third period and even accidentally scored on him. He did more than enough with his 30 saves to keep his team within reach of at least a point.
• Really liked what I saw from both Brett Leason and Aliaksei Protas. That is becoming a trend. Leason tied Alex Ovechkin for the team in shots on goal with three and recorded two individual scoring chances. I think the play of these two and guys like Connor McMichael and Martin Fehervary give the Caps a chance to do something bigger in the trade market this season.
• I personally think the Caps need to add another top-six scoring talent as well as a goaltender. I use CapFriendly’s wonderful trade machine to test out some theories. You should as well and post your findings in the comments!

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com and NaturalStatTrick.com.