Nicklas Backstrom News

Going into the offseason, the Washington Capitals and General Manager George McPhee have a lot of decisions to make.

Make memories with your kids at a National's game. Learn how to ski. Surprise the women you love with a Pandora bracelet.

A quick note: Players' salaries, not their salary cap hits, were included for offseason purposes.

Centermen are expected to assist teammates, orchestrate the power play and score the occasional goal, all while winning faceoffs and playing defense.

Matt Hendricks will get a new contract from someone this summer. Whether the Washington Capitals will give it to him remains to be seen.

The Washington Capitals may not have been able to make the deep playoff run they were hoping to, but they should have a good shot at getting back to the postseason with almost their entire roster set to return next season.

Perhaps thinking about the 2014 NHL season will help Washington Capitals fans forget about the painful end to the 2013 season.

As the Washington Capitals gathered at their practice facility Wednesday for exit meetings and the annual explanations about what went wrong in the playoffs, there were references to bad luck and bad bounces in their first-round elimination against the New York Rangers .

The more things change, the more they stay the same . But the past is the past, and here are five questions Washington needs to answer in the immediate future: When center Mike Riberio was acquired from the Dallas Stars in exchange for Cody Eakin and a second-round draft pick in 2012t, Washington had filled a long-standing hole in the middle of the ... (more)

The Bill Masterton Trophy, named for the player who exemplifies 'perseverance, sportsmanship and dedication to hockey,' essentially has become synonymous with comeback player of the year.

Neither the Washington Capitals nor New York Rangers possessed more than a two-goal lead at any point in their first-round Stanley Cup playoff series before Monday night.

It's fairly natural for people to think of the future and have a positive outlook.

The New York Rangers held serve against the Washington Capitals , defeating them 1-0 on Sunday to force a deciding Game 7. Rangers' goalie Henrik Lundqvist was a brick wall in front of net once again.

The first-round NHL playoff series that arrives back at Verizon Center Friday night will have a distinctly different feel than when it left.

March 9, 2013; Tampa FL, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning right wing Martin St. Louis skates against the Montreal Canadiens during the second period at Tampa Times Forum.

Alex Ovechkin was nearly unstoppable during the second half of the 2013 NHL season, propelling the Washington Capitals into the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Then I thought, no, only a bad person would do that, and the stories probably aren't very interesting, and the Caps are still in fine shape in this series, and seriously, there isn't a single good reason for doing that item other than being a bad person.

Adam Oates doesn't think Alex Ovechkin was "tired" late in the Capitals' Game 3 loss to the Rangers, despite that insinuation by New York defenseman Ryan McDonagh.

By now the Washington Capitals are well-versed in the pageantry and madness that is Madison Square Garden .

When Marcus Johansson passed up a shot in Game 2 to pass the puck to Nicklas Backstrom, it was a lost scoring chance when the Capitals didn't get the puck on net.