Washington Capitals left wing Alex Ovechkin, who led the league in goals with 56, won the NHL's most valuable player award, and the player's vote for player of the year, for the second year in a row.

It's the first time for a back-to-back winner since goalie Dominic Hasek won in 1997-98, and first forward to win consecutive Hart Trophies since Wayne Gretzky won seven in a row in the 1980's.

Ovechkin was also named to the NHL's First Team All-Stars, where he was joined by teammate and Norris Trophy candidate Mike Green. It's the first time ion Capitals history that two Capitals were named to the first team.

Green was beaten out by Zdeno Chara of the Boston Bruins for the Norris Trophy.

CONGRATS TO OVIE AND GREEN!!!

From the Caps:

The Washington Capitals have re-signed left wing Quintin Laing to a one-year contract, vice president and general manager George McPhee announced today. In keeping with club policy, terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Laing, 30, played one game for Washington last season. He was recalled by the Caps from the Hershey Bears of the American Hockey League on March 19 and played the entire game (10:19) at Tampa Bay despite suffering a torn spleen on his second shift in the first period. Laing ended the game with a +1 rating.

The 6'2", 210-pound native of Rosetown, Saskatchewan, spent most of the season with the Calder Cup champion Bears. He tallied 25 points (9g-16a) in 55 regular-season games before his recall. Laing missed more than two months with his spleen injury, but he returned to the Bears during the Calder Cup playoffs and had two goals and two assists in nine games.

Laing is a hard working guy, but if he's going to have a role on the big club, it's as a penalty killer and providing minutes on an "energy" line, as coach Bruce Boudreau likes to call it. He's very much in the Boyd Gordon mold, and if the Caps fail to bring Gordon back, Laing is an insurance policy there.