Just a quick post this morning to explain the lack of posting this week and next week, despite the flurry of activity from the Olympic Games, which I would much rather be paying attention to.

Without getting into the details of the situation, a family member has taken ill and I need to dedicate my attention to that for the time being.

We might post or reply to things on Twitter (@CapsNewsNetwork) or on Facebook, since we can access that on our mobile devices.

Thank you for your understanding and patience.

Caps News Network will return as soon as we can.

Despite Brooks Laich's first NHL hat trick and another three-goal third period, the Washington Capitals saw their franchise record 14-game winning streak fall to the Montreal Canadiens, 6-5.

Montreal's Tomas Plekanec scored with less than eight seconds remaining in overtime, putting a dagger in the longest winning streak in the Capitals 35 year history.

That the Caps were playing in overtime at all was surprising, as Laich completed his hat trick with 18.4 seconds left in regulation.  Montreal forward Glen Metropolit took a late penalty with 2:32 left and while the Caps failed to register on the power play, they lifted goalie Jose Theodore (21 saves on 25 shtos)  for the extra attacker as time wore down.

When Laich solved Canadiens goalie Carey Price (33 saves), the Caps had to feel like they'd won the game, stealing a point in a game they once trailed 5-2.

Overtime was back-and-forth, and when the Caps couldn't convert on a rush with less that 30 seconds, it looked like the game was going to penalty shots.  But Sergei Kostitsyn carried deep into the offensive zone, and found Plenkanec behind defenseman Jeff Schultz for the tap in on Theodore.

It was a brutal ending to a fantastic comeback.

Washington played it's way into the three-goal deficit.  There were blown defensive assisgnments, lack of concentration by goalies Theodore and Michal Neuvirth (who left the game without explanation early in the second period), and lazy stick penalties by forwards Alexander Semin and Brendan Morrison, the latter resulting in a Montreal power play goal, and another one just 12 seconds after that.

But a power play goal by Mike Green 16 seconds into the third got the Caps off on the comeback, and Laich tallied two more times in the stanza to send the game into the extra period.

Washington also had a goal inexplicably waived off in the second period.  Montreal defenseman Hal Gill had the puck at his feet in the slot in front of Price.  Alex Ovechkin lowered his shoulder into Gill, sending the large defender into his goalie, puck and all.  When the puck slid under Price and into the goal, the referee originally, and emphatically, signaled goal.

But after the play, the officiating squad met at the scorer's desk, and without replay, overturned the goal. 

Montreal came in short-handed, missing five regulars and top scorer Mike Cammalleri, and lost Josh Georges late in the first period when he went down to block a shot from the point by Green and took it off his right cheek.  Georges lay motionless for several moments in a pool of blood, but eventually left under mostly his own power and is listed as day-to-day for Montreal.

The Capitals seem to be getting banged up now too.  Jason Chimera missed the game due to a strained groin suffered in practice Tuesday, and Tom Poti missed much of the third period.  The Caps are expected to make a couple call-ups from Hershey today in case either player can't go tonight againt Ottawa.

The Washington Capitals came back in spectacular fashion today from 2-0 and 4-1 deficits to defeat their bitter rival, the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-4 in overtime.  The team extended their franchise record winning streak to 14 games before a roughly three-quarters full Verizon Center, due to the enormous snowstorm that dropped 20-30 inches of snow on the region.

Alex Ovechkin registered a hat trick, giving him 43 goals for the season, and now leads the league in goals, points and plus/minus.

The Capitals are 17-1 since Ovechkin was named captain Jan. 5, and the two-time Hart Trophy winner has 16 goals and 19 assists during the streak.

Jose Theodore made 31 saves, and though he gave up four goals, made several exceptional stops late in the game to force the game to overtime, where Mike Knuble put back an Ovechkin shot from the point for the game winner.

Sidney Crosby and Jordan Staal both had two goals for the Penguins, but it just wasn't enough on this day for Pittsburgh.

This game had it all.  Superstars scoring goals.  Physical play.  A big comeback.  Frenzied fans that spent hours digging their cars out of three foot snowdrifts.  National television.

"It was what people pay to see, when the superstars shine," Washington coach Bruce Boudreau said. "There's tension, and there's excitement, and there's physical play, and there's passion on both sides. That's what hockey is all about."

There was even name-calling afterward.  Penguins defenseman Brooks Orpik, called for a high stick on Alexander Semin that gave the Caps the power play where the game-winner scored, called Semin "a baby," presumably for over-reacting to the stick in his face.

"He does it all the time. The kid's a baby," said Orpik, who was assessed a game misconduct after the game because he kept complaining to the officials. "He does it all game long. I've got zero respect for the kid."

Et tu, Orpik?

Washington's winning streak ties the 1929-30 Boston Bruins for third longest in league history and is three shy of the record of 17, set by the Penguins from March 9-April 10, 1993.

Much was made of the weather conditions, especially the Penguins travails, spending more than nine hours in transit.  The team had to fly into Newark, NJ, then bus the remaining distance, getting to their hotels after 2:00 am Sunday morning.

But Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau didn't want to hear any excuses.

"I think [the weather conditions] hurts us worse," Boudreau said. "We're out shoveling all day and worried about people coming to the game and your family and how are we driving and all of this stuff, and your focus is not on 'Hey, we've got a game tomorrow."'

But both teams found a way to focus, and the show did not disappoint for the home crowd, which was very strong and very vocal, despite the conditions.

Pittsburgh got out to a 2-0 lead in the first on two goals by Crosby.  The first was a gift by defenseman Tyler Sloan, who tried to clear a puck up the right wing boards, but the only player there to receive the puck was the Penguins captain.  Crosby led a three-on-one attack, but never passed the puck.  He held long enough for Theodore to commit, then put it past him to start the day's scoring.

The second goal was on a Pens' power play, as Evgeni Malkin hit Crosby with a terrific pass through the crease to take a 2-0 lead.

Ovechkin cut the lead in half in the second period, with his first goal of the day.  He took a long breakout pass from Jeff Schultz and snapped it past Marc-Andre Fleury on a breakaway.

Staal then got a pair less than two minutes apart, and things looked ugly for the home side, trailing 4-1 to the defending Stanley Cup champions.

But Eric Fehr made an outstanding individual effort, as he streaked in on the left wing, got a shot off on Fleury, then followed it up, tipping the loose puck through the goalie to halve the lead right before intermission.

"I've been struggling a little bit so I just wanted to put the puck to the net and crash it as hard as I could and look for a rebound there and I got a lucky break there and it went in," Fehr said about his effort.

As they have done so often during the winning streak, the Capitals had the better of play in the third period.  Tonight, it was Ovechkin that carried the day.

He tallied on a backhander past Fleury at 6:51, then later scored on a wicked slap shot off a faceoff win by Nicklas Backstrom.

The Capitals have outscored opponents 30-6 in the third period during the streak.

"You can tell when he's having one of his days, and when he's having one of his days," Coach Bruce Boudreau said of Ovechkin.

Definitely one of Ovechkin's days.

The 'Great Eight' almost collected a fourth goal in overtime, as his shot from the point rang off the post.  But it bounced right to Knuble who banged it underneath Fleury for the game winner.

"I didn't really know it went in," Knuble said.  "I thought they were blowing the horn from when Alex's hit the inside of the post.  I didn't really see the puck cross the line."

Knuble completed the second "Gordie Howe Hat Trick" of the season for the Caps (goal, assist, fight), as he assisted on Ovechkin's last goal and had a fight in the first period.  He was sticking up for his captain, who was unceremoniously dumped into the boards (sans penalty, of course) by Craig Adams.

So we saw a little bit of everything today.  But what we really saw was a team that willed themselves to victory after a rough start on a day they very easily could have folder their tents and just said "It's not our day."

But since Ovechkin was named captain, every day has been the Caps' day.

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Here's a couple more fun photos to end a pretty terrific day of hockey.

In the midst of another record-breaking snowstorm, the Washington Capitals continue to break records of their own with each win they record.

Friday night, the Capitals added to their franchise-record winning streak, defeating the Atlanta Thrashers 5-2, before a healthy, hearty snow-braving crowd at Verizon Center.

The winning streak is the longest in the NHL since the New Jersey Devils won 13 straight in 2000-01.

Goalie Michal Neuvirth, recalled earlier in the day from AHL Hershey, was stellar again in goal.  He stopped 43 of 45 shots he faced, including a tremendous glove save in the third period on Ron Hainsey.

In his last two starts, Neuvirth has saved 78 of 81 shots, defeating his countrymen Tomas Vokoun and Ondrej Pavelec, the Czech Olympic team goaltenders.

"It's always something special when I beat a Czech goalie.  Last game I beat Vokoun, now Pavelec.  I beat Olympic goalies for my country so it's a big deal for me."

"I was not that sharp in the first, but I think I was getting better every minute and I think I had a good game," Neuvirth said after the game.  "Its Theo's streak.  I've been in a couple games, but he's playing really good right now.  I'm just happy to help when he gets tired."

"Neuvirth played fabulous," coach Bruce Boudreau said.  "They got their legs [in the second period] and we couldn't meet their push and we needed the goalie to be really good, and he was really good."

As for the streak itself, Boudreau still doesn't really want to acknowledge it all that much. 

"You guys don't realize how hard it is to win.  It's difficult to stay at a pace when every team that you're playing are coming at you in waves because they are the ones that want to end it."

"The reason winning streaks are tough is because you have to be at the top of your game all the time."

As has been common during the streak, the team came out sluggish in the first period, and got down quickly to Atlanta.  Tobias Enstrom took advantage of Neuvirth, who was out of position a little bit, putting a bouncing puck into a fairly open net just 2:36 into the game.

The Caps tied it up later in the period on Alex Ovechkin's 40th goal of the season, a power play marker.  The Great Eight broke a stick and had to go back to the bench for a new twig. 

Center Nicklas Backstrom essentially held the puck along the boards until his captain could glide back into the offensive zone, where the silky Swede set the puck up on a tee, and Ovechkin hammered it home effortlessly.

Atlanta took it to the Caps in the second period, outshooting the home team 22-9 in the frame.  But the only tally would come by Backstrom, slamming home a nice feed from Ovechkin.

The Capitals would, once again, steamroll their opponent in the third period. 

Alexander Semin scored into an open net after Brooks Laich did the hard work, drawing Pevelec's attention, then sliding the puck deftly over to a breaking Semin.  Jason Chimera picked up a loose puck at center ice, drove into the offensive zone, and blasted a slap shot high glove side, and Mike Green added an empty net goal as time ran down, lofting a backhand shot five feet from his own goal line.

The only pock mark on the period was a short-handed goal by Altanta.  Semin tried a risky crossing pass on the power play that was picked off by Rich Peverly.  Peverly came in on Neuvirth with Semin giving chase. 

Neuvirth made the initial save, but Semin crashed into his own goalie and dislodged the puck, knocking in into the goal.

It cut the lead to 4-2 at the time, but Green's empty netter sealed the deal.

"The guys want to win more than anything," Boudreau said. "That's why they come out in the third period and they're pretty well in control so far in the third period lately."

The win sets up a nationally televised game with Pittsburgh on Sunday (weather permitting).  Coincidentally, the Penguins own the league's longest winning streak at 17 games, set in the 92-93 season.  You have to believe, as Boudreau does, that Pittsburgh would like nothing less than to end the Caps streak on their home ice.

"You're playing against the Stanley Cup champions," Boudreau said when asked about the Penguins.  "I gotta believe, even if they say we're not a big rival of theirs, they would take an awful lot of pleasure beating us on Sunday in our building."

NOTES:  Backstrom did not play in the third period, with what he described as a headache.  Boudreau said that he was experiencing "flu-like symptoms", but expects his No. 1 center to play Sunday.

The team canceled practice on Saturday due to the massive snowstorm that has gripped the region.

Goalie Braden Holtby was assigned to Hershey to clear room for Neuvirth.

D John Erskine delivered a good, clean check on Marty Reasoner, knocking the Atlanta center to the ice, and winger Chris Thorburn took exception and engaged Erskine in some fisticuffs.  Thorburn received an extra two minutes for roughing, but could (should) have been assessed a misconduct instigator penalty.

The Washington Capitals won for the twelvth consecutive game, defeating the New York Rangers 6-5 at storied Madison Square Garden.

Those words, however, don't do the game, or this team, justice.

Alex Ovechkin scored two goals and had an assist, and Nicklas Backstrom had a goal and four assists, leading the team's offensive output.

With three points, Ovechkin reached 500 points for his illustrious career.  It took the 'Great Eight' only 373 games to reach that lofty record.

Jose Theodore had as good a game as anyone that gave up four goals, making 33 saves.  None were more critical that with just under 12 seconds, as a shot came in from the slot and bounced up in front of his eyes. 

Theodore made a quick swipe with his catching glove and covered up, wresting away the Rangers last, best shot at tying a game they led on several occasions, once by two goals.

New York scored four power play goals en route to their biggest offensive output in weeks.  The Caps responded in kind with two power play goals of their own in the third period.

Tom Poti sent a wrist shot toward Henrik Lundqvist less than a minute into the third that seemed to confuse the stellar goalie.  It might have been tipped or been deflected, but Poti gets credit for the goal.

Less than five minutes later, Nicklas Backstrom fired a shot from the high slot that beat Lundqvist cleanly. 

The goal capped a tremendous effort from the entire team after spending a good chunk of the game defending -- poorly -- on the penalty kill. 

The second period was a bizzare, back-and-forth, pond hockey type of affair.  Washington took four penalties in the second, New York three, where the two teams exchanged six goals.

But the frame ended with the captain, Alex Ovechkin, making a bull rush toward the Ranger net.  He put the puck between the defenseman's legs, and -- one handed -- flipped the puck over and past a sprawled Henrik Lundqvist to draw the team within one.

The goal, with seven seconds remaining in the second, broke the Rangers momentum and steered it back in Washington's direction.

In what is now becoming habit, the Caps then steamrolled in the third, as the Rangers themselves couldn't stay out of the box, taking five penalties against the league's No. 1 power play.

So the win streak runs to 12 games, and the Capitals race the impending snowstorm home to face the Atlanta Thrashers Friday night.  The Thrashers will be a shell of their former selves, as they dealt their leading scorer, Ilya Kovalchuk, to the New Jersey Devils today.

Should the Caps get lucky 13 on Friday, it'll set up a marquee matchup on Sunday -- weather permitting -- on national television with arch-enemy Pittsburgh.

It's all any Caps fan could ask for.

The Washington Capitals face the New York Rangers this evening, going for win No. 12 in a row. 

While that is exiting enough to get most Caps fans into a frenzy, this weekend's massive snowstorm that's bearing down on the mid-Atlantic region calls into peril the Friday night game with Atlanta and especially Sunday's nationally televised matchup with the dastardly Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.

First, from the National Weather Service:

WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM FRIDAY TO 10 PM EST SATURDAY...

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN STERLING VIRGINIA HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR HEAVY SNOW WITH NEAR-BLIZZARD CONDITIONS... WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM FRIDAY TO 10 PM EST SATURDAY. THE WINTER STORM WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT.

* PRECIPITATION TYPE... HEAVY SNOW.

* ACCUMULATIONS... STORM TOTAL ACCUMULATIONS OF 16 TO 24 INCHES.

* TIMING... SNOW WILL BEGIN MID-MORNING FRIDAY... AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH SATURDAY EVENING. CONDITIONS WILL DETERIORATE RAPIDLY FRIDAY AFTERNOON... WITH HEAVIEST SNOWFALL OCCURRING BETWEEN SUNSET FRIDAY TO SUNRISE SATURDAY.

It sounds like the Thrashers (with or without Ilya Kovalchuk) will be able to get IN to D.C., but probably won't make it OUT Saturday.  Atlanta is scheduled to play in Florida against the Panthers at 7:00 pm Saturday night.  Good luck with that, but it's not the Caps' problem.

What is the Caps problem, is Sunday's game.  The snow will be over by then, but the real problem is Pittsburgh's schedule, and the game time on Sunday.

The Pens play in Montreal at 2:00 pm Saturday, and are scheduled to come to DC that evening.  For the same reason that Atlanta probably won't make it out, the Pens could very well not make it in Saturday night.

What's worse, because of the nationally televised noon game (to avoid going against the Super Bowl), there's no way they'd fly in Sunday morning to play at noon.  They'd have to move the game to later Sunday (which they would want to avoid if at all possible), or perhaps Monday night.

The Caps and Pens are both off until Wednesday, and Verizon Center is dark Monday night, with the Wizards on the road Tuesday in Charlotte (maybe).

There are two other complications:  arena workers, and transportation.

If there's as much snow as predicted, it'll be pure hell getting around town.  We were on the road last Saturday and the beltway hadn't even been plowed yet, and we were only talking a few inches.  Most of the jurisdictions in the area have already spent their season's budgets on snow removal.

Getting stadium workers, security and game officials into (and out of) the arena will be messy at best and hazardous at worst.

Also consider, the Hoyas and Wizards have both have games Saturday between the two hockey games.  That's four games in tow days, with different people needed to work the different events.  It'll be nuts!

And if you plan to take Metro to come to any of the games, be warned:  they've already announced that once eight inches accumulate, the outdoor stations will be closed.

So stay tuned Caps fans.  Caps News Network will have any schedule updates as they become available over the weekend.  You can check us out on Facebook and Twitter (@CapsNewsNetwork) for immediate updates as well.

Until then, enjoy the snow.  What else are you supposed to do about it?

Jose Theodore was tremendous in goal, leading the Washington Capitals over the hosting Boston Bruins, 4-1, setting the franchise mark for consecutive victories with eleven straight.

It was Boston's eight straight defeat.

The Capitals broke the club record set from Jan. 27-Feb. 18, 1984 and have the NHL's longest winning streak since the San Jose Sharks also won 11 in a row from Feb. 21-March 14, 2008. During their 11 wins, the Capitals, who lead the Eastern Conference, have outscored opponents 51-22.

Theodore was really on his game tonight, and he needed to be, especially in the first period, when the Caps took four penalties and was shorthanded for a good chunk of the frame.

The veteran goalie finished with 41 saves, including one on Blake Wheeler where, from the ice, he reached back with his stick to sweep the puck off the goal line.

It was another sparkling effort for Theodore, who won his personal-best eighth consecutive game.

"It's fun to be part of franchise history. Getting that 11th win, and beating the old record, it's great," Theodore told reporters after the game.

"Not bad," Boudreau said of Theodore. "He was in a complete zone today and I hope he stays there."

Theodore needed to be in the zone, as few of his teammates played up to his level for the first couple of periods.  It didn't help that the Caps took four minor penalties in the first and another in the second, three against winger Alexander Semin.

Semin was plagued with games like this early in his career and earlier this season.  He took two hooking calls, resultant from lack of effort and determination.  He was fortunate that the penalty kill is playing so well, mitigating the damage done from his infractions.

Washington got balanced scoring once again.  Mike Knuble tied the game in the second period, and Brooks Laich, Boyd Gordon and Alex Ovechkin all scored in the third period.  Tom Poti had two assists on the evening.

So the win streak goes to 11 games, and it's on to New York to face the imploding Rangers Thursday night.  If you've been a Caps fan since the beginning, picked it up during the playoff years in the '80s, or joined the Red Army after the lockout, it's a proud night to be a Capitals fan.

Enjoy it.  Then get ready for Thursday.