The most interesting part of the story, however, is the two teams that were mentioned as having players who received anabolic steroids from Mr. Thomas. Both were Washington teams, one being the Nationals and the other being the Capitals.

This is breaking news in Florida, and little is known about the story. But should this news turn out to be true, it would reflect poorly not only on the Capitals, but the NHL as a whole. And this after Gary Bettman said there was not a drug problem in the NHL.

This story will be watched closely to see exactly what comes of things. It could be a boastful lie on the part of Richard Thomas, or it could be the start of a disastrous time for hockey.

Hauswirth attended the Caps development camp last summer, and will be in attendance yet again this summer. Last season he turned a lot of heads, and, as J.P. notes, was the unofficial 2nd star of the camp. Since then he has only gotten better, and his skill level is shown in the Capitals' desire to sign him and have him progress within the organization instead of waiting and improving his game in college.

Hauswirth could be another big guy with the scoring touch the Caps could use, someone along the lines of Brooks Laich. With the exception of Laich, the Caps have not had an abundance of guys who were willing to crash the net, especially in the playoffs. If he can finish developing his game enough in Hershey, he could be a big help in Washington one day.

Another guy who really earned his pay was Tom Poti. After putting up only 13 points on the season (the lowest total of his career), he put up 5 points in 7 games against his former team. He was injured for a number of games this season, and didn't see much powerplay time, which is a big part of why he was signed, but managed to come up big when it counted. With a pressure-packed series against Pittsburgh coming up, I expect Boudreau to turn to Poti to provide the steady veteran presence.

On the negative side, Inside the Room is reporting that Ovechkin was the only guy to sit out today's practice. Both he and Boudreau are saying that he is simply taking the day off, but some people have other ideas.

The bottom line is that everyone needs to be on top of their game for the Caps to keep winning. Ovechkin needs to rest up and play like the superstar he is, Varlamov needs to keep working his rookie magic, and guys like Semin, Feds, and other secondary scorers need to keep contributing. Erskine needs to keep up his physical defense, and Green needs to keep moving the puck. When everyone is on top of their game the Caps will keep going deep in the playoffs.

After their 4-0 stomping of the Rangers at MSG the other night, there was an abundance of hope that the Caps would strike twice on the road, and come home with things squared at 2. But last night everything they did right in game 3, they failed to do in game 4. They didn't crash the net, they didn't play gritty, and they spent too much time ripping shots from the outside. As On Frozen Blog puts it;

I somehow doubt Coach Boudreau instructed his charges to ignore their Game 3 success but, for some reason, most of the players decided that risky pass attempts and shots from the perimeter were the best strategy tonight. It was stunning to see the first few Capitals' power plays, as they broke out the umbrella formation... when every camera angle shows viewers an unobstructed view of the opposing goaltender, it's safe to say that "crashing the net" was not part of the team's philosophy this night.

Finesse hockey is pretty when it works, and embarrassing when it fails. Tonight's game falls firmly into the latter category.

And they were the worst in the statistic that is most important in a game: faceoffs. Winning the face-off puts that team on offense, and sets the tempo of play. Unfortunately, the Rangers started off too many plays with the upper hand. As The Peerless points out, "If you decompose the faceoffs, it goes like this…The Caps lost 39 of 58 draws last night (32.8 percent winning percentage). They were worse in the defensive zone, winning only five of 17 draws (29.4 percent)." You can't carry momentum during the game if you win less than a third of all faceoffs, including going 5 for 17 in the defensive zone. That gave the Rangers control of the puck in the offensive zone to start play a dozen times, and created several scoring chances for New York, including Paul Mara's goal off of John Erskine's stick.

But in the end there is still a chance, and we have to believe in that chance. The Caps were down 3-1 in last year's first round to Philly, and took things to overtime in Game 7 before they lost the series. J.P. at Japers puts it the best when he explains why he will be in the stands tomorrow night.

But more importantly, I don't want to cast away that feeling of hope that tingles my spine and fills my heart. The sun still rose this morning. Our team is still alive. We love sport, and this sublime game of hockey, because anything can happen.

Anything.

There is always that chance of a comeback. And that is why I will be tuning in tomorrow night to see just what happens.

A big part of getting back on the track will be continuing to get Sean Avery all riled up. He has been sent to the box so many times this series that I had to go look at the numbers just to make sure I had it right. In the past two games he had taken 6 minor penalties, and has 24 total penalty minutes in the series. It will be interesting to see if he even makes the dress list tomorrow night. Last night's game saw him take two late, meaningless penalties that nearly allowed the Caps to tie up the game. He hasn't produced a point yet, and at this point is simply useless to New York on the ice. Coach John Tortorella will have a tough decision to make before tomorrow night's game.

On the positive side for the Caps, Jeff Schultz hit the ice today for the first time since Game 1 of the series. If he looks good in the morning skate tomorrow, he may make it back into the lineup for Friday's game. Although with both Pothier and Erskine playing well enough, it will make for a difficult decision by Bruce Boudreau.

I imagine that there will be a lot of discussion on how they will rebound from last night's loss. They need to get back to that grittier play around the net. A few bang-in goals are just what they need. And with that gritty game in mind, I wouldn't mind seeing the Donald in street clothes, replaced by Keith Aucoin. In his short time in DC he was a menace on the forecheck, and he still has that scoring touch that could potentially support the Alexes and other top scorers on offense. While the Rangers have been playing a physical series, Brashear hasn't really been much of a factor. Even with all the physical play, there haven't really been any fights, so Brashear's presence isn't really needed. It may not be an important reason the Caps aren't doing well, but at this point, they might as well pull out all the stops, and see if every little bit can help.

One day can make a very big difference. As per usual, I'll be twittering hockey-related news all day long: @emcerlain.

And this morning over at The Sporting Blog, I took a look at the historical record for NHL playoff teams down 0-2 in the first round.

The prognosis: Not good, but not hopeless either. And be sure to catch my Twitter feed: @emcerlain.

The Revolution welcomed their bye last weekend, and spent it trying to rest up many if its injured players. While Steve Ralston is back, keeper Matt Reis is out, while forward Kheli Dube is on the bench but isn't expected to play. And you can't forget that Taylor Twellman and Gabriel Badilla have both been out with long-term injuries. It's a setback that hasn't hurt New England yet, but with a strong United team and a dangerous Emilio, the Revs must be cautious.

For United they'll look to Emilio to take nearly all their shots tonight. Jaime Moreno needs to play more than the 6 minutes he had against Houston the other week, and he too will be a threat. Another guy the Revs need to pay attention to is midfielder Chris Pontius. He has a habit of creeping up the wing and pressuring the defense into making a mistake.

Also, thanks to the fact that I'm really pressed for time these days, I'm going to shift a lot of what I write and think about over to my Twitter feed and my Facebook page. I'm finding both a heck of a lot easier to use than MT.

Also, keep your eyes peeled on these pages in the coming weeks. We've already re-designed OffWing Photo, and the mother ship is next.

That's all for now. See you tonight at 7:00 p.m. over at FanHouse.

The rules are fairly simple, and here's how it works:

Send me your pick to win the Stanley Cup by email (emcerlain-at-hotmail-dotcom). I'll list every entry I receive in the left hand margin, like so. And if you have a blog, I'll embed a link to it in your entry:

Chris McMurtry: Ottawa

As teams get eliminated, I'll indicate their departure with a strikethrough over incorrect entries. For example:

Chris McMurtry: Ottawa

That continues until we get to a winner sometime toward the end of June. Since we'll probably have a number of folks who have picked the Stanley Cup Champion, I'll conduct a random drawing from the winning entries to determine a Grand Prize Winner. After consultation with the winner, I'll make a $50 donation in honor of the Grand Prize Winner to the charity of their choice.

And best of all, if you win, you'll be immortalized on the left nav bar along with previous winners Gregg Simon, Josh Crockett, Kartikeya Sinha and James Mirtle.

Easy enough? One last detail -- just get me your entry to me by e-mail by 5:30 p.m. U.S. EDT on April 15, 2009, the opening night of the playoffs.

Now get to it, get you pick in, and you may be able to do some good.

Lately the Thrashers have been feasting on bubble teams. They have taken down the Rangers, Sabres, and Panthers during their 4 game streak. They have given the Caps trouble this season, rocking them 7-4 in the season opener, and giving them a 5-1 beating in Atlanta a few weeks ago.

But the Caps are 2-0 against the Thrash on home ice. In the 2 games they have scored 5 powerplay goals, which has helped them record the top home powerplay and overall top powerplay in the league, running at an astounding 25.5% clip. Ovechkin had a hat-trick in their first meeting in DC, and has scored 16 goals against Kari Lehtonen, six more than any other netminder. He has 23 goals against Atlanta, his most against any team.

The Caps can use today's game in hand to climb two points above New Jersey for the 2nd seed in the East. Eliminated from the playoffs, Atlanta simply wants to makes things as tough for them as they can. The Caps have been an inconsistent team lately, so it will be interesting to see how they respond to Friday night's overtime loss to Buffalo.

It was a big end of the night as the Caps skated away with a 6-4 win. The Caps players gave some lucky fans their jerseys off their backs, and the locker room was especially crowded after the game.

Keith Aucoin was happy with his powerplay time and goal, but admitted that the team was less than pleased with their overall play. Aucoin has been with the Caps for just over a week, and Coach Boudreau mentioned that he might have earned some more time with the big club. The organization will make a decision soon regarded Aucoin. Lucky for him he packed for two weeks, instead of the one suggested to him by the Capitals.

Eric Fehr was excited to finally get back on the board with his first goal in 8 games. He admitted that it was easier on the team when guys like Fleischmann and himself are able to put goals in the net and help out the big scorers like the Alexes. "We wanted to get some 5-on-5 goals established...we really did that. Definitely it feels good to be able to contribute in any way...I was excited, it's been a while. To be able to help out...it feels great."

Overall Bruce Boudreau wasn't as pleased as you'd think with the win. When asked about the line changes he made during the game he felt that "We were sleepwalking it seemed like for two periods...When things aren't going well and guys are having bad games...I think it's foolish just to keep the same guys going out all the time when on certain nights people aren't clicking." You have to give him credit for shaking things up and finding line combos that were able to swing the game in the Caps' favor over the last period.

Tonight we saw the guys scoring that the Caps need to in order to go deep in the playoffs. Alex Semin was the only one of the big four to score tonight, but was aided by 5 other guys who put the puck in the net. That depth is what the Caps have been needing. On the other hand, they played a crummy two periods at the least, and only got their stuff together in the third. Washington will go to Atlanta Tuesday night, and the Caps have a chance to continue the secondary scoring and fix all the problems they had in the first two periods. Boudreau also noted that the Thrashers will be ticked come Tuesday after giving up 4 goals in the third. Combine that with the fact that the Caps haven't won in Atlanta all season, and Tuesday's game becomes another big test for them.

Now there's some down time as everyone gets ready for tonight's big game, which is scheduled to kick off at 7:30. Both DC and Houston are looking for their first win of the young season. The Dynamo sit near the bottom of the Western Conference after a 1-1 tie and a 3-2 loss. DC United sits in the middle of the East with a pair of ties, the first a 2-2 draw at Los Angeles, the second a 1-1 deadlock with Chicago.

United looks forward to a full roster for tonight's game, something they haven't had in quite a while. Says the Washington Times' John Haydon;

The club was badly hit by injuries last season but enters Saturday's meeting with the Houston Dynamo healthy for the first time since June. Every player on the roster participated in training this week, and only backup goalie Josh Wicks will be sidelined against the Dynamo at RFK Stadium.

A bright spot among all the injuries has been the play of United's two first-round picks from this past draft.

[Rodney] Wallace, a Bullis School graduate who left Maryland after two seasons, has started on the left side of midfield. [Chris] Pontius, from UC Santa Barbara, started at forward and scored in the season opener at Los Angeles before shifting to the right wing last weekend against Chicago.

Even with nearly all the veterans back from injury tonight, these two may still find themselves starting because of their impressive play so far.

Houston also "expect(s) to have Brian Ching and Kei Kamara together for the first time this season", so United's defense won't have it easy. Ching is Houston's go-to guy up front. He led the Dynamo with 13 goals last season and scored in the only game he's played this season. United's D has the task of shutting him down while not letting any of Houston's other attackers sneak free. Certainly a tall order for goalie Louis Crayton's first start of the season.

Both teams are warming up on the field, and I know I'm excited to see the game start. Both squads look relaxed as they go through their routines. Hopefully that confidence carries over to the game, and we see an exciting contest tonight.

Check out the game commentary after the jump.

The University of North Dakota says UND senior defenseman Joe Finley has signed a contract with the NHL's Washington Capitals.

UND says Finley will report Monday to the Capitals' American Hockey League affiliate in Hershey, Pa.

Finley was drafted by Washington in the first round, 27th overall, of the 2005 NHL Entry Draft. He's a native of Edina, Minn.

Finley had seven goals and 28 assists in 154 career games with the Fighting Sioux. He missed much of the first half of the season after suffering a concussion during the opening weekend.

The past several years the Caps have drafted big defensemen, and Finley is the epitome of the big blueline bruiser. At 6'7" and 240 pounds, he will be the biggest Cap should he play for them, and is only two inches shorter than Boston's Zdeno Chara, the tallest player in the league. As Tarik points out, Finley is a "defenseman who hits hard and plays with an edge. But he's also a raw talent..." Finley has been sent to Hershey, and will surely spend a few seasons there honing his skills.

It took over two periods, but it was the Caps powerplay that saved them. Two PP goals by Mike Green pulled them out of a 3-2 hole and gave them a 4-3 lead that would win the game, sealed by a Backstrom empty netter.

* For a team so skilled as the Caps going up against a weak Islanders team, they should have drawn more than 3 penalties. And one interference penalty was negated by a Caps interference penalty 9 seconds later.

* You have to make sure that you don't send 3 defensemen to the penalty box at once. The Caps managed to do that early in the 2nd, with two of them fighting majors just a minute and a half apart. Sergei Fedorov was dropped back to play a little D in the meantime.

* Keith Aucoin played a pretty solid game. He took advantage of a turnover to net his first goal as a Cap. He got nearly 12 minutes of ice time and played an agressive game.

* Nice acrobatic move by Tom Poti to keep the puck out of the net. After a scramble in the crease, the puck was deflected above the crossbar, and Poti jumped across the crease and swatted the puck into the corner. Tough to tell whether it would have gone in, but you have to like the effort.

* A solid night at the face-off dot across the board. Out of the guys taking more than 5 face-offs, Feds had the worst percentage at 61%, but was 5 for 7 in the offensive zone. Keith Aucoin was impressive at 7 for 9, going 2 for 2 in the offensive zone.

* When you're as prolific a goalscorer as Alex Ovechkin, things just tend to go your way. Witness his goal off the arm of Joey MacDonald. He had a couple feet of open net after a great pass by Feds, but instead of burying it he fired it into the arm of MacDonald, and it slowly deflected in before MacDonald could recover in time.

This was a game of mixed results. Yes the Caps came back from a deficit twice, and went 2-for-3 (basically 2-for-2) on the powerplay. The Erskine-Rechlicz fight and the Green charging mess shortly thereafter seemed to light a fire under the Caps. On the other hand they had trouble putting away the worst team in the league, and were unable to start any period with momentum. The last two Islanders goals were due to Caps defensive breakdowns, especially Park's goal, where he cut right between the D, took the puck, and went uncontested to the net for a goal.

This was a learning game for the Caps. They know they're always in a game, even when they're down a few goals. But when they come up against a team in the playoffs, they won't have the luxury of coming out flat for each period. They have to be glad for the good they did tonight, learn from the bad, and move on. They have 5 more games left to get ready for the playoffs. Hopefully we'll see some marked improvement through each game.