Sunday Roundup/Gameday: Panthers @ Caps

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Not much news in Capland as the team readies for a Sunday visit from the Florida Panthers (who lost yesterday at the world's most famous arena). The WaPo notes that captain Jeff Halpern is close to a return from the injury that has forced him to miss two games already and that the team and Olie Kolzig will soon start negotiating a contract extension for the netminder, who will turn 36 in April. The WTimes apparently is too busy basking in the glow of a certain D.C.-area football team's first playoff win since Christ was a baby to cover the Caps today (by the way, hail to said football team).

In other news from around the NHL:

• Don Cherry weighed in (of course) on the Kovalchuk/Crosby incident. Not surprisingly, he trashed the Russian and stuck up for his fellow countryman. Among his always restrained and classy rantings:

  "I've seen a lot of things in my life but I've never seen a guy pointing to a guy in the penalty box," Cherry said. "Someone should've broken his (Kovalchuk's) arm but they didn't."

• And what about Kovalchuk/Crosby The Rematch? Read about it here under the title "Crosby Unravels As Thrashers Beat Pens" (hint: Ilya had another two goals, Sid had 8 minutes in penalties, including minors for diving and unsportsmanlike conduct).
• Time for fun with anagrams:

  Sidney Crosby: Cry. Sobs, "I deny."
  Alexander Ovechkin: Calder, I. Heaven knox.

• This is not necessarily hockey-specific, but people (advertisers, commentators, etc.) need to stop referring to the site of this year's Olympic games as "Torino." It's Turin. Just like if the games were held in Rome, Venice or Florence we wouldn't say they were in Roma, Venezia or Firenze. I bet 99.9% of these offenders aren't even going over to Italia for the games.
  

Daily Awards

• Hart: Marc Savard (Game-winning goal, 2A, +1)
  
• Ross: Michael Nylander, P.J. Axelsson, Michel Ouellet, Marc Savard, Sami Salo (3 points each)
  
• Norris: Sami Salo (2G, A)
  
• Vezina: Henrik Lundqvist (38 save shutout win)
  
• Richard: Jaromir Jagr, Milan Jurcina, Michel Ouellet, Ilya Kovalchuk, Sami Salo, Scott Thornton (2G each)
  
• Calder: Henrik Lundqvist (38 save shutout win)
• Aiken: Ryan Craig (-5 in Tampa's 6-3 loss) or Ray Emery (L, 4 goals against on 11 shots in 15:33). Take your pick.