Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin isn't making a big deal out of his 13-game goalless drought.

"I have chances, I have pretty good chances, but sometimes it's just a period of maybe you hold the stick too tight because you didn't score or something," he said in a recent interview with NHL.com's Tom Gulitti. "But I think overall, sooner or later it's going to happen, and everything is going to go in."

With 1,375 NHL games under his belt - the second most among all active players - there's no one more familiar with Ovechkin's game than Ovechkin, but he's never been stuck in a scoring skid like this in his career.

The 38-year-old has lit the lamp just five times in 28 games this season, but it isn't for lack of trying: Ovechkin ranks 24th in the league with 104 shots and 14th in shots per game (3.71). Dating back to Nov. 22, the start of his current slump, the Russian has put up 46 shots.

He's on pace for around 15 tallies, which would be the lowest output of his career and his first time dipping below the 20-goal mark. Ovechkin managed 24 tallies in 2020-21, but that was during the pandemic-shortened campaign and he was still producing a respectable 0.53 goals per game.

Ovechkin is up to approximately 12 individual expected goals at all strengths so far this season, per Natural Stat Trick. Though the puck isn't going in for him, the veteran is contributing in other ways. He currently ranks third on the Caps with 17 points and became the 16th player in league history to hit the 1,500-point milestone in early December.

Washington is struggling to score as a whole. The team owns the NHL's third-worst goals for per game rate (2.39), as well as the worst power play, which has converted on just 9.8% of its chances.

Despite that, the Capitals sit in fifth place in the Metropolitan Division and are one point outside of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference with a 15-9-4 record.

For his part, Ovechkin is far more interested in the team's success than his individual stats.

"The most important thing is we collect the points, and we win the games," he said. "I'd rather be in a playoff spot than score 20 goals and you're out of contention."

Ovechkin ranks second all-time with 827 goals and is just 68 tallies away from passing Wayne Gretzky. The nine-time Maurice "Rocket" Richard Trophy winner is under contract for two more years after this season.

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The Washington Capitals expect to officially sign unrestricted free-agent defenseman Ethan Bear at a later date, the team announced Wednesday.

Washington paved the way for Bear's arrival by placing rearguard Lucas Johansen on waivers Monday and assigning him to the AHL the following day.

Bear has been recovering from offseason shoulder surgery after sustaining the ailment while representing Canada at the IIHF World Championship this past spring.

He joined the Capitals for morning skate on Wednesday as he continues his rehabilitation. Bear became a free agent after the Vancouver Canucks didn't tender him a qualifying offer this offseason.

The 26-year-old chipped in with three goals and 16 points in 61 games while averaging 18:31 minutes of ice time per contest last campaign. Vancouver acquired Bear and forward Lane Pederson from the Carolina Hurricanes in exchange for a 2023 fifth-round pick in October 2022.

Earlier in December, Vancouver president of hockey operations Jim Rutherford said he believed the Canucks were the "front-runners" to sign Bear.

"We go back to last year when we brought him here, nobody in the league really wanted to deal for him," the executive said during an appearance on CHEK News' "Donnie and Dhali" show. "We brought him here and kind of helped him along with his game. ... There was regular communication. It got down to the end, and there was a little bit of change, I'm sure it's partly because of money.

"It's a little disappointing because we put a lot of work in, and we really thought that he was coming back to the Canucks. But he has the right to choose, and I take it he chose another place where he feels that it's best for him."

The Edmonton Oilers selected Bear in the fifth round of the 2015 NHL Draft. He has amassed 63 points in 251 career matchups.

His best statistical season came in 2019-20 with Edmonton, when he totaled five goals and 21 points in 71 contests while recording a career-high 21:58 minutes of ice time per game.

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St. Louis Blues forward Jordan Kyrou didn't have much to say when asked about his relationship with ex-head coach Craig Berube.

"I've got no comment," he said Thursday, per The Athletic's Jeremy Rutherford. "He's not my coach anymore."

Berube was removed from his post following St. Louis' 6-4 loss to the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday. Blues general manager Doug Armstrong discussed his decision to move on from the 2019 Stanley Cup champion in a press conference Wednesday, saying "things weren't changing" under Berube's direction.

Drew Bannister is now running the Blues' bench on an interim basis. Kyrou played under Bannister with the AHL's San Antonio Rampage for parts of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons.

"It kind of feels like a little bit of a fresh start kind of thing," Kyrou said. "Yeah, we're all excited here. We want to turn the ship around right now and get our culture back a little bit and get back to how we know how to play hockey."

Kyrou has struggled through the first two months of the campaign, totaling five goals and 17 points in 28 games. The 25-year-old is in the first season of an eight-year, $65-million extension. He put up a career-high 37 goals in 79 contests in 2022-23.

In an effort to get Kyrou going again, Bannister put him on the top line with Pavel Buchnevich and Robert Thomas at practice.

"When you talk about Robbie, Buchy, Jordan, the most success they had was last year together," Bannister explained, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch's Matthew DeFranks. "I want to give our team the best opportunity to win tonight and I think it's having them on a line together. Jordan's one player that we have to get going, but both of those players have to help in that progress."

Some of Kyrou's teammates weren't as tight-lipped about Berube's dismissal on Wednesday.

"I guess the first emotions are you feel guilty," Captain Brayden Schenn said, according to NHL.com's Lou Korac. "You feel responsible for a lot of it. ... That one really stings for me personally because I've had him for so long and he's been so good for me throughout my career."

Goaltender Jordan Binnington, meanwhile, understands the onus is now on the players to perform better.

"We've got to be proud to wear that Blue Note jersey and proud to be part of this organization and play for this city," he said. "If you're not, just get out of here, because we're not wasting time. These are special years; being able to play in the NHL, it's a privilege."

St. Louis will square off against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday.

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St. Louis Blues general manager Doug Armstrong had a lot of sleepless nights in the days leading up to his decision to fire head coach Craig Berube.

"I haven't really slept much since the Columbus game (on Friday)," Armstrong admitted in a press conference Wednesday. "Then the Chicago game (on Saturday) was a sleepless night, and then you hope that (Tuesday's) Detroit game will be different. But your mind is starting to work when you're everybody's homecoming game. It's not a good feeling.

"The last three games, I shared with the leadership group that when you get up and you read the clippings the next day, the players from the opposition, the coaches, are (saying) 'What a character win, what a gutsy win, I can't believe we did that last night, we're undermanned, we played the night before against a rested team.' So if they feel that way about their performance, how would we feel about our performance?"

The Blues announced they'd fired Berube hours after Tuesday's 6-4 defeat at the hands of the Red Wings, the latest loss in a four-game skid that has St. Louis sitting in sixth place of the Central Division with a 13-14-1 record.

For Armstrong, one of the main factors missing from the Blues' game is consistency.

"It's uncomfortable when you go to the arena every night and you're not really sure what your team is going to look like. ... That's something we haven't felt here for a long time," he said.

Dating back to the beginning of the 2022-23 campaign, the Blues are 25th in points (108) and points percentage (.491), while their power play (16.5%) and penalty kill (74%) rank within the bottom five.

Berube piloted St. Louis' turnaround in 2018-19, which led to the team's unlikely Stanley Cup championship. Despite that success, Armstrong felt a shakeup was necessary.

"The definition of insanity: Keep doing the same thing and think things are going to change," he said. "It cost a great man his role on the team because things weren't changing."

The executive didn't absolve himself of any wrongdoing, saying he feels "personally responsible" for the Blues' current situation.

"You come to an organization because you make it better and you want to leave it in a better spot. ... If I get fired in the next hour or I get hit by a bus in the next hour, I don't feel today I've left it any better than where I found it, and that's an awful feeling," he said.

Drew Bannister is currently serving as the interim head coach. Armstrong said there's no timeline on finding a permanent replacement for Berube, but he'll be looking for candidates who compete and exemplify accountability.

The GM also announced the Blues have brought in former NHLer Brad Richards as a consultant to help out with their sputtering power play.

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Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman Erik Gudbranson revealed that he felt like he'd "been in a car wreck" after Florida Panthers forward Nick Cousins caught him with a monster hit from behind during Sunday's contest.

"That's a bad hit," the rearguard said Tuesday, according to The Athletic's Aaron Portzline. "If that hit takes place three feet before that, I end up going down and bending my neck. That's when you get a compression fracture, and who knows how the rest of your life is?"

"My kids were 85 feet away," Gudbranson continued. "It's a terrible hit. I was walking around pacing the hallways at home, trying to calm down and happy that my legs still worked."

The collision occurred in the third period of the Jackets' 5-2 loss. Gudbranson remained down on the ice for a brief moment, then sprang to his feet and went after Cousins.

Cousins was initially handed a major penalty for boarding, but it was reduced to a minor upon review. Both players remained in the game, and Gudbranson mauled Cousins in retaliation a few minutes later. Gudbranson was ejected from the game as a result and earned 27 minutes of penalties on the play.

The NHL's Department of Player Safety handed Gudbranson a one-game suspension for instigating, while Cousins received no supplemental discipline.

"The rule is the rule. I got one game for it. Take it and move on," Gudbranson said.

The 31-year-old will miss Thursday's clash against the Toronto Maple Leafs because of the ban.

The Blue Jackets currently sit in last place of the Metropolitan Division with a 9-16-5 record.

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Carolina Hurricanes forward Andrei Svechnikov is expected to be out "for at least a while," head coach Rod Brind'Amour said Tuesday.

Svechnikov missed the last two games with an upper-body injury, but what caused it isn't clear. He last played on Dec. 6 against the Edmonton Oilers and logged 18 minutes of ice time in the Hurricanes' lopsided 6-1 defeat.

The 23-year-old underwent an MRI scan Monday.

Svechnikov missed the entirety of the 2023 Stanley Cup Playoffs and the first eight games of the 2023-24 season after undergoing ACL surgery in March.

The Russian has chipped in with one goal and 11 points in 16 games this campaign.

Last season, Svechnikov potted 23 goals and 55 points in 64 games, ranking third and fourth on the Hurricanes, respectively.

Carolina is in the midst of a four-game losing streak and sits in sixth place in the Metropolitan Division with a 14-12-1 record.

The Hurricanes will square off against the Ottawa Senators on Tuesday.

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Never cross Mikko Rantanen.

Fresh off of snapping a nine-game goalless drought in his team's 6-5 victory over the Calgary Flames on Monday night, the Colorado Avalanche superstar took aim at the father of one of his teammates for publicly criticizing Rantanen's offseason preparation.

"Actually, one thing where I got a lot of extra energy, one of our Finnish NHL players' dad was talking shit about me in the media, (saying) that I didn't train last summer like I used to do," Rantanen said postgame, per DNVR Avalanche. "He was just making things up. That was for him. If you talk shit, it's going to come back at you."

Rantanen was referring to an interview Artturi Lehkonen's father, Ismo, gave to Yle, a Finnish broadcasting company where the elder Lehkonen works as an analyst. Ismo suggested Rantanen "didn't have a very good summer," as translated by Finnish journalist Ville Touru for The Athletic.

"There was a lot happening, many events of all kinds," Ismo continued. "He had to visit Helsinki and everything like that. … Perhaps he consciously took the summer a little more calmly after the hard years. And maybe he didn't practice as much as in previous summers."

Despite the recent drama, Rantanen assured The Athletic that he and Artturi's relationship "is totally fine," adding that they are "totally good friends and teammates."

Rantanen currently leads the Avalanche with 13 goals and ranks third on the team with 34 points in 28 games. He's on track for 38 markers and just under 100 points this season.

Last season, the Finn became the first player in franchise history to hit the 50-goal mark in a single campaign since Milan Hejduk in 2002-03. He also amassed a career-high 105 points and placed sixth in Hart Trophy voting.

Rantanen led Colorado with a three-point effort Monday against the Flames. He knotted the contest at 5-5 just past the midway mark of the final frame, setting the table for Nathan MacKinnon's game-winning goal two minutes later.

The victory improved the Central-leading Avalanche to 17-9-2. However, Colorado ranks third in the division in terms of points percentage (.643), trailing the Dallas Stars (.648) and Winnipeg Jets (.654).

The Avalanche have yet to embark on their annual dad's trip this season.

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Penguins general manager and president of hockey operations Kyle Dubas gave longtime head coach Mike Sullivan a vote of confidence with Pittsburgh mired in a four-game winless streak.

"As soon as a team doesn't reach its potential, it seems that right away the attention shifts to coaching," Dubas said Monday.

"What I would say to that is, with Sully, I had my impression of him coming in and my respect for him coming in," he added. "Being with him every day and not only seeing his attention to detail on the systems but also his attention to detail with the players and coaching them individually and personally, I think we're very fortunate to have Mike. And so, do I think that he's the right person for this job now and far into the future? I absolutely do."

The winningest coach in franchise history, Sullivan has won two Stanley Cup championships with the Penguins, but his ninth year behind the bench isn't exactly going to plan.

Heading into Monday's action, the Penguins sit in seventh place in the Metropolitan Division with an 11-12-3 record, ahead of only the Columbus Blue Jackets. Pittsburgh has been outscored 12-6 during its recent skid and has mustered just one goal in each of its last three games.

The Penguins have allowed the third-fewest goals against (68) but rank among the league's eight worst teams in goals for (75) this season. Not helping their lagging offense is the fact that their power play has converted on just 9.5% of its chances.

Pittsburgh is six points outside of the second wild-card spot in the Eastern Conference. The Penguins failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 2005-06 last season.

"The responsibility falls to me to chart the course for where we're at and where we're going," Dubas acknowledged. "We can get going in that direction if we just adhere to the No. 1 rule of holes, which is: 'When you're in one, stop digging.'"

Dubas took over the reins in Pittsburgh this past offseason and made a variety of moves - such as acquiring defenseman Erik Karlsson - to try and get his new team over the hump.

The executive opted to preach patience despite the Penguins' struggles.

"I'm not going to make any decisions based on how we do this week or next week," Dubas said, per team reporter Michelle Crechiolo. "When we get through the All-Star break and on the other side of that, we'll have a better idea of what we are as a group and where we need to go."

Next up for the Penguins is a clash against the Arizona Coyotes on Tuesday.

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Detroit Red Wings center Dylan Larkin is expected to miss "at least a week" with an upper-body injury, head coach Derek Lalonde said Monday.

The Red Wings placed Larkin on injured reserve earlier Monday. Lalonde added that there's no specific timeframe for his return and that the team will know more about his status within the next few days.

Larkin sustained the ailment during a scary sequence in the first period of Detroit's 5-1 loss to the Ottawa Senators on Saturday.

Senators forward Mathieu Joseph appeared to catch Larkin in the back of the head with his glove during a netfront battle, knocking the captain into Parker Kelly and onto the ice. Ottawa defenseman Artem Zub then fell on top of Larkin.

Larkin remained motionless for several moments before being helped off the ice without the aid of a stretcher. The 27-year-old has a history of head and neck injuries, but Lalonde didn't disclose if his newest ailment is related to a concussion or any past issues.

"I talked to him last night, he seems to be in good spirits," the bench boss said. "It's a lot, it's been pretty overwhelming and heavy in a lot of ways. ... It was just good to talk to him, hear his voice."

The Red Wings also placed forwards J.T. Compher (retroactive to Dec. 5) and Klim Kostin (retroactive to Dec. 7) on injured reserve. Detroit recalled Zach Aston-Reese, Jonatan Berggren, and Austin Czarnik from the AHL in corresponding moves.

Detroit is still waiting to learn the fate of veteran David Perron, who faces a potential suspension for cross-checking Zub in retaliation for Larkin's injury.

Larkin has chipped in with 11 goals and 25 points in 24 outings this campaign. He's playing out the first season of an eight-year, $69.6-million extension.

"Obviously unfortunate to lose a player of that caliber for an extended period of time," Lalonde said.

The Red Wings take on the Dallas Stars on Monday at 8 p.m. ET.

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The St. Louis Blues are placing struggling forward Jakub Vrana on waivers, reports The Athletic's Jeremy Rutherford.

Vrana mustered two goals and six points in 19 games while averaging just over 12 minutes of ice time per contest. He has sat as an occasional healthy scratch throughout the season.

Blues head coach Craig Berube deployed Vrana for a mere 8:59 during Saturday's 3-1 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks after the 27-year-old was on the ice for two goals against in the opening frame.

St. Louis acquired Vrana from the Detroit Red Wings at last season's trade deadline in exchange for forward Dylan McLaughlin and a 2025 seventh-round pick. Detroit retained 50% of Vrana's $5.25-million cap hit in the swap.

Vrana can become an unrestricted free agent at the end of the 2023-24 campaign.

Selected by Washington with the 13th overall pick in the 2014 NHL Draft, Vrana helped the Capitals clinch the Stanley Cup in 2018.

Vrana has amassed 110 goals and 209 points in 365 career NHL contests.

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