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By Michael Hoffman for WMAL and Washington Capitals Examiner (click on the link for more on the team)

The Capitals suffered a very disheartening 5-4 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets as a gritty effort from Brooks Laich who had 2 goals and Quintin Laing who gave the Capitals a 4-3 lead late in the 3rd was lost in the shuffle thanks to a Columbus team that just would not give up.

Raffi Torres scored on a tap in shot near the crease thanks to a beautiful cross-zone feed from Derek Dorsett as Columbus tied the game with only 23 seconds left. Torres's goal came after the Capitals had just killed a penalty, but it came so quickly that Mike Knuble did not have time to enter the zone.

In overtime, Columbus once again scored a goal near the crease, as on the power-play, a Rick Nash shot would bounce off the pads of Jose Theodore and right to R.J. Umberger who banged it in to give the Blue Jackets the comeback victory.

If that wasn't bad enough, the Capitals also are unsure of the status of one Alexander Ovechkin as the Capitals played without him for more than half of the game. It all went down as Raffi Torres would get tangled up with Ovechkin in the second period, with the result being that Alex would fall hard too the ice on his shoulder.

Just before this Ovy also was involved in a scrum near the bench with Jason Chimera, and some reporters believe that this could had contributed to his injury. Either way, Alex spoke briefly to the media afterwards, but was not exactly forthcoming in giving too many details about the extent of his injury. Below is what he had to say.

Reporter: "You seem to walking okay so in the penalty box you seem to me motioning that you're left shoulder was hurting."

Ovechkin: "No, no I just put my shoulder pads on. It's okay."

Reporter: " What happened their along the boards? It seems like Chimera was angry from the hit in the first period and might have bumped you"

Ovechkin: "Yeah it's just a moment from the game. Nothing happened. He hit me so I hit him. It was a battle over their but nothing happened."

Reporter: "Did someone grab you over their? How did you get hurt?"

Ovechkin: "I can't tell you how I got hurt. It's day-to-day. "

Reporter: "So you don't think it's very serious?"

Ovechkin: "I don't know."

Reporter: "What is it?"

Ovechkin: "(Laughing) You think I want to tell you?"

Reporter: "Can you tell us kind of where it is?"

Ovechkin: "No I can't."

Reporter: "Left? Right? Upper? Lower?"

Ovechkin: "Upper body."

Me: "Can you tell us what you told the team before you left?" Notes: Tomas Fleischmann said earlier that Alex told them to, 'win the game for me.'

Ovechkin: "I just said to a couple guys, 'good luck."

Reporter: "Are you mad the way Chimera bumped you?"

Ovechkin: "No it's just a game! Hits happen. If I was not hurt, not injured, no one would think about it. But it is what it is."

Caps notes: Early speculation by me, (which is always kind of risky but I'll put it out anyways) leads me to believe this may only affect Alex for at most a game or two. Between the second and third period, a reporter posted that he had spoken to General Manager George McPhee who told him that Alex might re-enter the game. If the injury was more serious, I believe that McPhee may have remained silent on the possibility of Alex returning to play. Again I don't want people to conclude anything from this though, for as everyone knows, injuries can sometimes be more serious than they first appear to be.

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