The Washington Capitals hosted the Arizona Coyotes over the weekend, but the desert dogs weren't the only canines in the building Saturday night.

A very good boy played a game of fetch on the Verizon Center ice before the game.

The retriever shows impressive end-to-end speed, has excellent hockey IQ, and clearly has a nose for the puck.

Central Scouting might just have to adjust its rankings to include the four-legged companion, whose NHL comparables are clearly Aleksander Barkov and Jay Beagle.

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No slowdown for Patrick Eaves.

The Anaheim Ducks forward has maintained his career year since a February trade to Orange County.

After beginning the season with the Dallas Stars, Eaves excelled in his third year in Texas, putting up 21 goals and 16 assists through 59 games. But with the Stars sitting outside of the playoff picture, Eaves was shipped to Anaheim, where his production hasn't been lost in translation:

With the Ducks, Eaves has seen his goal ratio increase to 0.46 tallies per game, while his game production has remained virtually even.

The veteran winger has picked up four goals in his last four games, including two tallies Sunday versus the New York Rangers.

Not a bad bargain for a $1-million cap hit.

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Perfect precision.

The New York Rangers pulled off a dazzling 3-on-1 sequence Sunday versus the Anaheim Ducks. Streaking into the Anaheim zone, Mats Zuccarello, Chris Kreider, and Derek Stepan executed a pretty passing play before Stepan buried it behind goaltender Jonathan Bernier.

The tally marked Stepan's second goal in as many nights, after he scored against the Los Angeles Kings on Saturday.

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The Pittsburgh Penguins registered the fifth loss of their past eight contests on Sunday night, getting dropped 6-2 at home by the rival Philadelphia Flyers.

Injuries managed to stall the Penguins once again, as top-line winger Conor Sheary was forced out of the tilt and defenseman Brian Dumoulin was nearly sidelined as well, leaving after taking an elbow to the head but eventually returning.

There's no question the Penguins' extensive list of injuries has taken a significant toll on them, with seven of their usual skaters officially on the shelf. One key result of that persistent trend? Pittsburgh is lacking that coveted late-season momentum that fed the 2015-16 squad.

Recall that momentum served as one of the club's key advantages leading up to its Stanley Cup run last year. After stumbling through the first half of 2015-16, the Penguins found new life once Mike Sullivan was installed as head coach in mid-December.

From Jan. 1, 2016 on, Pittsburgh put together a dominant 30-11-4 record, leading the league in goals and allowing the sixth fewest as well, before rolling through the playoffs.

This season, it's been an entirely different story in the Steel City.

With Sunday's loss to Philadelphia in tow, the Penguins have now allowed four goals or more in five of their past eight tilts.

Compare that to 2015-16, when the Penguins let in four goals just twice over their final 23 games of the year.

In fact, they let in four or more goals just 10 times during Sullivan's entire 54-game tenure to close out 2015-16.

This time around, Pittsburgh has allowed four or more goals 25 times through 75 games, their injury-riddled blue line surely playing a role in that shift.

The Penguins still have enough talent to potentially repeat, and all signs point to them getting the bulk of their injured talent back for the postseason, but as of right now, they look like a significantly different team than the one that lifted the Cup last spring.

With only a handful of games remaining, the Penguins are running out of time to get healthy bodies back on the ice and pick up some steam, as the 82-game mark is fast approaching.

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The Ottawa Senators have signed prospect Colin White to an amateur tryout agreement, the club announced Sunday.

The deal allows White to participate in the American Hockey League, where he will now report to the Binghamton Senators.

"We are excited to see Colin make the next step in his development in turning professional after a great college career," Senators general manager Pierre Dorion said in a statement.

The Senators selected White 21st overall in 2015. He has spent the last two seasons with Boston College, which was eliminated from the playoffs this week.

According to Dorion, the club will continue to work to sign White to an entry-level contract, an agreement which would allow him to play in the NHL.

"While our ongoing contract discussions are moving in a positive direction, we all know there is a small window left this season for Colin to gain professional experience," Dorion added.

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It's been nearly two months since the NHL made all netminders undergo an equipment change in an effort to increase scoring across the league.

The switch officially happened on Feb. 4, with all of the league's goaltenders swapping their goalie pants for a new, slimmer variety, ostensibly leaving more space for skaters to snipe through.

But looking at the numbers up to this point, the change doesn't seem to have affected scoring across the league all that much. In fact, scoring has actually decreased slightly since the new pants were made mandatory.

There were 4,173 goals scored by the 30 NHL teams this season prior to the equipment change in early February, with clubs playing a combined 1,528 games up to that point.

That measured out to a league-wide scoring pace of 2.73 goals per game.

Heading into Sunday evening, NHL clubs had played a total of 694 games since the new goalie pants were instituted, scoring a combined 1,874 goals in the process.

Which, as it turns out, leaves them pretty much exactly where they were prior to the change:

There doesn't seem to be any reason why the switch would take an extensive amount of time to yield more goals. The thinking appeared to be that reducing the size of goaltenders' equipment would potentially create more space for skaters to shoot at, and perhaps slightly hinder netminders' ability to make saves, resulting in more scoring.

After nearly 700 games, that hasn't been the case.

Perhaps that shouldn't come as much of a surprise. It likely isn't a huge shock to Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby, as the reigning Vezina Trophy winner said back in February that he didn't see the new pants being too much of an issue.

"If there is too tight equipment it doesn't allow you to bend the whole way so it leaves a hole," Holtby told NHL.com's Dan Rosen at the time. "But we looked at it through video, slowed everything down, and there were no holes, so it's fine. I didn't find much of a difference at all."

Apparently, neither do the league's goal-scorers.

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Desperate times call for desperate measures. If you own a goaltender who isn't getting enough playing time or simply isn't getting the job done of late, you might be better off streaming goalies from the waiver wire.

Luckily, there are 19 back-to-backs in the NHL this coming week, meaning backup goaltenders will see plenty of playing time. Most coaches opt to start their backup netminder on the second game of a back-to-back, but in some cases the backup will start Game 1. Be sure to check Left Wing Lock for a confirmed list of the day's starting goalies.

March 27-28

Best options: Lack, Saros. Lack is 5-1 with a .950 SV% in his last six games. Carolina has two back-to-backs this week, so he might be worth hanging onto for the duration of the final round.

The ones to avoid: Mrazek, Reimer/Berra.

March 28-29

Analysis: Both are excellent options. Grubauer starting against a historically bad Avalanche team would be gravy.

March 30-31

Best options: Halak, Dell.

The one to avoid: Korpisalo.

March 31 - April 1

Analysis: Kinkaid has played okay this season, but neither matchup is appealing.

April 1-2

Best options: Kuemper, Budaj. Playing at home for the second half of a back-to-back is a huge advantage.

The ones to avoid: Enroth, Neuvirth.

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The Department of Player Safety has announced that San Jose Sharks forward Micheal Haley will have a hearing Monday following a match penalty involving Nashville Predators forward Calle Jarnkrok.

The play occurred in the third period Saturday, where Haley dropped Jarnkrok with a sucker punch. He was given a match penalty.

Haley has appeared in 54 games with the Sharks this season, recording 11 points and 110 penalty minutes.

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