Seguin hurt the hand -- a tendon came out of its socket, he said -- in a game against the Florida Panthers in Miami in March

Seguin discussed the surgery in an interview on bostonbruinstv.com.

"From day one they said about 10 weeks was the full recovery process," Seguin said. "Right now I'm not doing any working out. I just had the stitches removed yesterday, that's why I'm back in town. Hopefully the next couple weeks I can start moving it a little more and after that be able to lift weights."

Hamilton finished with 17 goals and 55 assists while playing for the Niagara IceDogs. Hamilton, the No. 9 pick in last year's draft, was the league's top scoring defeseman despite missing 10 games this year due to a suspension.

"This year has been a ton of fun and it is a huge honor to win this award," Hamilton said in a release. "I spent the last couple of years watching the best defensemen in the league and then trying to get myself to that point and it is exciting to be here now and receive this award. A lot of past winners have gone on to NHL careers and hopefully I can follow suit."

Now that the Bruins have been eliminated, I won't be watching hockey anyway -- it's officially Golf Season for me and the guys who wear the sweaters with the Spoked B -- but I'd be tempted to tune in if two Original Six teams were facing off.

Alas, only the Rangers -- who won their Eastern Conference semifinal opener Sunday over Washington, 3-1 -- among the beloved franchises of my childhood are still battling for Lord Stanley's Cup.

Ward, one of a handful of black players in the NHL, was the target of numerous racial insults on Twitter moments after he scored the overtime Game 7 goal Wednesday against Boston.

Ward said Friday it's a "few people that just made a couple of terrible comments. ... I know what I signed up for. I'm a black guy playing a predominantly white sport. It's just going to come with the territory. I'd feel naive or foolish to think that it doesn't exist. It's a battle I think will always be there."

Fans gave Ward a standing ovation at the start of Friday's practice.

AP photo / Charles Krupa

Joel Ward celebrates with teammates after his overtime goal eliminated the Bruins from the playoffs last night.

Washington Capitals owner Ted Leonsis has condemned a barrage of racist tweets that followed the series-clinching goal scored by Joel Ward, a black player, to defeat the Boston Bruins last night.

Scores of offensive tweets, many of which used a derogatory term to refer to Ward, were compiled by sites including chirpstory.com and Black Sports Online.

On his blog today, Leonsis wrote:

Shame on these folks who decided to take to their keyboards and show their ignorance and their racism and hate.

We will as an organization support Joel Ward. He has been a great teammate and a great citizen. He is now the star of stars in our city for his heroics last night. He is a friend and a fantastic player - who delivered - as advertised for us and our fans in the playoffs.

BOSTON -- Joel Ward slammed home a rebound at the 2:57 mark of overtime to give the Capitals a 2-1 victory over the Boston Bruins on Wednesday night as Washington advanced to the second round of the playoffs and ended the defending Stanley Cup champions' hopes of a repeat.

Rookie Braden Holtby stopped 31 shots for Washington in Game Seven -- the seventh one-goal game of the series. Matt Hendricks scored the Capitals' other goal.
Tyler Seguin scored, and Tim Thomas made 26 saves for Boston.

It was the first time in NHL history that a playoff series had seven games determined by one goal. Four of the games went into overtime.

With Patrice Bergeron hurting with an upper-body injury, Caron gives coach Claude Julien more offensive options just in case Bergeron goes down.

But if they had needed some help getting fired up, all they had to do was think about Boston's decision several years ago to discard them after some productive seasons with the Providence Bruins.

"Boston was the first organization to give me an NHL contract, so I'm very thankful for that. But at the same time, they didn't have room for me at this level,'' Hendricks said after the morning skate on Wednesday.

"I had to go somewhere else to find my niche,'' said Hendricks, who was traded to Colorado by Boston in exchange for Johnny Boychuk in 2008. "There is a little incentive to beat them.''

"Playing in Providence for two years and never getting a chance (in Boston) - it's tough - but my main goal is to go out there and win,'' Aucoin said.

While Hendricks, 30, is finishing his third NHL season, Aucoin has been playing in the AHL for most of the past decade. He led Providence in scoring in 2002-03 and was second in 2004-05, but was never promoted to Boston. Since then he's played in the Carolina and Washington systems, with occasional promotions to the NHL.

With the Hershey Bears this season, the 33-year-old Aucoin made the AHL All-Star team for a record sixth time, even though he's been in the NHL since Feb. 3.

He's played a regular shift against Boston, including time on the power play, which is his specialty. He set up Alexander Semin's winning goal in Game Four.

"The last month I've been put in a situation where I've got a lot more ice time in a lot of big situations, so it's been a lot of fun to be a part of,'' he said.

The 5-foot-9 Aucoin grew up in Chelmsford, Mass., and was an All-American at Norwich University in Vermont. Playing against Boston is extra special for him.

"Anytime you can play at home in front of your family and friends the way I've been able to do in my first Stanley Cup playoff series, it's a lot of fun. Going to Game Seven just makes it that much more interesting.''

"Long nap, lunch - same thing I've done for the last 600 or 700 plus games that I've played. The exact same thing - skate, eat, nap, come back (to the rink),'' Kelly said this morning.

"Obviously, you can't get too high or too low in these situations. I think being through these types of games in hockey throughout our lives is a good thing. I woke up ready to come to the rink and skate this morning and do all the fun things that I do every other day when I come in the rink.''

"We talked to him before the series started, because I thought if anything, he was a real good player for us in that last stretch of the regular season. And it was tough to take him out but we went with some experienced guys, first and foremost,'' said Julien.

"The one thing that we said to him - we said you've got to stay ready because there's going to come a point where we're going to need you and obviously we did last game.''

"I didn't gain tons of experience, but it was my first playoff game and it was a lot of fun,'' Caron said this morning.

Julien put Caron in Sunday's lineup in place of Shawn Thornton so the Bruins would have more flexibility if Patrice Bergeron was unable to play through his upper-body injury.

Caron alternated with Thornton this morning on a line with Greg Campbell and Daniel Paille.

The 21-year-old played 17 games in Providence this season, and 48 in Boston.

Bergeron sat out Tuesday's practice with an upper-body injury that he suffered in Game Five on Saturday.

He played in Game Six on Sunday, but was able to take only one faceoff. Rich Peverley took draws in place of Bergeron, who is one of the NHL's top faceoff men.

Bergeron will play tonight, according to coach Claude Julien.

Less than a week after saying "it doesn't matter" if he's on the bench for long stretches, the two-time NHL MVP acknowledges Tuesday that "of course, sometimes I get angry I didn't play." The Washington Capitals' captain also says that "if it's good for the team, you have to eat it."

Ovechkin played a career playoff-low 151/2 minutes in Game 5 of Washington's first-round series against the Stanley Cup champion Boston Bruins. The teams are tied at three games apiece heading into Wednesday's Game 7 at Boston.

Capitals coach Dale Hunter says circumstances -- including who is leading or which lines Boston uses -- dictate Ovechkin's minutes.

"He's playing. He played last game. He'll play next game.'' coach Claude Julien answered tersely when asked if there were any possibility that Bergeron would not play tomorrow.

"It's not game to game. I don't know how much clearer I can get. He's in,'' Julien said.

Bergeron suffered an apparent upper-body injury on Saturday.

Bergeron suffered an upper-body injury in Game Five on Saturday. He played in Game Six and scored a goal, but was not 100 percent.

Rich Peverley is taking Bergeron's place at center between Brad Marchand and Jordan Caron today.

The game will be televised locally on NESN.