Former Capitals coach Bruce Boudreau said Tuesday he never had a problem with captain Alex Ovechkin and rumors of any kind of rift between the two are overblown. Boudreau was fired as head coach of the Capitals on Monday and replaced by former team captain Dale Hunter. Boudreau said Ovechkin called him after the news of Boudreau's firing. Boudreau said the two spoke for 15 minutes on Tuesday and the star winger thanked his former coach for his time with the Capitals. "And I told him I loved him and blah, blah, blah, all the regular stuff," Boudreau said. Ovechkin is off to a slow start with just eight goals in 22 games and the team struggling after a 7-0 start. But Boudreau dismissed the notion that the two were feuding. "It's so far from the truth," Boudreau said. "We got along, I think, famously."

Rangers forward Brandon Dubinsky fired back at Flyers enforcer Jody Shelley, who called him a "weasel" in HBO's 15-minute "24/7" teaser. "It won't be long before he's out of the league, because he's a terrible hockey player," Dubinsky told the New York Daily News on Monday.

The Hurricanes fired coach Paul Maurice for the second time in less than a decade Monday and replaced him with Kirk Muller, according to an ESPN.com report. Muller begins his first NHL head coaching job with a slumping team that has made one playoff appearance since 2006 and has lost 10 of 13 games.

The Capitals have replaced fired head coach Bruce Boudreau with Dale Hunter. Hunter had spent the past 11 seasons in the Ontario Hockey League as coach of the London Knights, where he was the fastest coach in league history to reach 400 wins. The 51-year-old former NHL player will be behind the bench Tuesday night when the Capitals host the Blues.

The slumping Washington Capitals have fired head coach Bruce Boudreau. Since starting the season 7-0-0, the Capitals have gone 5-9-1 since -- including weekend losses to Rangers and Sabres. Boudreau declined comment for now, other than to say he's obviously had "better days."

Claude Giroux had two goals Friday as the Flyers beat the Canadiens 3-1. "This year he's really spread his wings," Philadelphia coach Peter Laviolette said. "He's consistently one of the top forwards in the game." Giroux has 29 points (13 goals, 16 assists) on the season. He entered the game second in the league behind Toronto's Phil Kessel. He is nearly halfway to his career best of 76 points, set two seasons ago. "He's a tremendous player," Montreal coach Jacques Martin said. "He keeps getting better year after year. Now he's a leader on their team."

Wayne Gretzky will not be playing in the Winter Classic alumni game. He was touched by the way in which the Rangers, in particular general manager Glen Sather, reached out to him recently. But, in the end, Gretzky politely declined to participate. It was reported recently that Gretzky already had holiday plans with his family. The alumni game will be played Dec. 31 in Philadelphia. Gretzky told ESPN.com via text Friday that he spoke with Sather earlier this week. It was a "nice conversation," Gretzky said, but his answer remained unchanged.

Patrick Kaleta of the Sabres and Ryane Clowe of the Sharks have been fined $2,500 apiece by the NHL. Kaleta was punished for high sticking Phoenix defenseman Derek Morris during the second period of the Coyotes' 4-2 victory on Saturday night. Clowe received his fine for slashing Stars defenseman Stephane Robidas during San Jose's 4-1 win in Dallas on Saturday night.

The Islanders are dead-last in the Eastern Conference standings with 13 points (5-10-3) and have dropped 12 of their past 14 games. Jack Capuano took over as head coach when Scott Gordon was fired following a similar backslide in November 2010, and Capuano knows he will now face the same questions as his predecessor before his dismissal. Is he worried about his job? "No," Capuano said. "I don't take it home to my wife and kids. That's the last thing I want to do. Obviously this pressure is the job that I've taken. But do I have confidence in myself? Absolutely."

The Panthers appear to be inching towards naming Stephen Weiss their captain. Weiss is enjoying the best two-way start of his 10-year career with the Panthers. He has seven goals and 11 assists in 19 games and is a plus-10. "Stephen is really the guy that runs the engine right now," coach Kevin Dineen said. "He does so many good things for us and tonight he needed to do it on the defensive side and then he had three points. When he's getting that kind of production and also going big minutes against really big, strong men, that's a pretty valuable guy. He had a heck of a game for us."