USA Today’s A.J. Perez writes that ESPN was fooled by a caller posing as a Washington Post staffer into reporting the suspension of Washington D Mike Green (above) prior to tonight’s Game 7 between the Capitals and Rangers.

“I was on my way to the rink this morning and my buddy called me and was a little upset I was missing Game 7,” said Green, a finalist for the Norris Trophy given to the NHL’s top defenseman.

“I had no idea what for. It kind of caught me off guard.”

ESPN SportsCenter hosts Josh Elliot and Hannah Storm relayed that Green and teammate Donald Brashear were suspended under a “Breaking News” banner Monday at 9:52 a.m.

Within a half hour, ESPN retracted the story.

“We didn’t follow our own fact-checking procedures and mistakenly reported the story” said ESPN spokesperson Dan Quinn.

“We apologize for the error.”