"Once More Into The Breach, Dear Friends..."

A spectacle more beautiful than the Olsen Twins covered in raspberry jam -- playoff Hockey starts tonight.

Grinding, Mucking
About a year ago, it was Dave Steckel and Donald Brashear -- not Ovechkin, Backstrom, or Semin -- who opened the scoring for the Caps in game one of the first round. The scoring lines will find a way to get the job done, as they eventually did by that game's end, but guys that are willing to go to the net will be rewarded on the score sheet; Lundqvist has answers as long as he can see the biscuit.

Jose
Hradek's autovoxiphillia aside, Jose has never lost in the first round as a starter, and his 91.5% career playoff save percentage suggests he can still get the job done. The comparison to Osgood is silly, though. The Red Wings of '97, 98, and '02 were some of the best puck-moving teams I've ever seen. The Caps' top six aren't even in the same conversation. An average Jose will win round one. Jose at the top of his game might shock every man, woman, and child into emergency psychiatric therapy.

God, I wish Melrose hadn't predicted the W.



Watch out for:
It's not exactly an original thought, but Alex Semin was arguably the Caps' best player during round one. His heightened consistency will do wonders for the second line. Toe drag for a nickel?

Remember when Naslund was a 100 point player? The Rags simply refuse to give up on aged veterans. I wept for Theo Fleury and Pavel Bure. I honestly did. Brandon Dubinsky will be next year's Mike Richards.
Yes. He will be.