The regular season is over and the playoffs start up on Wednesday.
The Caps are the overall #1 seed and have clinched home ice throughout the playoffs and start their run to the Cup on Thursday against the #8 seeded Canadiens.
Most everyone is not giving Montreal a shot and it makes sense given how strong the Caps have been all year. We won the President's Cup. We have been an offensive juggernaut. We have a record of 30-4-8 since Ovie took over as Captain. We have been one of the most dominant teams in recent history.
All that said, in some ways I feel there is more pressure on the Caps in this series than the Canadiens. The Canadiens have nothing to lose because no one expects them to win. If for some reason, the Caps lose Game 1, there will be a ton of pressure on Game 2.
My concerns on the Caps are that they have been starting out slowly and that we still don't seem clear on a #1. I expect Theo to get the nod for his strong play recently but I imagine there will be a pretty short leash if he struggles and we will go with Varly. The thing is Varly hasn't been great recently and it will be tough to pull Theo, go to Varly, and have to go back to Theo and really play with these guys heads.
So I do have concerns BUT I do understand that the Caps are the best team in hockey and deservedly so and I believe Boudreau and this team will be ready to play. I feel that this is their year. They were good last year but I never felt like we were ready for the Cup and I kept saying that it would be this year. The time is now and hopefully we will make short work of the Canadiens. I expect the Caps to win in five.
UNLEASH THE FURY!!!!
2 comments:
Gotta go Theo.
He has been great of late, but I just don't feel it with him. Hopefully he will win me over with his play on the ice.
The first round should be a breeze, then we'll see what happens.
I actually like the way Theo has been playing and he is deserving of the nod so I say GO THEO!
First round SHOULD be a breeze. Hopefully it is.
Watched some of the season finale yesterday against the Bruins and Mike Green was playing around with it in our zone right at the end of regulation (or could have been at the end of OT) and then lost it that led to a good opportunity for Boston. It reminded me of his high risk/high reward style of play.
I just hope Green shows up in this year's playoffs as he has been largely absent from the last two years playoff games.
Also hope that Ovie steps up and shows us he is the best player in the world. No matter how many individual accolades he wins, he will always be secondary to Crosby if he doesn't win the Cup at some point in his career.
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