re: Stanley Cup Champions the WASHINGTON CAPITALS Ovechkin wins Smythe

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Damn, son...just go to the doll and show us where the person wearing VGK gear touched you inappropriately.

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Imagine being a fan of like St. Louis or a team who has never won or hasn’t won in a long time. Then Vegas comes in and could win it in their first year. I wouldn’t call it hate, but there’s definitely a feeling that they haven’t paid their dues. I can see merit in that as a fan

Jets vs. Rinne in Game 7: 2 goals on 7 shots. Jets vs. that accountant the Blackhawks pulled off the street for that one game in March: 0 goals on 7 shots”

Right back at ya, Squirrely. We're in Year Three of our two year window, so non one expected this. This team lost Williams, Mojo, Shattenkrik, Schmidt, and Alzner in the offseason and added... um... Devante-Smith Pelly. Burakovsky then got hurt and if you'll remember, last year people were seriously talking about trading Ovi.

But don't take that as We're Just Happy to Be Here. The Caps have wasted Ovi's prime and their window is closing. They know it, too. We might not ever get back to this point, and this is our best chance to win the Cup. And while the Lightning don't loom as large as a bogeyman as the Penguins, the Bolts have dealt the Caps some franchise changing postseason losses. Throw in a bunch of former Rangers, and its not hard to gin up some motivation.

The Lightning are really good. They've been the best team in the East all year. But I'm looking forward to this. If anyone knows the regular season results don't matter, its the Caps.

“I think [Forsberg] has played well. Obviously he’s one of the leading candidates for the Calder Trophy. If you’re asking if I would like to do a do-over? Yeah, sure.”

Good morning all

smells like eastern conference finals in the air

the red invasion of Tampa is happening

no tricks will stop it

#ALLCAPS

What gets me so excited for the Bolts-Caps series is how similar these two teams are. They are constructed almost exactly the same.

The Lightning's top line is a star Russian scoring winger (Kucherov), a playmaking center (Stamkos), and a big bodied right wing to much in the corners (Miller). The Caps do the same exact thing with Ovi-Kuznetsov-Wilson, right down to the Russian winger.

Like the Bolts, the Caps 2nd line is really Line 1B and they want to use it as a shut down line, so it gets the toughest minutes. But the Vrana-Backstom-Oshie line is loaded with scoring skill to go along with defensive responsibility. Same with the Lightning and Palat-Point-Johnson.

The Bolts rely heavily on their third line to contribute, anchored by their criminally underrated playmaking center. They've got speed to burn and the a sharp shooting winger. The Caps have the same exact thing, only their center is underrated due to being buried behind great players, not because he's still a kid.

Both teams rely on essentially three players on the blueline getting the bulk of their minutes (Stralman, McDonoagh, Hedman versus Niskanen, Carlson, Orlov). Both teams had a Norris Trophy contender. They also each have a worthless old guy who plays too many minutes (Girardi and Orpik). They also have a young defenseman who can fill the net but needs sheltered minutes because he forgets where his own end is (Sergachev and Djoos).

And both teams have Vezina caliber goalies who lost their game in the season's final month.

It's creepy. This is almost like playing yourself. The Lightning are better, primarily due to their health and depth, but these teams are built the same way and play pretty much the same style of hockey: posses the puck and overwhelm the opponent with speed and skill to get high danger chances. The best defense is never letting the opponent touch the puck. Let's do this.

I’m taking Cooper just because he has hair and chews gum. No other reasons needed.

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My issue is how the NHL has rigged everything to be in their favor, yet other expansion teams were made to go through hell.

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Meh. This has become a popular narrative as the season has gone on and while it’s true they’ve had an easier draft than prior expansion teams, nobody was saying this type of thing preseason. People still were saying based on who they drafted that they were going to be a mediocre, at best, team this season. It’s not like people were thinking this was a conference finals caliber team so this is somewhat of a revisionist take

Enjoyed that write up, nicely done.