Suffering with he Washington Capitols.

Ice hockey used to be a Canadian sport. Not any more. Now, strong hockey teams exist in the Scandinavian countries, Slovakia and the Chech Republic and let's not forget a big source of players: Russia. And the cream of the crop ends up playing in the NHL.


Following the March madness of College basketball playoff (the Naacp tournament) ice hockey has its Stanley Cup playoff. Sixteen teams participate. It is acknowledged that the playoffs are a different season. You would expect that teams that did well in the regular season would do well in the playoffs. And they do generally. Except the Washington Capitols. They have been taken out by the Islanders, Philadelphia Flyers, NY Rangers and recently by The Pittsburgh Penguins. The one time they reached the finals, Detroit beat them is four straight.


This was to be a year with a different outcome. The Caps once again had the best record in the NHL and had the home ice advantage. Then along came the Toronto Maple Leafs. After barely surviving the Leafs in overtime, the Caps lost the second game (and home ice advantage) in double overtime. The symptoms are there to see: an opposition goalie that seems almost superhuman, goals scored against them in strange ways and an inability to score in overtime.

The series now moves to Toronto where the Leafs are favored. We know the drill. The Caps will split the two games, giving us hope that this time they will do it. And they might. The prize is facing Pittsburgh. We have seen this before.