Caps and Rangers Series Preview

Caps vs Pens is going to be awesome. I can't wait!

Fedorov. Glove Side. Top Shelf. Koken on Point. 'Nuff Said.

I was amazed by the level of aggression the Caps stayed at. One point in the 3rd period, there was a hit on the near side boards down by Varlamov, where a stick went up in the air. I rewound that hit 3 times. And watching Sean Avery limp off the ice with 30 seconds left was priceless.

I just hope the aggression stays high, and would love to see the return of Donald Brashear in the Conference Finals.

Well as a Ranger fan.... This is a tough one for sure. I guess I will start by that the first period was the Rangers best all series. They did EXACTLY I had talked about. Not only did they weather the storm, they were the storm. Holding that team to just two shots and scoring that first goal, couldn't have been a better start. I thought the 2nd was very similar outside of about a five minute stretch or so where I thought Washington had some control. To me, it was the early penalty in the 3rd. Washington did not score on the PP but it gave them (and the crowd) some life very early in the 3rd which is exactly what they needed and they fed off of it the rest of the way.

The Rangers played their best defensive game of the series, unfortunately it's the same old story with them all year - they couldn't score (Kinda like the Skins lol ). Lundqvist wasn't tested as much as he had been but was equally as good as he was at his best this series. Big saves he made last night. That 2nd goal, listen, people can say oh they beat him glove side again, ok, they can say well he dropped early, fine....fact of the matter is that's a laser of a shot, put in a perfect place by a guy that's been doing that for 15 years. You'd like to see him make that save of course, but sometimes credit has to go to the shooter, that was just a great shot.

I don't know what to think of this team. Drury was NO WHERE to be found but he's hurt and I'm interested to hear the extent of his injury. Gomez showed spurts but they needed more out of him, Naslund did not impress me. Antropov had his moments. Callahan, Avery (when his head was on right), Sjostrom, Dubinsky, Betts (when his head was on period) all played pretty well and provided some good spark. They missed that top end talent DEARLY. Problem is, they spent all their money signing guys they thought were those "top end" guys over the past couple of off-season's (Drury, Gomez, Naslund) so their likelihood of being big players this FA period I don't think are very good.

Overall though, hats off to Washington. I mean they were the better team, I still thought NYR would pull this one off after taking the first two in Washington and than having a 3-1 Series lead.. but what can you do? They were not going to get past Boston anyways (nor do I think anyone will until maybe the Cup finals)... I'm very excited to watch the Pens/Caps series... and will be hoping that goes to 7 as well... there really is NOTHING like Game 7 in the NHL playoffs... F Baseball, F Basketball... Hockey is the BEST game 7 there is... I"ll be rooting for Vancouver the rest of the way, and hoping anyone besides Carolina comes out of the East. Good luck to you guys and the Caps though!

Way to go VARLEY & CAPS! The new #1 goalie...Theo take a seat!

That's a way to kick that NY ass, keep that dumb ass avery the turd in the sin bin! 4-0 CAPS!!!! This is the CAPS best performance by FAR, just what the Dr. ordered! Looked more like the regular season team I'm used to seeing.

Nice game Pothier, Semin, #8, Johnny E, nice to see BRASH, Nicky Back, and the shutout for VARLEY=GAME PUCK AND STARTING JOB.

We now have a series. The CAPS will now have some confidence moving into Wednesdays game, in a big way.

Washington Capitals vs. New York Rangers - GameCast - April 20, 2009 - ESPN (http://espn.go.com/nhl/gamecast?gameId=290420013)

GO CAPS!!!!!

Congrats on the win...Varley proved to be the deciding factor in winning the series. Going with the hot hand proved to be right. Good call.