Bring on the waddling birds...

The boys in red (aka The Washington Capitals) came from behind (after the first four games of the series, the Caps were down 3 games to 1) and took the best-of-seven Round 1 playoff series from the New York Rangers. That result was in question as recently as, oh, last night in the third period of Game 7. However, for some reason I never doubted that they'd win last night.

With little more than five minutes left in the third period, Sergei Federov (who has been my "Cap of choice" this year after seeing his "model photo" at the first Caps game I attended) scored a beautiful goal, glove side. I was doing free step on the Wii Fit at the time and somehow managed to keep time while whooping and contorting to show my glee. My right knee reminds me of that obviously awkward glee everytime I take a step today. I'm sure my three-inch wedge sandals are not helping the knee any. But I digress.

In the other game of interest last night, the New Jersey Devils and the amazing Martin Brodeur seemed to have a series win in hand. Next thing I knew, the stupid Carolina Hurricanes had scored not once, but TWICE, in the last two minutes of the game and won the series. So, Brodeur IS human! Because of this, the Capitals will now face their playoff nemesis Pittsburgh Penguins in Round 2 (instead of the Devils, whom the Caps would've played had the Devils actually won).

The Caps have a bad playoff history with the Penguins, not to mention a hate-hate relationship. But I believe the Caps beat the waddling, whining, flightless birds three of the four times they played this year. So we just need to do it four more times. The Pens arrive at Verizon Center on Saturday with the league's leading goal scorer for the regular season; a new head coach who successfully turned the team around at the end of the season and just got a lucrative, multi-year contract this week; and a hot goalie (hot as in winning, not hot as in yowza...Federov is hot as in yowza...).

It's not going to be easy, but we have a pretty hot, young goalie, too. Maybe you've heard of him? Simeon Varlamov (pronounced Sim-yeon VarLAHmof... emphasis on the middle syllable). Yeah, apparently he got tired of everyone mispronouncing his name, so he corrected all the sportscasters. Pretty funny. Dude doesn't speak English (maybe THAT's why Sean Avery didn't seem to bother him at all during the Rangers series... he didn't have a clue what Avery was yammering on about), and played a total of five (FIVE!) games in the NHL before backstopping the Caps' comeback in Round 1 -- earning two shutouts along the way. I think Theodore should probably make himself pretty comfy on the end of that bench for the foreseeable future. No goalie controversy here.

I love, love, LOVE that it's almost May and I'm still vested in the playoffs. The Caps haven't won a playoff series since the Cup run in 1998, so it's been awhile since I TRULY cared about anything beyond the first round. Sure, I'd pick a team and root them on. It's hockey, afterall. But this is our beloved Caps. The Caps we adopted when we moved here 15 years ago and supported when there were, like, 3,000 fans in the arena cheering them on. Now it's "in" to be a Caps fan. Everyone is on the bandwagon. Everyone is "rockin' the red." That's cool. The more the merrier. We'll make room on the wagon.

But just so ya know, we (and many of our friends) have been on the wagon all along. And the wagon doesn't stop for waddling birds that happen to be in the way. Too bad they can't fly -- guess we'll just have to run 'em over...