Sure, that new like of NHL commercials declaring that “History Will Be Made” makes me yearn for the days when I was told to get “Cup Crazy.”

They’re also the most easily spoofed viral videos since Beyonce’s Single Ladies:

But make no mistake about it. Tonight, at TD Garden, the night after LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers quit on their season, the Philadelphia Flyers will dumbfound another set of sports fans.

The mere fact that the Flyers have been able to claw back into a Game 7 after falling behind 3-0 to the Boston Bruins in this Eastern Conference Semifinal series is one thing. It’s the first it has happened in the National Hockey League since 1975, when the Islanders did it to the Pittsburgh Penguins.

You can look at the stats – including Philadelphia, only six times has a team in that hole fought back from the deepest of deficits to even force a deciding game. Only those ‘75 Islanders and 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs have been able to finish the feat in hockey.

It’s going to happen again tonight.

I personally didn’t even think Boston had a chance of knocking off Buffalo in the first round, let alone being one win away from their first conference final appearance since 1992. They can’t score. They’ve got an untested rookie goalie who had more U’s in his first name than playoff victories entering this postseason.

They did, though, in stunning and swift fashion. Then they put Philadelphia down 3-0, who were fresh off their own first round upset. Marc Savard was back. The team was healthy and hitting.

And, like that, it all hit a wall.

I don’t think anyone can put exactly a finger on why we find ourselves with an improbable Game 7 tonight in Beantown. Obviously, the whole “scoring a single goal in their past two elimination games” thing factors in — and even that goal came with just one minute to play in Game 6.

And it’s not as if Philadelphia has played remarkably well. Game 5 was a whitewash in which the a lazy and careless Bruins team gave the puck away as if it were an extra wedding present toaster. Philly then came out in Game 6 and did just enough to squeak out a victory to tie the series.

The fact of the matter is, though, they did. The Bruins have improbably lost three consecutive elimination chances. Tonight, they’ll lose a fourth and their season will be over.

Somehow.

There’s no way the Bruins can possibly win tonight, is there? With apologies to NSF Adam (not a contributor, but a frequent guest of the fine program), if the Flyers even come out and score the first goal, this will descend into chaos.

Trust me on this. I’m a Yankees fan. I know full well what it feels like to see your team blow a 3-0 series lead. Once it gets away in Game 7, there’s no turning back. Weezer’s “The Sweater Song” describes how pulling one thread can unravel an entire garment. The Flyers almost have the Bruins naked. They will by the end of the night.

Isn’t it hard to believe that this happened 13 days ago in the very same playoff series?

The NHL better get it’s marketing department chugging tonight because, in reality, history will be made.

After last nights two Eastern Conference semifinal games, i learned one thing….hand the Stanley Cup to whoever wins the Sharks/Blackhawks series. Seriously.

I didnt think many of the teams out East had a chance to beat the West when the playoffs began anyway, but the last month has just proved my point. You can say its parity. I say it’s overrated top teams who lost to lower seeds that are playing above their head.

Don’t get me wrong, the Montreal Canadiens run is fun to watch. Mike Cammalleri is sticking it to fans in western Canada who thought the kid couldnt cut it when he played for Calgary. This P.K. Subban kid on defense is fun to watch…and he’s only 20!And Jaroslav Halak has been amazing ever since the Olympics.

That said…you think San Jose or Chicago gives a crap? They have 24 titles!

Yeah, Pittsburgh has just as much firepower as anyone else and Montreal beat them, but this Penguins squad was different from last year. They just looked disinterested. Sidney Crosby didnt show up and Marc-Andre Fleury played like me in goal.

We dont have a winner yet in the Philadelphia/Boston series as of this writing, but I can you neither of these teams can hang. Hell…im picking Montreal to beat whoever wins tomorrow night. The city of Boston has had enough sucess this decade to last until 2100. Plus, not being able to close out this Philly team shows me they have no killer instinct, something you need as a championship team.

And Philly…well…they let Boston get up 3-0 on them in the first place. It will be a nice story if the pull a 2004 Red Sox, but Brian Boucher and Michael Leighton don’t scare me if I’m the Sharks or Blackhawks.

Sure…I could be wrong. Watch: Montreal will sweep Chicago and win it all. Halak is playing well enough for that to happen, but at somepoint the clock has to strike midnight and instead of playing another round of hockey, just hand the cup over to the Bay or the Windy City and hand the Conn Smythe to Joe Pavelski or Jonathan Toews.

It read: “PHOENIX – TAKE CARE OF OUR BOYS.”

This Tuesday, the Glendale City Council may do just that.

Item #14 on the Consent Agenda for this coming Tuesday’s council meeting meeting reads:

This is a request for the City Council to grant the City Manager authority to sign the agreements and secure the financial mechanisms that are reasonably necessary to satisfy the NHL’s requirements in order for the NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes to remain in Glendale during the NHL’s 2010-11 season.

It’s a pretty simple concept for one of the most muddled ownership situations in the history of the National Hockey League.

You all know the facts by now. Ice Edge Holdings is back at the table. The city and the potential ownership group have been working at a fever pitch to come to a memorandum of understanding – basically an exclusive right to negotiate a new lease at Jobing.com Arena – over the past three days.

Item #14 of Tuesday’s meeting, though, will most likely make or break the Coyotes’ future in Arizona.

What’s at stake here is the millions of dollars City Manager Ed Beasley would be permitted to commit to covering the losses the Coyotes are expected to sustain next season. This year, losses the NHL absorbed were tune of about $20 million despite the vast improvement in the team’s on-ice product.

However, Ice Edge and the city might have that new memorandum signed by Monday – and that’s something that would work to the benefit of everyone involved. Once that letter is signed, they can go forward to establish a new lease agreement and complete the sale of the team.

It’s a complicated situation to say the least. Because of last summer’s bankruptcy fiasco, the NHL holds the power to relocate the team if a new owner who will keep the team in Arizona is not found. The deadline to do that is June 30.

What the vote on Tuesday basically does is buy the franchise time and most likely another season at Jobing.com Arena. The league doesn’t want to cover the franchise’s losses anymore; in short, they want the team off the books. If the city council says yes, the league and the Ice Edge get more time to negotiate a lease and terms of a sale while Glendale picks up the tab for any losses.

However, it’s imperative to realize that a yes vote on Tuesday night doesn’t keep the team here for good. It’s a stop-gap measure to let the league, city and Ice Edge try to work out a new lease at Jobing.com Arena.

If the city votes no and the sale isn’t complete by June 30, the NHL, whose patience with the situation is clearly running thin, could turn and sell the team to Canadian billionaire David Thomson, who will move the team.

Glendale argues the money to cover the Coyotes’ losses wouldn’t come from the city’s general fund but rather a new “community-facilities district” which would tax landowners in the Arena/Westgate area to finance the losses.

Glendale says it’s legal. The Phoenix Development Planning and Financing Group thinks the opposite. I’m also pretty sure the Goldwater Institute will have something to say (AKA a lawsuit in its back pocket) if the new taxing district were to go forward.

A commenter here on NSF brings up the issue of credit and bond ratings – a concept I’m not fully familiar with, but I generally get the idea that if the Coyotes were to leave town, the city’s credit rating could be negatively impacted. What more, another good point which I neglected to bring up is that without the Coyotes, Jobing.com Arena loses dozens of guaranteed booked dates.

Without the ‘Yotes, we’re talking 41 regular season home games, at least three preseason games and up to 16 home playoff games all gone. If the team leaves, the city will have fronted $180 million for Glendale’s version of Kansas City’s Sprint Center – a professional sports venue without a professional sports team.

What more, civic pride would take a major hit, of course. Quebec City, Baltimore, Hartford, Charlotte all have lost teams in the past few decades. Just ask Winnipeg what it felt like.

Last night, during the 1st intermission of CBC’s coverage of Game 5 between Pittsburgh and Montreal, Pierre LeBrun and Glenn Healy weighed in on the entire situation. LeBrun was the well-sourced, clear-cut one of the two, outlining what we’ve said on this site. I didn’t know Glenn Healy was an expert on Arizona constitutional law, though:

I don’t think you can cover the National Hockey League’s losses. I don’t think they can cover Ice Edge’s losses. It’s not an eligible use of that money. I think it’s against the law. I think it’s against the constitution of Arizona.

Though I do believe Healy may be overstepping his boundaries (and knowledge base), it’s something to consider and something the Goldwater Institute is probably already investigating

We’re still, at its root, talking about the city of Glendale, the same city which earlier this year proposed laying off 218 employees to help close a $14.8 million budget gap, covering what could be more than $20 million in Coyotes losses next season.

No one here at NSF or, probably, anyone outside the city limits of Winnipeg is rooting for the city council to vote no on Tuesday night. The reality, though, is that the council will most likely be under extreme pressure to do just that.

Mere minutes after the Detroit Red Wings, the team that knocked Phoenix out in the Western Conference Quarterfinals, got done whipping San Jose in Game 4 of that series, Scott Burnside reported that Jerry Reinsdorf’s deal to buy the franchise was dead on arrival.

All sides denied that report, but it seems obvious that since the city of Glendale and Ice Edge Holdings began feverishly negotiating yet again through Friday, the Chicago sports mogul will not be taking control of the team.

The sticking point now becomes operating losses. The Coyotes, as expected, lost money this season yet again. Increased attendance and four home playoff dates will pad that number a little bit, but the team is still hemorrhaging money.

The Arizona Republic says the NHL, who owns the franchise in this transitional state, covered about $20 million worth of red ink during the 2009-10 season.

By all accounts, all sides, from the city to all potential ownership groups, expect the Coyotes to do it again next year.

Ice Edge and Glendale are supposedly going to soon come to a “memorandum of understanding” soon in which they will exclusively negotiate terms of a new lease at Jobing.com Arena.

And, on Tuesday, the city council will vote on whether or not they will agree to a guaranteed amount of money to cover the team’s losses for next season.

Mind you, this is the very same group of politicians who foolishly and unanimously voted to endorse Reinsdorf’s “no money down”  bid and 5-1 against Ice Edge, who promised to keep the team in Glendale through the remaining 24  years on the team’s horrible lease at The Job.

Think about that for a moment – the city of Glendale, who is still digging out from the subsidies and tax breaks they provided to build the arena and Westgate City Center, is voting on whether or not they’ll be on the hook to absorb millions more to subsidize the hockey team.

If that doesn’t make any common sense to you, you’re not alone, because it doesn’t.

That’s a hard thing to admit for us here at No Sir Fans, who have been ardent supporters (not quite fans, considering each of our allegiances to the Sharks, Stars and Penguins) of the franchise.

Residents of Glendale should be incensed. They should be marching on Jobing.com Arena furious that their city council is even considering putting the city in even more of a financial hole by taking on upwards of $20 million to subsidize a hockey team.

Even if they do, as the Arizona Republic points out, the city’s idea to set up a special taxing district around Westgate and funnel the extra tax dollars directly into funding franchise losses might not even be legal.

This is, once again, a royal mess. Last summer, though, the league was able to dig itself out and keep the team here for the time being.

But that time is running out – and each passing day in this drama is one fewer day this team could be in Arizona.

Late Thursday night, both Scott Burnside of ESPN and Darren Dreger of TSN reported that the potential sale of the team from the NHL to Jerry Reinsdorf is “dead” and that the organization is desperately trying to get Ice Edge Holdings, the only other potential group that would keep the team in Phoenix, back to the table.

Less than a month ago, the City of Glendale decided to endorse Reinsdorf’s bid for the franchise despite the Chicago sports mogul insisting on a clause that would let him sell or move the team after five seasons. It came after Ice Edge pledged to not try to move the Coyotes during the remaining 24 years on the team’s lease with Jobing.com Arena.

Ice Edge, though, has been criticized for not being able to prove that they have the nearly $150 million in assets to actually purchase the team.

Their bid for the franchise was deemed to be dead when the city endorsed Reinsdorf, but Burnside says Glendale is now scrambling to get Ice Edge back to the table now that the franchise is hanging in the balance and no other local buyers at the table.

NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, who has been engaging in what can really be classified as “shuttle diplomacy” throughout this entire process since last June, denies that the league has told the city and franchise that they want a plan nailed down by the end of this week.

But with the June 30 deadline on to make a sale  rapidly approaching, the situation is now desperate. That deadline date is when the team’s transitional lease with the city runs out and the team could be sold and moved.

Meanwhile, sources say the NHL is in a position to quickly sell the team to David Thomson, a Canadian billionaire, who would move the team to Winnipeg should Glendale and the league not secure an ownership group committed to keeping the team in Arizona.

The timing obviously couldn’t be worse. The team and their fans are basking in the glow of spending the 2009-10 season as the NHL’s darlings – making a run to the playoffs and pushing the defending Western Conference champions to 7 games after being widely picked to finish dead last in the conference in the preseason.

But now the franchise might be facing an even bigger loss than that 6-1 defeat last week.

Cooke knocked Markov out of the game. (AP)

8:20 into last night’s Pittsburgh/Montreal Eastern Conference semifinal, the spotlight was once again on Penguins agitator Matt Cooke.

Unfairly.

Certainly Cooke has a history. Lest we forget this little dance he performed all over Marc Savard’s temple earlier this season.

But when Andrei Markov was cleanly sent into the corner boards by Cooke minutes into a 1-1 tie in Game 1 Friday night, it set a tone.

Sure, the Penguins power play success (4 of their 6 goals came on the man advantage) quadrupled what the Washington Capitals were able to do in seven entire games. They chased Jaroslav Halak. They imposed their physical will.

It was Cooke, though, who sent a message – in the form of a clean, good hockey hit – that this series was going to be different.

(Quick side note: Props to the guy in the 2nd row at Mellon Arena rocking the old alternate Flying Penguin jersey customized with Jiri Slegr’s name – solely because I would probably be to embarrassed to admit I owned a Jiri Slegr jersey.)

Of course it’s unfortunate that Andrei Markov, clearly the Habs best defenseman in this playoffs so far, had his knee buckle under him because Cooke caught him while turning.

He’ll be vilified in the Montreal press simply because of who he is and because of his past. But, as has become the sad norm in the National Hockey League, this followed the hit:

Probably not the time or place to be harping on players feeling the need to fight after a clean hit, but it reeks of Montreal trying desperately to match the Penguins physically. The Capitals, in stark contrast, don’t bang bodies. This series is a different animal for the 8th-seeded Canadiens.

And it wasn’t the right way to start it.

Tonight: April 28, 2010, tell me that really matters.

The highest powered offense the NHL has seen this side of the Wayne Gretzky/Jari Kurri Edmonton Oilers of the 80’s could only muster three goals against Jaroslav Halak in the final three games of their Eastern Conference Quarterfinal series.

It was a series against a team who had 33 fewer points and scored 101 fewer goals than them this season.

If you looked at any playoff series since the lockout and said “That team will definitely win,” it probably would have been this year’s Washington Capitals over this year’s Montreal Canadiens.

Too bad the Habs didn’t see it that way.

After two decisive wins at the Bell Centre in Games 3 and 4, the Caps did nothing more than fold up like a cheap lawn chair and call it a season.

Certainly this kind of thing happens. It has three times since the 2006. But this one feels like bye most stunning 8-over-1 upset since San Jose took out Detroit in 1994.

Credit where credit is due, though. This Canadiens team, after suffering under the most incredible pressure in their 100th anniversary season, locked the high-powered Capitals down. Halak, the guy who supplanted golden-boy Carey Price, was a monster in the crease.

They got timely goals from timely players and stellar goaltending. The Capitals, on the other hand, looked hopelessly lost throughout Game 6 and entitled in Game 7.

One of the knocks on Gretzky’s Oilers was that they only lost when they felt entitled. Such was the case in 1982 (Los Angeles), 1986 (Calgary) and 1989 (Los Angeles, again). The Oilers had a swagger as if they didn’t need to worry about falling behind in games because they could generate offense at the drop of a hat.

Too bad a 1-for-33 power play didn’t cooperate. Nor did Alexander Semin, who didn’t score a single goal in the series. Or Alex Ovechkin, who might as well have been invisible since Game 4. Or Mike Green, whose inexplicably poor defensive play put his team in major holes at points.

For our nation’s capital, it’s just another in a long string of disappointments. The Wizards are an embarrassment, the Redskins are rebuilding, barely anyone knows the Nationals even exist, D.C. United is struggling and neither Maryland nor Georgetown made it out of the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament.

Even Washington Post sports blogger Dan Steinberg gave up, nee BEGGED OUT, of a trip to the World Cup in South Africa, banking on a long Capitals playoff run.

Hey, but at least they passed health care.

Right on time, too, because the entire population of Washington is feeling awfully sick right about now.

I never like using the officiating as an excuse and some will argue that the 6-1 outcome had to do with more than just the refs. Normally you’re right. In this case, you’re not. After the Coyotes got a goal off the faceoff from Vern Fiddler to cut into Detroit’s 2-0 lead, the officials called Phoenix’s Adrian Aucoin for holding Tomas Holstrom. All the replays clearly show that Holmstrom pulled Aucoin down and the Wings scored on the ensuing power play.

Later, during a Coyotes power play, Detroit’s Henrik Zetterberg pushes the net off during a flurry of Phoenix chances and the Coyotes miss out on a 5 on 3 opportunity. After the power play ends, Brad Stuart, who was serving the penalty gets out of the box, gets behind the defemse and scores to make it 4-1 with 4 seconds left in the 2nd period. I’m not saying the Coyotes could have done anything on the 5 on 3 or even won the game, but we will never know.

Now that i got that out of the way, i’ll get to the reason for this post. The Coyotes are only going to get better. Remember, they played 4 and 1/2 of these games without their heart and soul…captain Shane Doan. They also were without speedy goal scorer Scottie Upshall, who led them in goals when he tore his ACL.

Not only will the core nucleus be back next year, but they have some great talent waiting in the wings. They still have 1st round picks Kyle Turris (2007) , Mikael Boedker (2008) and Viktor Tikhonov (2008), who have NHL games under their belt, but were used too early when the Gretzky era was in full force. These forwards have plenty of talent and speed to be 20+ goal scorers in the NHL. They also have 2009 first rounder Oliver Ekman-Larsson who, at only 18 years of age, is NHL ready according to most scouts.

Combine that with Matthew Lombardi, Keith Yandle, Martin Hanzel, Wojtek Wolski, and Sami Lepisto, these ‘Yotes can be good for years to come if they can keep some of the veterans they acquired at the deadline to round out this roster. They have the coach to get it done in Dave Tippett. The only thing that can sour the future is if the next Whiteout isn’t in Phoenix. Let’s all hope that doesnt happen.

30 years ago today, the United States hockey team pulled off the most stunning upset in the history of sports.

Last night, on the eve of this anniversary, the latest version of the America Olympic hockey team pulled off a win that many outside the Team USA locker room didn’t think they could.

These were the Canadians. They’re the host country that has the most to lose playing the team they’ve perennially dominated, hadn’t lost to in the Olympics in half a century and were expected by an entire nation to cast aside en route to a gold medal.

Ron Wilson and his team threw a wrench into that entire plan and left Canada and their nation of supporters sitting in stunned silence at Canada Hockey Place.

In the immediate aftermath of the Americans’ 5-3 win over Canada, one which included a stirring 42-save performance from Ryan Miller, two goals from Brian Rafalski, the team’s elder-statesman, and the most acrobatic empty-net goal in the history of the game from Ryan Kesler, many over-excited hockey fans in this country proclaimed it another miracle.

Let’s hold off on that. Forever.

Sure, no puckhead pundit predicted an American win. Sure, the Canadian team in 2010 is probably the strongest the country has fielded in an international competition since 2002, when they defeated the USA for the gold in Salt Lake City. Sure, it was in front of 18,000 Maple Leaf flag-bearing fans.

Olympic hockey has changed dramatically even since 1998, the first year NHLers were released from their clubs for two weeks to play for their countries at the Winter Games.

It’s truly a competition between the best of the best in the world and the fact of the matter is that the United States has in fact become a competitive hockey nation. Are we on the same level as, say, Canada and Russia? Not yet, but we’re past the point where American hockey players were fodder for blowout victories.

In 1980, they were, until Herb Brooks whipped together a rag-tag bunch of college kids, stormed through pool play and then, of course, on February 22, somehow beat the mighty Soviets, a team that WAS playing with “professional” hockey players.

That game was miraculous. Yesterday’s win was not.

However, let us not take away what the win was – a statement to the world that USA Hockey is for real.

It’s not as if the United States has no history of battling our hockey-crazy neighbors to the north. The US Juniors have knocked off Canada in two of the last six World Junior Championships. Our guys played them tough in the aforementioned 2002 gold medal game, the first one the Americans had seen since the Miracle on Ice.

And in 1996, on their home soil, Tony Amonte capped off a four-goal frenzy in the final 3:18 of the 3rd period in Game 3 of the World Cup of Hockey final, snatching a stunning international victory in a tournament that was widely predicted to be a Canadian whitewash.

Ironically, a young Martin Brodeur, who is being chastised throughout Canada today for his poor performance yesterday, backed up Curtis Joseph in that decisive final game.

So there’s precedent. Frankly, compared to those earlier victories over Canada, a 5-3 preliminary round victory that did nothing more tangibly than grant the Americans a bye into the Olympic quarterfinals, yesterday’s win was small potatoes.

There’s something to be said for the mental impact it has, though. None of those other games were in a tournament for these high of stakes. Maybe yesterday’s win wasn’t for a medal or a title.

Just watching the game, though, and feeling that tension inside as the Americans fought to desperately hang onto a 4-3 lead late in the 3rd period, was gut wrenching. It felt like it was for more than just a bye into the quarters.

It was about making a statement that this team wasn’t just going to lie down, accept their relegated role as bronze medal contenders and wait for Canada and Russia to battle next Sunday like everyone expected.

Sure, Jamie Langenbrunner’s tip in with 12:51 left wasn’t Mike Eruzione putting a wrist shot through Vladimir Myshkin’s legs. It wasn’t as miraculous to send a younger Al Michaels into a frenzy.

Much like those Americans 30 years ago who had to beat Finland to be assured of the gold after the Soviet upset, there’s still plenty of hockey to be played in Vancouver.

This one sure feels special, though.

The Washington Capitals…yes…THOSE Washington Capitals…have won 14 consecutive games.

It’s a franchise record and it’s three short of the 1992-93 Pittsburgh Penguins league record mark of 17 straight W’s. Undoubtedly, it has been one of the most interesting and breathtaking runs in National Hockey League history.

So, at this point, let’s take a step back and give the Caps their due and their fans a few moments to “Rock The Red.”

Go ahead, I’ll wait.

You guys done? Excellent. Because I’m hanging out just around the corner, waiting to be your epic buzz kill.

When a team gets super hot in any sport at the two-thirds poll of their regular season, it’s a dangerous precipice. Ask those Penguins, who lost in the 2nd round of the playoffs that year to the New York Islanders, ending their reign as back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. Or the San Jose Sharks, who rattled off 11 straight in 2008 before fizzling in the semifinals to Dallas.

The regular season is the regular season for a reason, especially in the NHL. Every real hockey fan knows that once mid-April rolls around, it’s a completely new season – one that totally disregards what happened over the previous seven months of action. Just ask all those #1 seeds like Detroit (a few times), Quebec, New Jersey, St. Louis and San Jose what it’s like to get hit by an eighth-seeded buzzsaw.

There’s no doubt that the Capitals are great. Very, very great. There are few teams in recent memory in this league that boast as much talent up and down the roster as this year’s Washington squad. Between Mike Green, Alexander Semin, Nicklas Backstrom, a ridiculously strong corps of role players and some Russian kid named Ovechkin, the 2009-10 Capitals probably boast the strongest 18 guys that suit up night in and night out in the NHL.

It’s a shame that these 14 wins are coming in February though and not May, when they really matter. It really is.

You see, it’s not that often that a team in the league sets their franchise record for consecutive wins and claims the Stanley Cup in the same year. In fact – it has only happened six times. Since 1917, only the 1939-40 New York Rangers (yes, THE 1940 Rangers), 1954-55 Detroit Red Wings (their last Cup until 1997), 1967-68 Montreal Canadiens, 1981-82 New York Islanders, 2003-04 Tampa Bay Lightning and 2005-06 Carolina Hurricanes have pulled the feat.

Even that stat is pretty flawed – the Rangers and Red Wings pulled it off in the Original Six era when only four teams made the playoffs, the Habs did it in the first year of the 12-team NHL and the Islanders at that time had no one in the NHL within arms reach of their skill.

The Lightning and Hurricanes…I don’t have an excuse for.

Even those 92-93 Penguins, who that year arguably had their strongest team in franchise history, even better than their 1991 and 1992 championship teams, rattled off a ridiculous winning streak and fell flat in the playoffs. In fact, they had a 3-2 lead in their Patrick Division Final against the Isles before losing game 6 in Uniondale and then game 7 in overtime. David Volek is still a dirty word in the Steel City because of that game-winning goal.

I should point one thing out. I’m not one of those naysayers who thinks that it’s good for a team to have a loss or two on their resume to “build their character” before heading into the games that matter. That’s a load of you-know-what. However, I’m a big proponent of being hot at the right time.

For all we know, the Capitals might just carry this winning streak straight into April. Or, more likely, the law of averages will kick in and the Fighting Ovechkins will drop a few en route to the playoffs.

Perspective must win the day though and that perspective should dictate that once the Caps winning streak is broken, it has to be forgotten about immediately and a new streak must begin. Because as we’ve seen all too often in the NHL, there are no guarantees that the league’s top regular season team will do anything in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.