The Caps

I won't pretend to be a huge NHL or Caps fan, but 6-8 years ago, I certainly was. Back then the Caps were nasty, just like they are right now.

A very fond set of memories has me thinking of Ollie Kolzig and the Caps from 1998 to 2002. I didn't watch a lot of games back then, but I did attend a few and I did read about them in the Post each morning.

In fact, I remember their 1998 season which had them losing the Stanley Cup to the Wings after dispatching the Bruins, Sabres, and Senators in the playoffs. Unless you talked to Adam Oates, it was a very good time to be a Caps fan or player during this "era."

Fast forward to last night's game against the Penguins who are the reigning Eastern Conference champs. From 1999-2000, the Penguins killed us in the playoffs. And ever since then, including the lock-out, the Penguins have had our number, winning 8 of the past 11 games.

Last night looked like another Capital Capitulation to Sid the Kid and his evil Russian prodigy Malkin. Instead of trying to score and keep his team in the game, Ovie tried his hardest to decapitate Malkin, which of course is awesome, but won't win you any games. My favorite moment was when Ovie tried to hip-check Malkin into the Penguin's bench which subsequently led to the Mellon arena booing Ovechkin for the rest of the evening. I guess maybe Ovechkin thought that without Donald "the Veteran Enforcer" Brashear, he had take up the slack.

But instead of giving up, down three to nothing on the road, the Capitals came back and won, proving how much depth and offensive firepower this team has right now. The team found scoring from another Russian (Semin), an ailing youngster (Nylander), Fleischman and Gordon. And they beat the reigning champs without production from the best player in the NHL right now.

Beating the Penguins early-on bodes well for a Capitals team which will almost certainly face them in the playoffs. And when we have Ovie / Backstrom / Nylander / and Green scoring again, Kozlov back from injury, and Brashear ready to fight again, the league better look-out. Last year's Caps, which rallied 7 games to make the playoffs, may be consistently good this year and ready to make an assault on the playoffs.

That would kick a lot of ass.