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The stars will align if the Capitals win About a month ago I wrote about how the NHL needs a stronger Capitals-Penguins rivalry, and how the two teams meeting in the playoffs would be great for the league. Tonight the Capitals take on the Philadelphia Flyers at home in game seven of the first round. If the Capitals win, they will go on to play the Pittsburgh Penguins, who they went 1-3 against during the regular season. The Capitals have come a long way to get to this point. They went 15-4 to finish off the regular season, capturing a playoff spot in the final days of the season. They went down 3-1 to the Flyers in this series, but put together two impressive victories to force a game seven. Now they are just one win away from keeping their hot streak alive, and playing at home, where they are 10-3 during their hot streak, including 2-1 in this series. The Penguins have dominated this series since the entrance of Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin to the NHL. Pittsburgh is 10-2 against Washington over the last three years. With Malkin and Crosby on the roster the Penguins are 7-1. However, that doesn’t mean the series has been a total blowout. This year the two teams went to overtime twice, with the other two games being decided by three goals. There is no questioning that a series between Washington and Pittsburgh would be exciting, especially with both teams as hot as they are. Just for the fun of it, let’s take a look at three reasons why this would be a great series. 1. The star power. Alexander Ovechkin. Sidney Crosby. Evgeni Malkin. Three of the top players in the game on the same ice in a seven game series. It’s the NHL equivalent of Magic vs Bird, Favre vs Elway, Kobayashi vs Joey Chestnut. You can’t get the same effect with Sean Avery and the Rangers playing the Penguins. 2. The hot goalies. Cristobal Huet is 14-5 since being traded to the Capitals. Marc-Andre Fleury has been a brick wall in the playoffs, allowing five goals in four games, and going 14-3 since his return from injury. In fact, Fleury’s three goals allowed in game two was the most he has allowed since allowing three on March 6th. 3. A renewed playoff rivalry. The last time these two teams met in the playoffs was in the 2000-01 season when the Penguins won in six games. After that both teams dropped from contention, only to eventually be revived with the drafting of their young stars. The Penguins also eliminated the Capitals in the 1999-2000 season, the 1995-96 season, the 1994-95 season, and the 1990-91 and 1991-92 Stanley Cup seasons. The only time the Capitals have won was the 1993-94 playoffs. The Capitals just need to win one more game to advance to the second round, making this possible. AccuScore has the Capitals winning tonight’s game seven in 59.1 percent of simulations to make this possible. A San Jose victory could renew an old playoff rivalry The Flames have been a surprise in this series, taking the red-hot Sharks to seven games. San Jose had gone 16-2-2 coming in to the series, however the Flames had won three of four meetings between the two teams coming in to this series. The rest of the Western Conference is set, with this game being the deciding factor for the round two match ups. If Calgary wins, they would go on to play Detroit, while Dallas would host Colorado. However, if San Jose wins, they would host Dallas, which would then set up a Detroit/Colorado series. Detroit and Colorado haven’t met in the playoffs since the 2002 season. However, from 1996 to 2002 the Red Wings and Avalanche were two of the power houses in the NHL, winning five of the seven Stanley Cups. The teams met five times in this seven year span, and at least one of them made it to the Western Conference finals every year during this period. Here is a history of their meetings during this time. 2002: Detroit defeats Colorado in seven games in the 2002 Western Conference finals. Detroit goes on to win the Stanley Cup. 2000: Colorado defeats Detroit in five games in the Western Conference semi-finals. Colorado goes on to lose to Dallas in the Western Conference finals. 1999: Colorado defeats Detroit in six games in the Western Conference semi-finals. Colorado goes on to lose to Dallas in the Western Conference finals. 1997: Detroit defeats Colorado in six games in the Western Conference finals. Detroit goes on to win the Stanley Cup. 1996: Colorado defeats Detroit in six games in the Western Conference finals. Colorado goes on to win the Stanley Cup. A San Jose victory tonight will put Detroit and Colorado together again, fighting it out to see which team can advance to the Western Conference finals. Detroit dominated the series this year, winning all four games against Colorado. Since their last meeting, the Avalanche have brought back a few players from the glory days, like Peter Forsberg and Adam Foote. You can be sure that if these two teams meet in the second round, it won’t be as one sided as the regular season was. AccuScore has the Sharks winning game seven tonight in 60.1 percent of simulations. Trackback(0)
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