Published Blog: Penguins Experience Title: Getting to Know the Washington Capitals Author: PenguinsExperience The best way to prepare for battle is to know your enemy.With that thought in mind, we asked our MVN partner DC Pro Sports Report to answer a few questions about the upcoming series from the Caps' perspective. Penguins Experience:  Who do you think will win this series, and why?DCPSR:  Capitals.  The depth on this team has developed so well which is why I think they were second overall in the Eastern Conference.  Lines  2 and 3 are real good with guys like Semin, Fedorov, Laich, Fleischmann and the Line 4 checking is line is one of the more effective in the NHL.  The Caps are also a better team with Simeon Varlamov in goal.  He is much better than Theodore, nimble, quick, agile, and flexible.  His poise at the young age of 21 is exceptional and is being compared to Ken Dryden and Cam Ward.  I suspect after a Rangers series slump, Mike Green will get back to normal.  He was nursing an injury during that series and is good to go now.  The Caps defense will hold alot of answers in this series.Penguins Experience:  Can you tell Pens fans about the Capitals style of play?  What is their system?DCPSR:  Bruce Boudreau brought in a pretty intense, up tempo system, which fits many of the players who played for Boudreau in Hershey from 2006 to 2008. It also fits guys like Alex Ovechkin and Alex Semin.  Boudreau system also allows Mike Green a freer style of offensive play, which is results in a ton of goals by Green.  The power play is suppose to be rapid shooting, but the Caps at times fall into trances where they spend too much time passing and looking for the pretty shots.Penguins Experience:  Tell us a little bit about the Capitals strengths and weaknesses and how they will favor the Caps so our readers can get to know the Caps a bit better.DCPSR:  Strengths are the power play and the up tempo style.  They like to wear teams down, they like to move the puck around, sometimes too much.  They have a ton of sharp shooters which is why they were 2nd in the NHL in goals scored.  The team use to be all Ovechkin, now they have other guys that have developed that can punch the puck in.  Probably one of the best players on the Caps that is not talked about much is young Nicklas Backstrom.  Backy has 88 points including 66 assist, top 5 in the NHL in assists.  Some of his passes are mind boggling.  Caps had 5 players over 20 goals, 23 over 30.  Power play can be very lethal if they don't fall into the passing funk.  Goal tending is now a pretty good strength.  Perhaps one of the bigger strengths is size.  They are one of the bigger teams in the NHL: and use that to wear the other side down.Weaknesses.  On the power play, at times they can go into a funk with passing and passing and passing, which hurts them.  They also have a tendency at times to come out very flat and if Pittsburgh takes advantage of that early in games, they can make it very difficult for Caps to come back.  The defense gets out of place at times leaving the goalie exposed.  I would have send goalie, but I think Varlamov has seriously upgraded that part of our game over Jose Theodore.  Sometimes our secondary lines go into scoring slumps and when that happens, the Caps can struggle.Penguins Experience:  Given the Caps weaknesses you just mentioned, What specific advantages do you think the Pens may have over the Caps?DCPSR:  Malkin and Crosby are a potent twosome and can be tough, very tough to handle.  I think if the Caps don't avoid breakaways, there could be some big problems.  If the Pens coming out strong in the first period and the Caps come out flat, like they do at times, Pens can make fit very difficult for the Caps to climb back in a game they come out flat in.  Caps get anxious at times and create 4 on 1 opportunities, but should they miss, thy expose the goalie to a 2 or 3 on 1 at the other end.Penguins Experience:  Your take on the whole Crosby/Malkin v. Ovechkin/Semin hype?DCPSR:  We wrote about it in our Wednesday Red Alert.  It is great for hockey.  Great for publicity. Toronto is smiling and grinning cheek to cheek.  It showcases the 2 to 4 best players in the NHL.  Great for the sport.  BUT, it gets over hyped and takes the focus off the real rivalry, the Caps and Pens, two young and upcoming franchises that will likely battle for years.  I don't always care for the Ovie/Crosby hype because i think it takes away from the rest of the rosters on each club that have worked to get the two teams where they are.Penguins Experience:  What is the feeling around Capitals fans right now?  Are they excited? Confident?DCPSR:  Obviously excited.  Playoffs are not part of the culture in DC for quite awhile.  Look at the Redskins, the Nats, and the Wizards.  really has not been a whole heckuva alot to cheer about.  The fact they catapulted to 10th overall in ticket sales and had 19 straight sellouts tells the story of the excitement for this team and hockey in DC. A ton of people over the years said DC was not a hockey ton.  Has nothing to do with that.  Has to do, in DC and every city, what product is put on the field, court, or ice. Put a good, quality product that wins, people will come.  I just wish Dan Snyder could either learn that, or sell the franchise, maybe to caps owner Ted Leonsis.  That would be great!  Confident?  I think so.  I think Caps fans are to the point with this franchise, watching the progression each year, starting in 2006, they know this team can play, play hard, with any team on ice.  I think there is even more confidence now with Simeon Varlamov in net.  We knew when he was drafted in the first round in 2006 that he was special, most NHL draft experts knew it as well, but the  real fact was, when would he be ready for the NHL.  I think we have that answer now.  He has generated even more excitement.Penguins Experience:  Pick one.  Who is the absolute key player for the Caps in this series?DCPSR:  Hands down, the rookie goalie, Simeon Varlamov.  He single handidly turned the Ranger series around, posting a 1.17 GAA and .958 save percentage.Penguins Experience:  Finally, tell us a bit about your blog and your coverage of the Caps?DCPSR:  We started nearly 4 years ago, cover all DC sports, Washington Redskins, Capitals, Nationals, and Bullets (yes, we still call them the Bullets because we never agreed with the name change).  We are on Facebook and Twitter as well. Joined MVN less than a year ago and have enjoyed it thus far.  We are also the home of the largest and most updated mock draft database on the Internet for the NFL, NHL, MLB, and NBA.  The NFL Mock Draft Database is 9 years old, listed over 350 NFL mock drafts, NBA Database is 4 years old, has 65 mocks listed, and the NHL is 3 years old and has 26 listed so far. Out Databases and article have been tracked and reported in the Washington Post, Washington Times, DC Examiner, Dallas Morning News, Star Ledger in New Jersey, USA Today, ESPN, Yahoo Sports (including Puck Daddy), and more.We answered similar questions from the Penguins' perspective over on their site.We'd like to thank them for their input and we look forward to working with them more often as this series progresses. Actions: Edit Unpublish More like this: From this blog From this author On this day