Welcome to Scar Tissue Season

The NHL playoffs are here all right. Fifteen minutes after last night's 4-3 loss to the Rangers, D.C. Metro police -- conspicuously present on the Gallery Place Metro station platform -- were via radios relaying to one another the formations of Ranger fans amid the station's Sea of Red. No outbreaks of violence had occurred, mind you, the cops were just attentive to the presence of the enemy within. It was quite audible and visible. Such is hockey's postseason passion. During the regular season, when the Flyers visit and prevail and their partisans join us in public transportation commutes out of town, their presence is a profound annoyance. But no more than that. But get a game 1 to go awry, and the men in blue mobilize.I consider anybody under 30 to be young (quite), and on my train last night two young red sweater wearers were dissecting defeat within earshot. One of them observed that he "didn't hate the Rangers," and my immediate reaction was, Give it ...