Huh? Mike Mibury Said What? Playoff Preview

So there's obviously not a whole lot to say about last night's Capitals' non-showing against the non-playoff bound Florida Panthers. Except that I hope the excuse is "we were looking forward to playoffs next week" and we now know that the boys will be facing a new and retooled New York Rangers team.

Hockey fans did have the chance to see one of the most exciting games HM has witnessed in a while in the NCAA Divsion 1 Men's Hockey Final between Boston University and Miami of Ohio. After holding a 2-1 lead up until the third period, BU made an exciting comeback in the final minute of the third, scoring two goals to tie the game. Cap's d-man Tom Poti (who we hope to see back in time for Game 1), a former BU Terrier, must have been beside himself watching his alma mater's rally! The game went into overtime and the Miami Red Hawks lost an absolute heartbreaker as a BU goal took a flukey bounce right off of the very defender who laid his body down to block it - right into the top shelf of the Miami goal. There was not a gosh-durn thing in the world that could have been done to stop that one but congrats to Boston University on adding another national title to their impressive resume.

So back to the long-anticipated playoffs...the Capitals haven't seen the Blueshirts since the addition of new coach John Tortorella, Nik Antropov, Derek Morris and of course the drama king himself, Sean Avery, who spent last season with the Dallas Stars and was later relegated to bad behavior boot camp for offensive comments. If nothing else, waiting to see what kind of tricks Avery pulls out of his sleeve will make this series one to watch! I wonder what nail polish color the eccentric and fashion-conscious #16 has chosen for the series - he's been known to be a fan of Chanel black (dude - that is so last year).

The buzz has already started around all of the playoff matchups, but HM almost fell out of her seat today as Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury were discussing the various teams in the first round (as I was watching the Stanley Cup champion Red Wings get trounced by the youthful Chicago Blackhawks). Caps fans are all too familiar with Mike Milbury, who has had frequent bouts of "foot in mouth" disease after calling Ovechkin a dog last year. But miracle of miracles, it seems Milbury has joined the millions on Capitals' bandwagon predicting the Blueshirts to drop out of the first round in five games...

Now we wait for the official game schedule so that we can all plan our week's events around what we've been waiting for all season - PLAYOFF HOCKEY! Stay tuned for updates and lots of other fun stuff...