Thought I had the flu, then I realized it was just Caps Fever.

I keep reading articles for how the Caps can beat Lundquist, the answer is pretty simple. Go to the net. Hockey games, especially playoff ones, are won in the area between the hash marks extended to the goal line. The long range wrist shots from the tops of the circles that go bar south may look pretty cool and get the girls all hot and bothered, but they don't win games. Ok, let me rephrase that, they WIN games, but they don't win series', and they certainly don't win championships.

In reality, a goal is a goal, there is no extra reward for a highlight reel goal. As a Caps fan my jaw dropped when I saw this goal, but my heart exploded through my chest when I saw this. Ovechkin's was an amazing goal in a meaningless game, Joe Juneau's was a garbage goal that caused the 4th grade version of me to have an asthma attack.


Preview For NYR Series

Last year's Caps team did a terrible job of crashing the net. Everyone raved about how great Halak was because he saw about 50 shots a game and the Habs still managed to win the series. The operative word being "saw." There was no net solid net presence, nothing obstructing his view of the puck. No disrespect to Halak, but any NHL caliber goalie can stop that many shots when they have a clear sight line.

The other single biggest factor to the '10 playoff debacle was odd man rushes coming the other way. The Caps had a tendency to continuously get three forwards sucked down well below the hash marks in the offensive zone. Any type of quick turnover lead to an odd man rush the other way, and against a speedy team and skilled team like Montreal more times than not odd man rushes turn into goals. A quick systematic fix for this is to dump and chase. The Caps were not familiar with this most basic of hockey strategies last season.

My keys for a Caps first round Win against the Rangers are go hard to the net, screen the goalie, simplify their attack i.e. dump and chase (which they have done this year), and limit odd man rushes. If they are able to do these things then there becomes about a snow balls chance in Guantanamo Bay that the Rangers win this series.

For the Rangers to win, a lot has to go there way. However, as Caps previous post-seasons have shown us, anything is possible. Rangers are first and foremost going to have get world class goal tending out of their world class goaltender. Lundquist play is going to dictate whether or not the Rangers have any chance in this series. Good goal tending alone can't win this series for New York. In tandem with that, they're going to need to convert their scoring chances at an above average rate.

Caps in 6