Sunday Smorgasbord 1-11

• Now that all but a couple of NHL teams have played half of their schedule, we feel rather confident to start looking at the Playoff Picture and make these declarations. Barring a historic collapse of some sort; Boston, Washington, Philadelphia, Montreal, the New York Rangers, New Jersey, San Jose, Detroit, Calgary, and Chicago will make the playoffs this season. That's six teams in the East and four in the West. Loserville...er... Buffalo, Carolina, Florida, Pittsburgh, Vancouver, Anaheim, Phoenix, Colorado, Columbus, Minnesota, Edmonton, Nashville, Dallas, and Los Angeles are "on the bubble." That's four teams for two spots in the East and a whopping ten teams for four spots in the West. Toronto, Tampa Bay, Atlanta, Ottawa, the New York Islanders, and St. Louis are looking towards the lottery barring a run like the Caps put on last year. What makes the West so wide open is that Dallas sits at 40 points, 5 behind Colorado who currently has the 8th seed with 45 points but the Stars have two games in hand. The Avalanche have two games in hand on Vancouver who sit at the 5th seed with 49 points. Now teams like Dallas and Los Angeles have their work cut out for them and one long losing streak will pop their bubble very quickly, but for now they have an outside shot.
• Division wise; Boston, Washington, Detroit, and San Jose have comfortable leads and should win the Northeast, Southeast, Central, and Pacific divisions respectively. The Atlantic and Northwest Division titles will go down to the wire.
• We were able to watch the end of the Penguin Scum losing 4-0 to the Rangers this past Monday and are really surprised that Head Coach Michel Therrien hasn't been fired yet. We say that because after the empty net goal that cemented the Penguin Scum's fate, the close up of Therrien on the bench showed the world a coach with a "deer in the highlights look." That was the exact same look Glen Hanlon had towards the end of his tenure here in Washington. The Penguin Scum visit the Flyers before hosting the Caps and Anaheim this week and losses in at least two of the three games should put an end to his tenure. Otherwise, the Penguin Scum ownership/management is really out of touch.
• We along with many other people thought that the Arizona Cardinals were a prime example of a Fattened Record Against an Underwhelming Division Squad, but after the beatdown they laid last night on the Panthers in Carolina, the Iggles need to come ready to play next Sunday despite being and early three point favorite. Of course, after predicting a visiting team sweep last week and going 2-2, Vegas did even worse this weekend as only one of the four favored home teams won. This goes to show that the "Any Given Sunday" principle still applies in the NFL Playoffs. Somewhere, Pete Rozell is smiling.
• We're nothing if not brutally honest and reflective and willing to admit when we make mistakes so we feel as though we were too hasty last week when we asked if the Caps had enough blogs. Our brains have been churning and we respectfully submit for Ted's approval the following additional Caps blogs; a Guest Services blog where reminders for the various season ticket holder benefits are chronicled and announced. Customer service issues could also be addressed here. A marketing blog for the sole purposes, of well, marketing the team and announcing the various gimmicks and tricks to get fans into the arena. A blog for the Ice Girls...er...Dance Team...er...Spirit Squad. Finally, an ice crew blog where we can be told how great the ice is at the Verizon Center and that we're only imagining the puck bouncing all over the place and players falling down for seemingly no reason.
• This week, the Caps host the Edmonton Oilers on Tuesday before paying their final visit this season to the Penguin Scum. The Caps then host Boston on Saturday before the Obamessiah's Coming shuts down the city except for the bars that will be staying open until 4 am. The Terp Men take an early Spring Break when they play two ACC games in Florida when they visit Miami on Wednesday night before heading up to F$U on Saturday. The Terp Women visit Dook tomorrow night on ESPN2 at 7:30 pm and then head to Klempsun on Thursday night before hosting the Hokie-Pokies on Sunday. Ourselves will be dragging our-you-know-whats to the airport at Oh-Dark-Early on Saturday Morning to get out of dodge ahead of the Obamessiah's Coming. We're heading out to visit out parents who are spending their retirement (among other things) in Las Vegas.
• As always, please send all comment, criticisms, corrections, questions, suggestions, and other ideas for official Caps blogs to "CapsNut" over at gmail dot com.