Here Come The Canadiens

For the first time ever, the Washington Capitals will face the Montreal Canadiens in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  And while there isn't any playoff history to fall back on, it took the Washington Capitals 35 tries, which came on February 19th, 1980, to finally beat Montreal for the first time in the franchise's history.  It wasn't until November 26th, 1983 before the Caps would claim a victory in Montreal.

This year, the season series was split right down the middle with both teams winning 2 games, once at home and once on the road, along with both teams earning 5 points.  The first matchup came on November 20th at the Phone Booth and the Canadiens got away with a 3-2 win in regulation.  Eight days later in Montreal and on Hockey Night in Canada, the Caps escaped with a 4-3 gimmick win.  On January 5th, the first night of the Captain A.O. era was kicked off with a 4-2 win in the Phone Booth.  However you might remember that the Canadiens finally put an end to the historic 14 game winning streak by pulling out a 6-5 win in overtime on February 10th in Montreal.

Elsewhere in the East, New Jersey faces Philadelphia in the 2-7 matchup.  The Buffaslugs will get Boston in the 3-6 series.  The Penguin Scum have earned the Senators in the 4-5 pairing.  Out West, the San Jose Sharks get the Colorado Avalanche in the 1-8, 2-7 has the Chicago Blackhawks facing the Nashville Predators.  Vancouver is the third seed facing the Los Angeles Kings as the sixth seed and the Detroit Red Wings have the five seed and head to Phoenix who has the fourth seed in the Western Conference.

They're still hashing out the schedules but Puck The Media Reports that CBC is gauging interest in a Montreal series.  If that is the case, bank on the Caps and Canadiens starting Thursday night and Game 2 taking place on Saturday night for the traditional Hockey Night in Canada broadcast.  There are no scheduling issues in the Phone Booth for this round but Bell Centre has a potential conflict for Game 6 on Sunday the 25th should the series go on an every-other-day schedule.  There is also the unattractive possibility of playing a back-to-back set at some point to rectify that and provide CBC with a Saturday night game.

Stayed tuned folks, once we have a reliable source hand out the schedule we'll post it here.  We'll also start posting Montreal and other media reports tomorrow morning and every morning throughout our run through the Stanley Cup Playoffs.  Because remember folks,  it's not just hockey, 
IT'S PLAYOFF HOCKEY!!!