Welcome back, kids. It’s been quite some time since I actually posted. Let’s talk a little NHL, as it is my new passion thanks to the Washington Capitals.

We’re at about the 3/4 mark of the regular season and while the playoff situation is anything but crystal clear, I’ve got some hunches. First, some backstory to why I care so much about the NHL all of a sudden.

I’ve always really enjoyed hockey, but never to the point that it was an important part of my sports radar anytime before April. There was always College Basketball and the NBA after football was done. Hockey was always on the backburner. This year, however, I didn’t get into College Basketball. I’ve only watched 3 games. Total. That’s it. The turning point, the moment of truth if you will, came for me in February when Duke and Carolina played a Wednesday night game at Cameron. In any other year, I would have been centering my entire day around that. This time around, though, the only thing that mattered was the Caps game against the Rangers that night. When 9 o’clock rolled around, I changed the hockey game over to Duke/UNC, for posterity’s sake. Before the under 16 TV timeout, I was back to the Caps. If the biggest rivalry in college basketball, featuring my favorite college basketball team since I was a wee lad, couldn’t captivate me over a mid-February hockey game, did that mean that hockey had taken over as my sport du’jor? Uh, yea. It had. And it has.

As for the NBA, I pay attention to what the Celtics are doing (we’ll save my thoughts on the Starbury signing for some other day in a distant galaxy) and that’s about all. I don’t even watch Sportscenter that much anymore. Occasionally on the weekends, just for a little bit. I watch C-SPAN 2 way more than I watch ESPN (no lie). It’s the nature of my job taking over my life (in a good way). Sports is less important to me now. It sort of defeats the purpose of having a blog about sports.

But, alas, there is the Washington Capitals. The chink in the armor of the idea that sports has become less important to me in the past half year or so. Every night (at least the ones when I’m in DC…going home last weekend meant I missed a game against the Avalanche, albeit a 4-1 loss that shouldn’t have happened and also the first 2 periods of Sunday’s game against the Penguins) that the Caps are on, I’m in front of the TV. They’re not a team full of exceptionally captivating people, outside, of course, of Alexander Ovechkin. They have certain flaws that will inevitably be the death of them (inconsistent goaltending, a shoddy at-times, always offensive-minded defense). But they do have OV. Every shift that involves Ovechkin is worth watching. He’s always skating with the turbo button held down. He has better lateral movement at top speed than any hockey player I have ever seen. He’s a bull in a china shop. A common misconception is that he looks pretty when he plays. He doesn’t. He crashes into the boards sometimes just for the fun of it. He hits, unlike his rival Sid “The Whiney Kid”. He is always having fun (another thing I can’t say about Crosby, who makes hockey look like a business more than it is). He is, in my mind, rivaled only by LeBron James in today’s sports world as the most fun to watch athlete.

Okay, I’ll stop gushing. Here’s how I see the last month (or so) of the NHL season playing out from here:

Eastern Conference:
1.) Boston Bruins:
They’ve got enough of a pad in the points standings to stay here the rest of the way. They’re not playing terribly great hockey of late and I’m not terribly confident that Tim Thomas, no matter how great he’s been this season, is the guy I want between the pipes going into the NHL playoffs to win me a title. That said, I love watching this team play. I’ve seen all 4 of their games against the Caps this year and have more than a little bit of a sports crush on Milan Lucic and Blake Wheeler.

2.) New Jersey Devils
They’re the best team in the NHL right now. Hands down. Their’s not much else to say. They have very few holes in their game. A little more defensive depth wouldn’t hurt. Can you imagine if they get Chris Pronger from Anaheim? Just a thought, but a scary one. (Sidebar: The Bruins would be absolutely foolish to trade Phil Kessel for Pronger. This Bruins team is super young. They’ve got a ton of upside. Pronger, while he is a Hall of Famer, is not going to be in Boston for very long. So if they trade Kessel, they better hope Pronger wins them a Cup this year).

3.) Washington Capitals
It’s not that I see them slipping that much. I just think New Jersey is practically unstoppable right now. The Caps remaining schedule is not a difficult one. Their toughest matchup is March 12 at Philly. Other than that, they’re playing inferior competition the rest of the way.

4.) Philadelphia Flyers
This is a very good hockey team. The problem is, they’re stuck in the 4 hole, because they will not catch the Devils. The big question in Philly is goaltending. I think Antero Niittymaki has to be the starter going forward. He’s playing better right now than Marty Biron. And Biron has had his opportunities in his career. He’s shown nothing in the playoffs in his career to make you think he can lead a team to the promised land.

5.) Montreal Canadiens
This team should be much higher, but they’re busy being involved with intricate French Canadian Street Gangs at the moment. Even with all of their troubles (the most glaring of which is Carey Price’s spotty goal keeping), this team is still dangerous. How good would this 4/5 matchup be in the playoffs?

6.) Buffalo
Just a hunch. There’s a huge drop off in teams in the East after Montreal. I can’t imagine this Buffalo team making noise in the postseason, unless Ryan Miller gets hot. If they trade Maxim Afinaginov before the deadline on Wednesday, that’ll signal that even they don’t think they have a shot.

7.) Pittsburgh Penguins
They’re going to make the playoffs. Just accept it and move on. I don’t care how bad they’ve been this season. They’re only 2 points behind Florida for the 6 seed right now.

8.) New York Rangers
A team this loaded with salary cannot miss the playoffs. That and I think Florida is going to start selling this week, which will take them out of the running for the 8 seed. If Jay Bouwmeester does not get traded, will give this spot to Florida. As for the other team in the running, Carolina, tell me what it is that they do well. Anything? Also, these are some of the ‘Canes remaining games: 2 @ Washington, 1 vs Washington, vs. Calgary, @ Chicago, a late game against Pittsburgh, and 3 games against the Devils. No thanks.

Western Conference:
1.) Detroit Red Wings
1a.) San Jose Sharks
There’s only one team that I see, other than these two, playing in the Western Conference Finals. I mean, there’s 5 teams in the East (6 with Pittsburgh if they catch fire) that could play in the conference finals. In the west, there’s 2, maybe 3.

3.) Calgary Flames
Here’s the other one. And I’m saying that because if Mikka Kipprusoff gets hot, like he can, this team won’t lose.

4.) Chicago Blackhawks
Too young right now. Give Kane and Toews a year or two. They’ve had a great resurgence this year. They’ll get eliminated in the first round rather swiftly.

Throwing Darts:
5.) Vancouver
6.) Anaheim
7.) Dallas
8.) Columbus

I expect to see a 1995 Stanley Cup Final reunion this year.

Tomorrow I might have a 2009 MLB Season Preview for you. It’s a little early, but hey, if I don’t do it tomorrow, I may never do it.

There are probably a ton of spelling errors in here. The spell check isn’t working in my browser. It’s probably upset that I left if home alone for so many months.

Greenzo Out! (No one who reads MAB gets this)