"If it looks like a dog, barks like a dog, it is a dog."

That line, of course, was among the brilliant musings Mike Milbury offered hockey fans in NBC's national telecast of the Caps/Flyers game on Sunday in description of Alex Ovechkin's play (just four days, I'd note, after saying that AO had "taken it to another level" and calling the Caps' superstar "as electrifying a player as [he'd] seen.").

Anyway, since we're talking pooches, let's talk Viktor Kozlov, shall we? Which of these stats is less impressive:

• In twelve full seasons in the NHL, Kozlov has played 830 regular season games and just 17 playoff games and has never played past the first round (recall, too, that he was a healthy scratch during the playoffs for the Devils in both 2004 and 2006).
  
• In his 17 career playoff games, Kozlov has yet to score a goal and has totalled all of three assists and a minus-ten rating.
  

I'd say the latter is less impressive, as it is a wholly individual stat, though his teams' failures to get to the playoffs and/or do anything once there does say something about a guy who has been a top-six forward for the better part of his career (and it's not a good something).

Kozlov's career playoff stats sure do look like a dog, don't they?

But that was then and this is now... and now ain't much better. Through three games so far (and on a line with the best player in the world), Kozlov has no points, a minus-three rating, five shots on goal, four giveaways and one takeaway. And from the "you know it's a bad sign when..." file, he has as many hits as John Erskine.

Kozlov's performance in these playoffs thus far sure have barked like a dog, no?

So if it looks like a dog and barks like a dog...