"Last night, the ***** showed they're a more desperate bunch than the suddenly soft *******. The **** had more team speed. They blasted the ******* off the puck. Most important, they dominated the dirty areas and kept the ****** from getting traffic, setting screens, and making life tough for *******."

Although this description reads like it could have been written after the Caps-Avs game, it's actually the Boston Globe's recap of last night's Bruins-Florida game that Boston lost 2-0. The moral here isn't that even really good teams can throw up a stinker every now and then, even though that's true. No, the lesson to be learned is that at this time of year, every team with playoff hopes is playing with an intensity level significantly higher than they did in December and, no matter how talented you are, if you don't match the opposition's effort you're probably going to lose. The Caps are a more talented team than the Penguins. Today we'll find out if they've learned anything from Friday night.