Boston can’t score, that’s looking like an ideal match-up.

Gotta go with Boston…. Montreal has shown signs lately that they want to be decent and you never know when Henrik Lundqvist is going to show up and steal a series.

Boston cant score with the Caps and I’m still dont think that they’re 100% sure who their goaltender is going to be. Its one thing to go with Rask now… but I wonder how short the leash would be if he had a bad performance in the playoffs with Thomas backing him up…

Bruins, and it’s not even close. Montreal knows how to beat the (regular season) Caps, and as we all learned last year, Lundqvist alone can change a series, let alone adding Gaborik to the equation.

Now Boston on the other hand? Hell, even Boston fans don’t think they can win.

Now Becca, there’s only a 99.92% chance the Caps will finish first in the East.
Let’s not get carried away!
:-)

Boston, they’re hurting badly. If they even make the playoffs they will be backing in, and they will then get blasted.

In reality, it’s been said before and I’ll just repeat it here. We should be able to take any one of these teams in less than 7, probably less than 6 games, if we truly fancy ourselves a contender. But if I had my choice for the easiest first round match up, it’s Boston, hands down.

Rangers, the dysfunctional Rangers. A team that gets booed by their fans nightly.

Rangers can’t score either. With Gaborik’s health in question that fact stands out even more. Boston or NY is fine. That said, neither one of those teams would be able to knock off the #1 seeded Caps team. Montreal is a bit scary, especially when playing the Caps.

Boston has to come to the VC to play two of their last regular-season games. Add the first two playoff games to that list and that’s essentially a playoff series all on its own in a very loud building.

Of course, Boston will need those two games against the Caps to get into the playoffs, and I don’t think the Caps will just roll over and let them.

How weird is it that the Bruins were the Caps’ first and last regular season games this year?

You know, I voted for Boston, but would be just as happy to draw New York.
New York might be harder, but I am confident we’d still win, and being tested a little more might keep us from a second-round upset.

Personally I’d like the Thrash, but their schedule looks pretty rough coming up so I guess they’re a real longshot.

I just hope it’s not the Canes.

Set aside “how teams are playing now.” It’s completely irrelevant to how they’ll be playing in three weeks’ time.

Boston struggled to score even with Savard in the lineup. Of the teams on offer, they’re the least likely to expose our one glaring weakness – the PK. I shudder to think about watching seven games of Montreal’s PP against our PK.

The Rangers may not look that strong statistically, but in the playoffs, I fear players who are capable of reaching the short, narrow tails of probability curves. Marian Gaborik and Henrik Lundqvist are such players.

I think it’s too early to put this out there. Even though everyone is thinking it. Put it in the “be careful what you wish for” category. Although, really, I chose Boston before I even looked at the stats.

Boston, so i can get my damn boat. “Bienvenue, bitches, I’m on a motherfucking boat! On a boat!” DaddyBird and I still haven’t settled on a name.

Dammit – I clicked Rangers. Meant to click Bruins. Time to delete the entire post…

While I don’t have any doubts that we’d take a series against NYR, I feel like a series against them would take more out of us than a series against Boston. Since we’re talking about a Cup run here, I’d like a first round opponent that we can essentially skate over relatively unscathed.

Boston, because that means we made the playoffs.

And we still owe Boston a beatdown for the 90 Wales finals.

The reason is simple, goaltending. I know the Rangers and Bruins have trouble scoring goals, but we’ve all seen up close how good Henrik Lundqvist can be. Remember game 2 last year? Varly was outstanding and allowed only 1 goal to the Rangers. But he took a 1-0 loss… If he’s on his game, the Caps would have trouble with him.

As for Boston, again it’s goaltending. Tim Thomas has proven he can win postseason games. Sure he might not be the starter now, but if Rask has so much as a hiccup in the playoffs, don’t think the B’s don’t go back to Thomas. If Thomas is on his game, he can beat anyone as well.

Montreal still hasn’t decided who their starting goalie is yet, and one of them, Halak, has an agent that is doing his best to sour the relationship between the team and Halak. I don’t think that even if Halak or Price is playing well that the Habs can overcome the Caps fire power. Also, Camalieri may be back by the playoffs, but I doubt he will be 100% when he returns, and his loss to Montreal is much bigger than Savard’s loss was to Boston.

One more thing, the Habs are a much less physical team than Boston (they have to be), so if the series is a long one, the Caps can come out of it with much less taken out of them than after a series with Boston (or New York for that matter…)

Besides, after all that has happened, don’t you want to see a Boston-Pittsburgh series?

I like our chances agianst Boston most, Rangers 2nd, Candians 3rd. The canadiens are a good team with a lot more balance than either of the bruins or rags are. Boston is a much more defensive minded team and has little offensive power which I think will be a good match up agianst such an offensive heavy team. I know they say “defense wins champion ships” but unless your defense scores for you its offense that actually wins the game. The Rags could get hot again under King Henry like last year and they may be just a bit more dangerous offensively this year with Marian Gabby and “Juicy” Jokinen.

I’d love our chances against Tampa though haha

I don’t like those special teams numbers against the Habs. I voted Boston over NYR because the Rangers did play us well last year, and have actual offense this time around, while Boston is obviously in a vulnerable spot (though I feel kind of bad about that).

I kind of wish Atlanta would surge the rest of the season though.

I’d like the Caps to face Boston, but I expect they’ll face Montreal or, more likely, the Rangers. Here’s my issue with those two teams (briefly and barely; gotta stay productive today):
The Habs are a smaller team, but the Caps don’t exploit that by trying to wear them out physically. Instead, they try to out run and gun, which is fine by the Habs. They’d rather run and gun against the Caps than get plastered by hits all night. This gives Montreal an advantage. Not saying they would beat the Caps, but all it takes is one hot Goalie and Halak could be that guy.
NY is a team I love to hate. That said, they’re PK is very good, and Torts is a good coach who can make the most out of a spotty lineup. King Henrik can win a series, but likely won’t. Still, they worry me because i like to worry.

Boston is missing Savard and as far as I;m concerned, thats curtains.

I don’t care who it is, as long as it doesn’t get to a seventh game.

Is anyone besides MikeL wary of the Habs? They’ve played us quite well this year.

But yeah, I voted Boston.

the team with the weakest, least confident goalie. would that be boston right now?

Whomever it is I hope we show up in the first couple games in the first round, unlike last year

I voted NYR, but on second thought maybe BOS is a better choice. And while top to bottom BOS is a better team, why mess with The King if you don’t have to, right?

I refuse to vote. The minute you start “wishing” for a team to play against, the minute they come in and surprise you.

I’m sure a lot of folks think didn’t the Rangers would be a very tough opponent last year, yet it took 7 (very close) games to win that one.

Getting to the conference finals and the Stanley Cup Championship will require having to face some VERY good teams, and, of course, having beat them. The Caps need to approach the playoffs in a mindset that they can defeat any opponent (which I believe they can), and not worry about anything else.

Been thinking about this for a while, too, and read through the comments here, but having followed the NHL for the last three decades, I am certain that it makes no difference. Who woulda picked the Oilers to beat the Wings in 2006, or the Ducks to beat them in 4 straight in 2003, or the Kings to do it in 2001? What business did the Islanders have beating the Penguins in 93, or the Panthers doing it in 96? Where exactly did the Blues not match up against the Sharks in 2000 after winning the Presidents’ Trophy running away? The list goes on and on and on.

In a seven game series, anything is possible. Someone goes into a mini-slump that’s barely noticeable in the regular season, and all of a sudden the season is over. A goalie kicks out a few more shots than he would have last month, and bam, the number 8 beats the number 1.

The Caps have proven this year, they have the talent to beat anyone, in any number of ways. But the playoffs are a completely different animal. You get one more home game for finishing 40+ points ahead of the 8th place team, and that’s it, nothing else. So, it doesn’t matter who’s on a winning streak or who’s played the Caps better or worse this year (Toronto beat the Blues 8 of 8 in 89-90, then lost to them in the first round 4-1). We all start from zero on April 12.

(And for the record, while I dread it, I do want the Caps to beat the Pens at some point this playoff year. Wouldn’t be complete without it.)

I know that sounds simplistic, but it’s the truth. Sure, one team might be more desirable than another, but over the course of the season, the Caps have shown that they don’t have to fear any first round opponent. If they play their game or something even remotely close to it, they should win in 5 or 6 games. I don’t care about opposing goalies or another team’s powerplay. In any first round matchup, the Caps should be prohibitive favorites no matter what team lines up against them. In any case, I’ve learned the hard way that the team you want very rarely turns out to be the team you thought they’d be.

I used to sit and sweat and worry about who might be the first round opponent. Not now. Not with this team. I’m not being over-confident or cocky. I just look at their talent and compare it to a likely opening opponent, and there’s nothing that makes me nervous. Of course, I’m speaking as a fan. The players have to approach every opponent with cautious respect. I don’t. I can’t remember ever entering the playoffs feeling more relaxed. And I’m not going to even qualify my remarks with an “of course” or “on the other hand”.

Anyone else worried about Montreal’s home ice advantage? The Bell Centre is an extremely tough place to play and a long way to travel. That alone could help the Habs steal a game.

I voted MTL. Yes, they have good special teams, but as I’ve pointed out in a couple of spots above, they’re horrid at ES, whereas the Caps are dominant on both the PP and ES. If forced to choose between Rask, Halak and Lundqvist as a potential opposing goalie, neither Rask or Halak concern me. Can both of them steal a game, yes. Steal the series? Probably not.

But the real point is that MTL doesn’t play physically. At all. There’s almost no one on that team that’s tough to play against or will wear down a team over the course of a series. Both BOS and NYR have some players that’ll go hard along the boards and generally make other teams miserable with some physicality. Callahan, Dubinsky, et cetera for NYR, BOS has Chara, Lucic, Thornton, et cetera. MTL has…not much.

Martin plays a very passive trap, which is kind of scary. That said, there’s almost no forecheck involved, so the Caps’ D shouldn’t get too banged up heading into the next round. I want the boys fresh and rested for a much more difficult opponent in round two and beyond.

Since we’re prognosticating here, I like the idea of a less than physical series. Its not like Montreal is built out of vaginas, though. They’re still hockey players and they’ll ramp it up at least a smidge in the post. But its better than Lucic, Chara and Thornton beating up Flash and Semin. I agree with not wishing for a particular team, as well. Tanking for one, well, you’ll have to ask the pens about that.

I change my vote. I pick the Islanders.

Preface: I’m drunk and weak from a tough work out. Who knew that lifting weights makes you temporarily dumber than boozing?

The Bruins have a garbage offense. I have no fear of them whatsoever. Frankly, I’d be a little upset if we didn’t win that series 4-0 or 4-1.

The Rangers are not particularly skilled, but we saw last year how close they make a playoff series just by being tough bastards. I don’t fear them specifically, but I do worry about how much they would take out of us for the future rounds of the playoffs. They’re basically just Lundqvist and some worker bees, but those worker bees are strong and unpleasant to be around. They won’t beat us, but they’ll take their pound of flesh. Since I view this as the rare season where we could actually win the Cup, I’d much rather have a fairly easy (in physical terms) 1st round.

I have a hunch that Montreal, given the crazy support they’ll get, would also be difficult in the same way. It would be a series that could exhaust our energy reserves for the big challenges down the road. I’ve always held that the one place I want to see an away Caps game is Montreal, because it’s a city that truly lives for the game. Because of that devotion, I worry about having to cope with Habs players all fired up on crowd fervor. That series turns to a 4-2 kind of thing, and every away game is really tough. The playoffs are a marathon, and I don’t want us to push to the end and have nothing left when we need it.

Vote: Bruins.

So there’s a key issue here that folks are talking around, but not really hitting head on: Two of these teams are going to be much better in the playoffs than the regular season.

During the regular season, two of these teams have not been fielding (rinking?) their best lineup. They have benched their best player at the most important position for more games than they have played him. That’ll stop for the playoffs.

I’m talking, of course, about Rask and Halak. Both of them are significantly better this year than the other goalie on their team, in basically every stat. And yet Rask has played 31 games to Thomas’s 39, and Halak has played 32 to Price’s 37.

The numbers in the original post (remember that? thank you Becca) look pretty even to me. But when you mentally take the Bruins and Canadians, and give them a .010 bump to their save percentage, all of a sudden they look better than the Rangers.

Lundquist is clearly, in my mind, the best goalie of the bunch. But he’s played all year for the Rangers, and they are still mediocre. Rangers have very little scoring apart from Gaborik and a pretty poor D-corps. Lundquist is all they got. I think they’re worse than last year, and the Caps are better. So for those looking for the worst team, I think the Rangers are where you have to go. You might say that you have to be… what’s the word I’m looking for… crazy not to pick the rangers.

(Me, on the other hand, I fall in b.orr’s camp. Caps should beat any of these three, and sometimes a little challenge or adversity is good for a team)