1. If past performance is any indication of future results (and it’s almost certainly not, but just go with it), the Caps have to be feeling pretty good going into Game 5. Per Caps Today:
And, more generally…
That’s all encouraging, because the Caps’ haven’t rebounded well (at all) from losing these games in the past:
Then again, there’s a first time for everything… which is presumably why we’re still watching this team in the first place.
2. Get to your seats early, because three of the four games so far have featured a goal in the first three minutes (the other one forced fans to wait nearly 18 before the fireworks started), and each of the last two featured another another one before the the game was five minutes old (with a third just after the five-minute mark in Game 4). Overall, the Caps have outscored the Leafs 7-5 in the first periods so far, which represents half of the Caps’ goal total for the series and 43 percent of the combined total. It’s also worth noting that that 7-5 edge is the exact same as St. Louis’s advantage over Minnesota… counting all three periods and overtimes.
3. In case you’d missed it, the formerly to-be-determined start time for Game 6 has been determined: the puck will drop shortly after seven o’clock on Sunday night, which may have been a bit of a surprise, given that NBC had a Sunday afternoon slot available:
Regardless, there’s one thing we do know about Sunday night’s game: someone is going to be facing elimination. If it wasn’t already, stuff’s about to get real…