Playoff Hockey & Backstrom Arrives

I've been getting my hockey fix during the playoffs even though the Caps have long since gone home. My favorite things about the playoffs so far...Pittsburgh going out in the first round and Buffalo, once again, going out before the finals. As a long suffering Caps fan, I get my pleasure from watching other teams that I've always hated lose.

Playoff hockey has been exciting with lots of overtime games and lots of close games. It's been fun to watch except when NBC cut off the Buffalo/Ottawa overtime period in the game that determined the Eastern Conference winner to show endless hours of pre-race hype before actually running the Preakness. Hockey fans get no respect. And, the NHL wants to build the fan base? You better find a better network or create your own then.

Onto the good news department...the Caps first round draft pick from last year, Center Nicklas Backstrom signed his contract and came to Washington. Yippee. The Swede has been compared to Peter Forsberg (that makes me salivate, but it's way too early to make that call) and is currently ranked 3rd among all NHL prospects by The Hockey News and Hockey's Future according to this Caps news article. Nicklas we're glad you're here...

Ottawa & Anaheim will fight it out for the Stanley Cup starting on Monday. I think I'm rooting for Ottawa since they beat Buffalo. After that, my boyfriend Jeff and I will go back to watching The Miracle another million times this summer and playing EA hockey to pass the time during non-hockey season.

Trading season is coming soon....

Let's go Caps!