Leafs fan coming in peace.
I am a died in the wool Leafs fan, but when we were really bad '05-'11, I cheered for the Capitals, mainly for Ovechkin, but then for the whole team. Especially the run in '08-09 with my favourite player of all time, Fedorov, along with Kozlov, Semin and Varlamov. I loved when Gabby put Fedorov on defense, and then he rushed down the wing and ended the Rangers playoff game with a bomb of a slapshot.
Between Washington, Pittsburgh and Boston, they were the best in the East. Such exciting hockey, strong cycle, strong forecheck, good counter-attack.
I haven't watched much Washington since the Leafs got back into it. So what the hell happened to this team? It's not awful or anything, but it's just not the team that drew me to it at all.
Did GMGM just over-react to every playoff loss just one or two too many times? Was letting go of Gabby perhaps the biggest mistake of all (particularly given his success in ANH)? I'll admit, I kind of thought it was a bit, errr, slow, and that his success was basically a result of the all-star personnel, but you can't argue with his results in multiple teams.