I watched back the two head to head games last night.
In December, we caught the Caps at the end of their back-to-back, having lost in a shocking last minute Coyotes goal to tie the game and then a Kaller goal at the end of overtime. They were skating in mud. We were making a lot of mistakes, but clearly outskating them.
In February, the entire game was a coin flip. Scoring went them us them us them us us. Both teams were crisp on the puck and skating well. It literally could have gone either way.
This is the first matchup of the playoffs that I don't feel confident our team is the superior one (goalie is part of the team, Jets fans). While they are slower than us, they do a great job getting in front of their goalie on defense, and Ovi's bombs and Kuznetsov's decisions need no rehashing.
If we get out there and play a good dog on bone game and Fleury does VGK Fleury, I believe we have even odds to take this. If we try to take games off like we did in the last two rounds, it could be the deciding factor that ends the team's journey to hoist the Cup.