Philadelphia, Pa., 4/17/08:
The Capitals blew it last night at the Wachovia Center in Philly. They had the Philly Flyers on the ropes, so to speak, all night long, out hustling them to loose pucks, outhitting them 38-29, playing an excellent dump and chase offense, which created many opportunities in front of Flyers goaltender Martin Biron. It was a game the Caps should have won--needed to have won. Leading 3-2 midway through the 3rd period, the Caps were scrambling in their own zone with the Flyers swirling around the net. Then bam! Danny Briere takes a nifty pass from Mike Richards and nails home the equalizer for the Flyers, beating the Caps on a nice backdoor goal. For shame. It was the second backdoor goal the Caps gave up this game, a trend in this series which hasn't been corrected by the Caps defense.

In all, it took momentum from the Caps, who luckily killed a Flyers power play with 2:30 min. remaining to force overtime. It was a tense last couple minutes for Caps fans though. A terrible penalty call by the refs sent Victor Kozlov to the sin bin for crashing netminder Biron. I'm sorry but a guy who's 6-4, 234 lbs., can't stop himself when he's hit from behind while going full speed to the net. And in the playoffs with only 2:30 left in regulation, you simply don't call a penalty, which could decide a game. Anyway, the Caps recovered and seemed to grab early momentum in the first overtime session, which carried over into the second extra session. Then bam! Once again the Caps D get caught scrambling deep in their own zone and the Flyers'  Jeff Carter zinged a shot towards Caps' netminder Cristobal Huet, which was stopped. But the rebound landed squarely on the stick of Flyer Mike Knuble who swatted in the game winner on his second attempt to jam the puck past Huet. Game over. Caps lose.

This one stung and Caps are now down 3-1 in the series. The Flyers can wrap up the series on Saturday afternoon at the Verizon Center. All the Caps can hope for is a solid win at home to force a game 6 back at Philly. If they do that, they have life, a little momentum, and a shot at doing what only one team in the history of the playoffs versus the Philadelphia Flyers has accomplished: stealing a 7 game series from a hard hitting Flyers team, when down 3 games to 1. (Philly's record in Stanley Cup playoffs when leading a series 3-1: 15-1).

And who was that one team to accomplish that feat against the Flyers? That's right, your Washington Capitals who defeated the Flyers 20 years ago in a seven game series, in which they trailed 3 games to 1.

Good luck boys. You're gonna need it.