Little People Can do Big Things Playoff Preview: The Defence Thing

BIRTH PLACE
74	JOHN CARLSON	6' 3"	208	JAN 10, 1990	20	NATICK, MA, USA
77	JOE CORVO	6' 0"	204	JUN 20, 1977	32	OAK PARK, IL, USA
4	JOHN ERSKINE	6' 4"	220	JUN 26, 1980	29	KINGSTON, ON, CAN
52	MIKE GREEN	6' 1"	204	OCT 12, 1985	24	CALGARY, AB, CAN
26	SHAONE MORRISONN	6' 4"	217	DEC 23, 1982	27	VANCOUVER, BC, CAN
3	TOM POTI "A"	6' 3"	197	MAR 22, 1977	33	WORCESTER, MA, USA
55	JEFF SCHULTZ	6' 6"	230	FEB 25, 1986	24	CALGARY, AB, CAN
89	TYLER SLOAN	6' 4"	204	MAR 15, 1981	29	CALGARY, AB, CAN

Ok we're fucked. Caps in 4.

Relax, tell us what your really feeling: We're fucked, Caps in 4

Size. There are more 6's in the guys' dimensions than in a house of evil. Whatever that means.

They can move the puck forward. But do not be fooled, Overall, this is not necessarily an offense minded defence corps. It begins with Mike Green but as far as the Canadian Olympic team goes, the puck doesn't stop with him. Is it really necessary to single out Green's soft play on the back end when he knows that the most potent offense in the league has more than enough to bail out any lacklustre manifestations of shitty D. You won't find me crapping on Green and his 76 points. His 76 points are awesome, all 76 of them so spare me the he doesn't skate back lingo. He can skate wherever he wants with those 76 points.

That makes the Caps lethal on the PP.

But D is where they are vulnerable.

But how vulnerable?:, It's hard to say. Your Caps of today are the Oilers of yesterday. So insanely talented and deep up front that they don't need anything more than Grant Fuhr or Marty Mcsorley. The 6 D are big and intimidating. But they are flawed. In a playoff series, in a tight checking environment, they're going to have to find better chemistry than the one hatched out of the Boudreau lab which saw the team concede 233 goals in the regular season. That's 10 more than your Habs.

Yes i know the Caps scored about 300 more goals than the Habs this season:But the Caps struggle on the PK, 25th overall, so all in all we're about to find out if the Caps' misery lies behind their blue line or their goal line.

Now what about our little dwarves in their mini red white an blue jerseys:Marc-André Bergeron. I don't know where he gets the chutzpah to unleash the canon he possesses with the tiny frame he carries around. But the Urologist makes me miss Sheldon Souray's defensive qualities.

The Habs finally learned something they hadn't managed to do yet. Learn how to play and survive without Andrei Markov. It made Josh Gorges a man. My unsung hero of the year. The boy takes a violent and head shattering rocket to the ear and punches in the next day. Very reliable. Totally authentic with the media, the best sound bite on this team. An emerging leader and my choice for captain had Brian Gionta not emerged as the second coming of good orgasms.

Markov, a total package - the real key to the power play, and maybe to the entire team's fortunes as the Habs seem to live and die with the PP.

Things slow down from there and this is where the Caps should hurt the Habs tremendously. Will we have nightmares of Ovie rushing in on Spacek and Hamrlik? Can Hal Gill regain the playoff poise that saw him protect the lead in the dying seconds of last year's game 7 of the Stanley Cup final?

Boss! They playin, they playin!: Who's got the edge at the back end? Corvo, Poti, both household names with their former teams, but both unproven in a Caps jersey. Montreal's squad is more stable but it still has to face the best player in the game, another 100-point getter, 6 more 20-goal scorers, the league's top scoring defenceman and a pounding from a fast, grinding relentless system that produced one of the best point tallies in NHL history.

Beating the Caps because of their weaker D? It's not impossible. It's unthinkable.