Here Come the Capitals ... Washington Capitals @ Florida Panthers ... Scoreboard Watching on a Sunday Afternoon

Good afternoon hockey fans and greetings from beautiful Sunrise FLA.

The Washington Capitals are in town after sandblasting the Lightning 5-1 last night in Tampa. Mike Green makes NHL history by becoming the first defenseman to score in eight straight games. He got two against the Cats last week at Bellsouth Mobility Center in Washington.

Florida didn't get a lot of help from those in front of it in the standings yesterday, with Philadelphia getting two more points to take a three point lead on the Florida Cats, and Washington's lead in the Southeast is now 11.

But, very importantly, the teams below the Panthers didn't gain any ground. Both Pittsburgh and Carolina lost, leaving the Panthers with a five point cushion. Not too shabby. With Pitt off tonight, the Panthers could make that a seven point cushion with a win today over the Ovechkins.

Carolina is playing Buffalo, so Florida will be rooting for the Hurricanes in that one.

Today's Schedule

Flyers@Rangers, 1 (NBC): Flyers are up 4-0 in the second, Henrik Lundqvist has been pulled and the MSG fans are listless and vocal. Is it too late for NBC to pull out and go to another flex game? Rangers look awful.

Sharks@Devils, 3: Panthers won't catch Devs, but will probably root for Sharks just because.

Avs@Wings, 5: Panthers have no dog in this fight, but Avs are horrible so put money on Wingers running away with this one.

Canes@Sabres, 6: Florida is rooting for Carolina only because Florida and Buffalo Bison are tied in the standings (yes, the Panthers have a game in hand).

Thrashers@Ducks, 8: Meh.

Habs@Luongos, 10: Florida definitely rooting for Vancouver to keep the heat on Montreal. If Habs didn't get to play in Colorado the other night, their losing streak would probably still be alive.

Today's Standings courtesy of NHL.com

		DIV	GP	W	L	OT	Pts	GF	GA	Home	Away	L10	Streak
1	Boston Bruins	NE	57	39	10	8	86	192	130	19-4-4	20-6-4	5-2-3	Lost 4
2	New Jersey Devils	ATL	56	36	17	3	75	173	136	18-10-1	18-7-2	8-2-0	Won 3
3	Washington Capitals	SE	56	35	16	5	75	187	161	22-4-1	13-12-4	6-2-2	Won 1
4	Philadelphia Flyers	ATL	54	29	16	9	67	174	159	16-7-3	13-9-6	6-4-0	Won 1
5	Montréal Canadiens	NE	56	30	20	6	66	170	168	17-6-4	13-14-2	3-7-0	Won 1
6	New York Rangers	ATL	56	30	20	6	66	141	155	17-8-3	13-12-3	3-5-2	Lost 1
7	Florida Panthers	SE	55	28	19	8	64	158	151	15-6-5	13-13-3	7-3-0	Won 3
8	Buffalo Sabres	NE	56	29	21	6	64	168	156	16-10-2	13-11-4	5-4-1	Won 1
9	Carolina Hurricanes	SE	56	27	24	5	59	143	166	14-12-1	13-12-4	6-4-0	Lost 2
10	Pittsburgh Penguins	ATL	57	27	25	5	59	171	175	15-12-2	12-13-3	4-5-1	Lost 1
11	Toronto Maple Leafs	NE	56	21	25	10	52	171	206	10-10-6	11-15-4	4-3-3	Won 1
12	Ottawa Senators	NE	54	21	25	8	50	135	155	12-9-5	9-16-3	5-4-1	Won 4
13	Tampa Bay Lightning	SE	56	19	26	11	49	142	176	10-11-7	9-15-4	4-5-1	Lost 1
14	Atlanta Thrashers	SE	56	19	32	5	43	157	194	9-17-2	10-15-3	3-7-0	Lost 1
15	New York Islanders	ATL	55	16	33	6	38	134	187	10-12-4	6-21-2	4-4-2	Lost 5

Comments

[good luck]

in case you havent noticed, which is understandable because you live in florida, and the fanbase and hockey market there is embarrassing, the capitals are waaaay more than ovechkin. nobody called the oilers the gretzkys(and yes, i AM making that comparison), jackass.

[J-Yo]

Talk about not having a sense of humor.

[Shawn Koivisto]

Nice, good luck. If you've been around here, you'd know GR's sense of humor. Get lost, assclown. The only reason you'd even troll this area is to come to the defense of your precious Caps. Your team is having a good season, leave us alone.

[George Richards]

Glad to see the Capitals drawing some people to their games these days. It's good for the game. Thanks for joining us Mr. Luck.

[Bo]

Before Ovechkin the hockey market in the Washington area was dead, so was the team. Winning brings fans, like Washington it will in South Florida too.

[eric]

Wash supported hockey very well from 83-96. When they moved downtown the majority of the suburban fanbase didn't follow. It took Ovechkin to get those people back.

[Johnny B]

Eric makes a good point. That's been the problem in Phoenix as well. They moved the team from one suburb, where most of the fans were, to another suburb on the other side of the city and lost a lot of paying customers.

I think the arena's location has to hurt the Panthers, too. Look at where we play: Sunrise, which is convenient for people who live in Boca, Coral Springs and Pembroke Pines and pretty much no one else. Those of us who live east in Broward have to take the disaster known as 595 to get to games. Northwest Miami-Dade types can go up I-75, which is not awful, but I'm not sure how people east in Miami could even get to a weekday game.

Contrast this to where the Dolphins play. It's a weird neighborhood, there's not a lot there, but it's right off the Turnpike, so it's easier to get to from everywhere.

It's difficult to get to weeknight Panthers games because of the arena's location. That's something that should be taken into account, but then most of the people who bash another team's fan base are usually doing it to make themselves feel better and not based on any kind of substantive complaint. (And, yes, the 7:30 start time has made it a lot easier to make it to games before they actually start-kudos to the team for moving them back last year).

[mr. obvious]

I don't think Sunrise has plans to be the "burbs for much longer. If you read the front page of the OTHER local fish-wrapper, it seems Sunrise will make the arena part of a center-stage of hi-rises and retail.

So, the Panthers planning, and the arena location are really perfect. PLUS 75 is right there for the southern folk

[George Richards]

in this economy? good luck. notice those two high rise condos across from the arena? empty.

[mr. obvious]

George,

Do you really think the economy will be like this forever?

Ebb and flow ma man, peaks and valleys.

This country ALWAYS goes up and down with the economy..almost like it's fixed! WOW imagine that!

Give it another year or two.