T1B

Nothing like getting swept by your bitter rival in the regular season. I predict for that to happen in three weeks, if you guys make it that far.

Gonna pull Fleury's head out of his ass? He's gonna need it.

Start shining your clubs and bust out your Pirates hat, twinkletoes, you're gonna need 'em.

It's 2 games into the baseball season. Shouldn't his Steelers hat be out now?

The Penguins just don't have that momentum they had going into the playoffs the last two years. If the season ended today, they've host Ottawa in the first round...a tricky draw but they should be able to prevail. If they draw into the Caps in the next round, I think we can go by what we've seen in the regular season and with revenge on their mind from last year's Eastern semis that I see Washington getting through this time around. If they can't get a healthy Malkin soon...they could be a very early exit.

As for the Caps, I'm still not sold on their goaltending but they've got so much firepower and if they run into a team that can't stay out of the box, that power play will make quick work of them. The Caps having home ice throughout the playoffs and being the best home team in the league...I really like them getting out of the East this spring. The West isn't nearly as cut and dry...a lot more balance than in the East. The division winners are very vulnerable to early exit considering the strength of goaltending amongst the lower seeded teams.