It's time to play your old Europe records. For the Caps, it really is The Final Countdown.
Tonight's Game 6 against the famous swimming birds of Pennsylvania is a do-or-die situation. They lose, they play golf. They win ... well, we'll worry about that on Wednesday.
Ted Leonsis is cautiously optimistic:
"We have the odds stacked against us now so what else is new? Eighty-five percent of the time, the team that wins Game 5 and then plays Game 6 at home wins the series. We have faced long odds before. We must remain upbeat; play one shift at a time; win out period by period; and we must stay focused for a full 60 minutes. If we do that, we can come home for a Game 7. Pittsburgh is a great team and played very well last night although I thought we deserved better."
Ovie -- channeling his inner Bluto -- says it's not over!
"[N]ext game is gonna be different. They was in that situation when they [were down] 2-0, and they come back and they winning right now, but it's not over yet. If somebody thinks it's over, it's not over."
For Ovie's and Ted's predictions to come true, they're going to have to repeat the effort they made in Game 5. It was the hardest they skated, by far, although they fell into a few lulls.
They've been undone this series in spots by lack of effort. While many were complaining about the power play disparity, they failed to notice that the Penguins earned most of them. Either they were automatic penalties like stupid delay-of-gamers, or the Penguins were out-hustling the Caps, swirling and cycling in the zone, skating circles around the Caps in the offensive zone.
The Pens are a dangerous team, but they're also likely without Sergei Gonchar, who helps generate space for their pesky forwards.
If the Caps can duplicate that hard effort, they really do have a chance to bring it back home. And once you're to Game 7, all that happened before doesn't really matter.
Chris Needham used to write Capitol Punishment. He's looking forward to the stunned reaction shots of the unshaven Mario -- put a tie on, you bum!
