From The Branches - It's A Boy!

23 of them actually. The first (and hopefully last) adoption of one poor underserved hockey team is complete and the poll was a landslide. The Washington Capitals are our team. For now at least because once the hockey gods find out that Leaf fans are cheering for a team their season will end in a cruel and scarring way. Maybe we should cheer for the Habs? I just hacked off the fingers that wrote that sentence.

Anyway, we'll keep up with the Leafs but we'll run game previews and recaps for the Capitals as they take on the Flyers. Pretty easy to figure out who is the force of light and who comes from the depths of hell (hint: they play for Ed "Satan" Snider). I am actually really excited to see the Capitals in the playoffs. They a few exciting players such as Alexander Semin and Mike Green and are loaded with their own draft picks so hopefully it's a vision of what is to come for the Leafs.

And it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyway) that Alexander Ovechkin played a huge part in the voting. Speed, hands, hitting, and hilarious interviews aside it's his transparent love for the game and for scoring that makes him so easy to like. Seeing him go insane after scoring reminds me at least of how great it felt to score a goal at any level. Toss in the fact that he runs people over and, this might be slight blasphemy, but he sort of resembles a skilled Wendel Clark minus the devastating pummellings and the lineage from God. Toss in the fact that he negotiated his own contract (I hate agents) and that he put up SIXTY POINTS in 39 games (crazy to think that Gretzky scored 50 goals over that same timespan) after signing the massive contract. It is almost impossible to cheer against Ovechkin.

But, that's not to mean that there isn't still a lot to write abotut eh Leafs. In the coming days I'll do some recapping of the season (quick preview: it was shit). But until then, here are some interesting articles to read this morning.

• Chemmy takes a look at past first round picks of the Leafs. Not too shabby, minus Cereda, but his final note makes me worry.
  
  
• PSC unearths a gem of a comment from The Ottawa Sun. Curious turnaround from last week.
  
  
• David Johnson makes his predictions. Save me some time and pretend that they are mine. Except for the Habs' series. I predict that the Bruins get revenge for their 7 game loss in 2004 when they were leading 3-1. Guess who was the Habs' coach that year? Yeah, Greener's favourite, Claude Julien. Please let it happen.
  
  
• Ryan wants help getting a Leaf into the Hall of Fame. Sign the petition!
  
  
• Godd Till wonders why Feschuk wrote yesterday's article. I am guessing # 9.
  
  
• NHL.com has an official preview of the Capitals' first round series.
  
  
• JP provides a historical look at the Capitals-Flyers series. That site will be your top spot for keeping up with the new team.