[Alberta's Child]

I'm picking the Caps over the Pens for two big reasons:

1. The Penguins are playing without their best defenseman. That is bound to hurt against a team like Washington.

2. I think the Caps have too much depth up front and are much more playoff-hardened than they've been in the past. Justin Williams might be the best big-game player in the NHL over the last ten years.

[major_gaff]

Yeah...agree with all of your points. Williams is a playoff beast (I still
grind my teeth over the Flyers letting him go)...that being said I will point
out that many of the same points were made last year prior to the
Pens/Caps series and we know how that turned out...Caps are a team built
to win the Presidents Cup, Pens are built for Stanley's...

[Varda]

I’m a Pens fan and I agree with your assessment. Letang (top defense man) is a huge loss especially to line one. Pens don’t have offensive depth this year because line two is stacked. If nothing changes, Caps should take this.

[discostu]

Never under estimated the Caps ability to just not show up in the playoffs. 2 hard games in a row might be their limit. Or not. This series has gotten very random.

[Hat-Trick]

Great move by Trotz before game 6 having Burakovsky up on the 1st line with Backstrom & Oshie, and really like the banging from Wilson/Ovi/Eller. 2nd line with Williams/Kuze/Johannson is no slouch, so plenty of speed across the top 3 lines there.

Letang out, and also Daley out on the backend. Hostile crowd, backup goalie who looked real shaky the last 4 periods. Not adding up to likely success for the Pens.