macvechkin

Nicklas Backstrom did miss regular season games due to a fractured thumb. But according to both McPhee and Boudreau, the center was healthy in the playoffs. Backstrom had two assists in nine playoff games.

Their role players outplayed our role players. Their highest paid players outplayed our highest paid players. In fact, their role players outplayed our highest paid players.

...having Evgeni Malkin as a teammate -- even the moody, now-you-see-him-now-you-don't version this season -- beats the hell out of watching Semin and Green melt into the ice in a pressure situation.

I believe our hockey IQ seemed low this series and we didn’t adjust well on the ice to the new schemes coming our way.

The Capitals will spend a long time washing the stain of this loss out of their psyches. In less than a week, they managed to forge a brand-new reputation for themselves -- a wildly skilled team that somehow still lacks the gut-check gene.

Another [expletive] Game 7.

I was a little too hot-headed last night.

Ken Campbell of The Hockey News reported Rob Blake was the competition committee's deciding vote against going to four-on-four OT in the playoffs. Blake deserves a spot in the Hall of Fame just for that.

"I don't know. It is such a hard thing," coach Bruce Boudreau said when asked what Alzner needs to do to become a permanent fixture on his roster. "I want to see him be really consistent. The last time he was up here, it was the consistency. I thought he had three really good games, a mediocre game and a not-so-good game. If he could keep that consistency like the very first time he played when he was up here [Nov. 25 against Buffalo], he would be hard to send down."

We're not going to do anything right now anyway. We like our team, we like the way they've been playing.

"Boston just introduced the players," Boudreau said. "They didn't show any banners, did they? Their goals are bigger than division championships. I think ours are bigger than division championships. We raised the banner last year. There's no sense in raising it again."

"It's hard for me to congratulate somebody after you just lose to them," he said. "I'm a winner. It's not being a poor sport or anything like that. If somebody beats you up, you're not going to congratulate them. That doesn't make sense to me. I'm a competitor. That's what I do. It doesn't make sense for me to go over and shake somebody's hand."

They rolled another seven? They rolled another seven.