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Will the South"least" rise again? Babcock Close? Wednesday's Buzzcast

May 13, 2015, 1:08 PM ET [141 Comments]
Eklund
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Ah, you gotta to love a "Game 7 Game Day!" There really is nothing like it in sports, and tonight, in Madison Square Garden, the Capitals and Rangers will do battle to see who gets to complete the NHL's Frozen Four.

It has been a hell of a series with all kinds of ups and downs. Almost everyone seems to be saying the Rangers have been the better team overall, yet somehow I feel Barry Trotz and the Capitals are perfectly happy being underestimated.

You can talk about Alex Ovechkin and Rick Nash all you want. We can talk about the power play, and the surprisingly deep Capitals defense, or the fact the Rangers are playing this well without Zucarello in the lineup....but really... at the end of the day...

This is Lundqvist versus Holtby. Plain and simple. This is a Holtby's chance to shine in another big game seven, like he did in the opening round, and this is King Henry's chance to continue is unbelievable dominance in elimination games. You have to think that's what tonight comes down to.

The winner will get a date with the Tampa Bay Lightning and the loser will have to deal with the repercussions of not being able to get out of the second round.

History tells us the Rangers come out tonight and move on... but History also would've told us the Islanders win game seven in Washington. And of course they didn't.

Eliminating the Rangers in Madison Square Garden is something the Los Angeles Kings couldn't even do last year.

And yet... There something about this Caps team that feels very different to me. Barry Trotz has been quietly writing a new script for this group of players. In the past I often got a sense that the Capitals would play these sorts of games "not to lose" versus "going out and winning it."

Often people call a game like this "a toss up," but don't really mean it. This game, we all mean it.

When I predicted this round I predicted the Capitals in seven and after watching the end of game six I feel more confident about that pic. My confidence has grown from "I think I guess maybe the Capitals eek this one out somehow" to just, "I guess maybe the Capitals eek this one out somehow."

No matter how you slice it I do know we are all in for a treat.

Who do you think comes out on top? Will two teams from the former much-maligned Southeast division battle each other in the Conference Final?

We will discuss all this and more on today's HockeyBuzzCast at 1pm now also available on the Alpha Geek Radio Network Channel 2 and Tune-in radio.

Babcock Update:

I am hearing Tomorrow or Friday could be the day we find out "a significant development" in the Mike Babcock Sweeps.




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