The playoffs are coming!

It's almost that time of year. The sun is beginning to shine on a regular basis, the baseball season is officially underway (after four Opening Days) and the playoffs are almost here? As much as I love watching hockey throughout the winter months, the regular season still seems too long. Of course the owners want to add more games to the schedule, anything to increase revenue, and waterdown the regular season some more. None of that will matter in a week's time because the playoffs are in sight. Hurray! It's time for endless cliches, marathon overtime games and playoff beards. Some beards impressive (Mike Commodore) some not so impressive (Jarome Iginla). Ahhhhh, I love this time of the year.

The Penguins are in playoff form already and look out. Crosby is back and motivated to prove his worth after the team didn't struggle at all without him. Malkin seems to be better without Crosby in the lineup which is puzzling considering Crosby's greatest strength in my opinion is making his teammates around him better. Malkin may have just needed some time in the spotlight all alone to show that he is not far from his teammate as far as elite talent is concerned. 2 goals for Crosby last night against Philly (one of them an absolute beauty) is very encouraging for the Penguins.

The Eastern Conference playoff picture isn't anywhere near decided with most teams having two games left to play. Pittsburgh can play either New York, Ottawa, Carolina, Boston, Philadelphia or even Buffalo but there's one opponent everyone in the hockey world wants to see and that's Washington. A Crosby-Ovechkin playoff series would be a dream for the league and it's fans. The two best players in the world going head to head and two of the most exciting teams matching each other blow for blow. It's safe to say that everyone on the outside has become a huge Caps fan and hopes they win the final two games, just to see this matchup.

Washington plays Tampa Bay tonight and Florida on Saturday, both at home and both definitely winable games. The Ottawa Senators on the other hand are in danger of not making the playoffs. All this after a 15-2 start to the season. If the Sens fail to make the playoffs, they will be the biggest mid-season choke artists of all time, hands down. After their great start, people were talking about Ottawa breaking the 60 win benchmark set by the 1976-77 Montreal Canadiens. That seems laughable after what has taken place. You can blame Ray Emery's antics for the plummet but the blame should be on his and Gerber's play in net and the questionable decision to put John Paddock behind the bench to begin the season, though Bryan Murray has faired no better since taking over. One of the most talented teams offensively in the league, the Sens now can't score and the Ottawa faithful is getting grumpy. The Sens play the Leafs tonight and the Bruins on Saturday. Boston is a tough team to play against and fighting for their playoff lives and we all know about the history between the Maple Leafs and Senators.

In the west meanwhile, another Canadian team's playoff hopes are in jeopardy. That team is the Vancouver Canucks who trail the Predators by one point. The Canucks remaining games are against Edmonton and Calgary. Should be dandies. The Preds have the Blues and Blackhawks (the Hawks deserve some credit for making a late run and sticking around for as long as they have, but will certainly fall short). The Canucks have won 5 of 7 meetings with the Flames this year, while the have taken 4 of 7 from Edmonton (all three Edmonton wins coming via the shootout, their speciality.) Vancouver can't get to the shootout with Edmonton, who has dominated the skills contest all season. The shootout points have become so crucial it seems that playoff spots will be decided by them alone. How's that for drama. Roberto Luongo might be finding himself golfing sooner rather than later.

Hurray, the playoffs are coming! With so much left to be decided and only two games remaining for most teams, the intensity of the games has already arrived.