The Washington Capitals won only one of two games in the round-robin tournament and came out flat in a 4-2 loss in the opener of this first-round playoffs series with the NY Islanders.

The Isles have been playing playoff hockey since the beginning of the month and defeated Florida in five games to make it through the qualifying round, but I like Washington here in Game 2 of this series.

The Caps should be more up to speed now and need to show more urgency after going a game down. Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom was injured early in Game 1 and has been ruled out for this contest. Let's see his teammates rally around him and put up a much better effort tonight.

8* play on Washington Capitals.