New York-Washington: Top Ten Reasons Caps Are in Danger of Ranger Anger

The Washington Capitals have been lucky in their last two games. Their rivals, the New York Rangers, were missing Sean Avery in Game Five and coach John Tortorella in Game Six due to one-game suspensions.

But now, "Averella" is back, the two-headed monster is mad, and Caps enforcer Donald Brashear could be suspended.

And this Rangers team has dozens of reasons to be angry. Here's the top 10:

1. Donald Brashear elbowed Colton Orr before the last game during the pregame skate. Orr did not dress for the game.
2. Brashear then elbowed Blair Betts at the start of the game, knocked him unconscious, altered his orbital bone, and put him out indefinitely.
3. Alex Ovechkin sounded cocky when he bragged he was the Caps' best player after the last game. Plus, he threw his weight around a bit too much in Game Six; he hit Ryan Callahan too often.
4. Washington fans (those foul-mouthed, homophobic, beer drinkers behind the Rangers' bench) gave Tortorella a "shower" the last time he was in the capital.
5. The NHL brass had the nerve to suspend Tortorella for his response to some of the aforementioned injustice.
6. NHL refs do not favor Avery and the Rangers, to say the least.
7. The Capitals treated the Rangers like targets in a shooting gallery throughout this season. The Rangers blocked around 200 shots; that's gotta get anyone's blood boiling.
   
8. Criticism in New York newspapers must make the home team mad. The rags have called the Rangers overpaid underachievers (except Avery) and singled out Antropov, Gomez, Naslund, and Zherdev as guys who need to pick up the pace and score some goals.
9. Gratuitous laughter at the Rangers' expense has appeared in Washington hockey blogs.
10. The "monster's heads" may have been "chopped off," but they've grown back, and the beast is breathing fire like never before.