HORN, HORN, HORN!

It's official.  The pre-season is over, the red is out, and the horn is back.  The path to Lord Stanley's cup begins tonight for the Caps in Atlanta.

It may still feel early in the fall for hockey season to be starting, but for many Caps fans the opportunity to put last year's playoff debacle behind them cannot come soon enough.  With a new season comes new hope.  Every year there is cause for excitement in D.C. while Ovechkin is here.  Washington is sure to make the playoffs, but how far can they make it this time?  As we saw last year, being the best team in the regular season means nothing.

For Coach Boudreau, he has to know that he is on the hot seat this year.  Washington fans cannot take another year of playoff disappointment, and with the tools he has if Boudreau can't get them over the hump this year, it will be time to find someone who can.

The team did not have a massive overhaul in the off-season after last year's first round disappointment; and for good reason.  While glaring mistakes may have shown against Montreal, what the boys did for the seven months prior to that should not be discredited.  The offense was unreal last season.  A lot of us (myself including) were quick to hop on Alexander Semin for a terrible playoff series, but the man had the hot stick in the regular season, and getting rid of him would have been just plain silly.

It's still football season, and on Saturday's and Sunday's I'll still live and die with the Terps and Redskins.  But I sure as heck cannot wait to see Ovie and Semin pumping pucks into the net.  I'm ready to watch Greenie and Poti wreak havoc on opposing forwards.  I'm excited to see faces of depression as Semyon Varlamov stone walls opposing teams.  And when the team comes back for their home opener on Saturday, I can't wait for the first Ovie goal and for him to go flying into the boards in celebration.

Hockey season is officially back.  C-A-P-S Caps, Caps, Caps!