Charged up

While short of a rivalry, Caps-Lightning series should be fun

More in this column: * Tough call on the Hart * Hey guys, get a hobby * Century mark diminished * Worth noting

Ah, the glorious tradition of the Southleast Division.

Remember way back in 1998-99 -- the first year the NHL went to six divisions -- when the Hurricanes emerged as division champs with an embarrassing 86 points?

Better yet was the 1999-2000 duel between the Capitals and Panthers. Yes, the Lightning and Thrashers combined for only 93 points that season, but at least there were two good teams at the top of the division.

Then there was the excitement of 2000-01 when the Panthers, Thrashers and Lightning all finished with 66 or fewer points.

Oh, and who can forget Carolina's surprise run to the Stanley Cup Finals? The Hurricanes represented the Southeast in grand fashion last spring. The 'Canes, of course, collapsed this season and are now the worst team in hockey. But Mayberry will always have a Prince of Wales Trophy from 2002.

Well, two teams have qualified for the playoffs from the NHL's worst division this year, and -- wouldn't you know it? -- they get to face off in the first round.

The five-year history of the Southeast Division may be a bit understated, but Tampa Bay and Washington gave us an exciting divisional race and should provide entertaining opponents for each other in the first round of the playoffs.

It may not have the same sexiness on paper as the potential Flyers-Leafs and Avs-Blues matchups, but it could turn out to be among the most entertaining series in the opening round.

The Lightning got to celebrate the first division title in team history from the comfort of their own homes on Thursday when the Senators routed the Capitals 5-1 to end Washington's hopes of a late charge to the title.

"This is an exclamation point for the fellas," Lightning president Ron Campbell told the Tampa Tribune after watching the Caps-Sens game in his office. "The first division title in 11 years -- that's not bad for this franchise."

"It's huge to win the division," center Brad Richards told the Tribune on Thursday night. "It's another step for this franchise and another important accomplishment."

Already locked into a first-round series against Southeast Division runner-up Washington, Tampa Bay now has meaningless games at home against Philadelphia on Friday and at Atlanta on Sunday afternoon to wind up the regular season.

And then it's on to phase two of the Battle for Southeast supremacy.

"I don't know if there's much rivalry," Lightning head coach John Tortorella admitted in a Thursday league teleconference. "I think you develop your rivalries as you play each other a number of times throughout playoff series. You look at Detroit and St. Louis and other situations throughout the league [as rivalries], but I don't really look at [Tampa Bay vs. Washington] as a big rivalry."

The Bolts should be a big draw in Tampa, having gone 22-8-7-3 at home this season. Unfortunatley the Lightning's first playoff trip in seven years hasn't been a big hit at the box office yet. As of Wednesday evening, the team had sold just 12,600 tickets for Game 1 and only 11,900 for Game 2.

Whether the arena is empty or full, Capitals head coach Bruce Cassidy thinks his team is capable of stealing one of the first two games from the inexperienced Lightning. Other than Dave Andreychuk's 128 playoff games, only Marc Bergevin (76), Janne Laukkanen (57) and Tim Taylor (44) have significant postseason experience, but none of those three plays an important role for Tampa Bay.

"I think both teams are capable, certainly, of starting on the road and winning the series," Cassidy said in a league teleconference on Wednesday. "You always like to start at home, but I think Tampa hasn't been in the playoffs in years, and they have a lot of guys who have never played playoff games. So maybe us starting on the road puts more pressure on them starting at home if it doesn't go well."

With nearly a week to go before the puck actually drops on the postseason, odds are there won't be too many empty seats at the St. Pete Times Forum for the postseason opener next Thursday, but general manager Jay Feaster sounds nervous about reaching the 19,758 capacity and wondered this week how he would explain empty seats in the playoffs to owner Bill Davidson.

"The atmosphere in this building is so good," Feaster told the Tribune. "Our guys play like they are 10 feet tall in here. There's no question our players get jacked up when this place is rocking."

The Red Wings and Stars are the only teams with fewer home losses than the Lightning, so a raucous crowd would help the Lightning as they look for their first playoff series win.

"From the start, we made it a priority to play well at home," Richards told the Tribune. "We emphasized before the season that teams coming in here weren't going to have it easy."

Tortorella plans to impress upon his team how opportunistic Carolina was a year ago. He believes the 'Canes peaked at the right time and had a special vibe going throughout the playoffs. And well aware of the negative perception of the Southeast Division, Tortorella plans to use the time-honored underdog motivational approach for his squad.

"I don't care if we are the third seed, sixth seed, eighth seed, seventh seed," Tortorella said. "We are going to be considered an underdog. I read all the news clips -- everybody wants to play us. That's fine. And I don't begrudge them that. People can talk about what they want to talk about, but we definitely use that. I think it gives you a different way of approaching a playoff series, especially with a young group of guys."

Difficult choice in the Hart Trophy race

Choosing the winner of the Hart Trophy wasn't easy, and either Peter Forsberg or Markus Naslund would be worthy recipients when the winner is announced on June 12.

Many e-mailers clearly dissented from my opinion, and for my personal safety I won't be journeying to the lovely city of Vancouver any time soon.

What it came down to in my mind was Forsberg's superior play at even strength. Naslund has done so much damage on the power play, which is admirable, but also easier to do than to dominate against an opponents' top checking line at even strength.

Naslund has 24 goals and 30 assists on the power play, but just 24 goals and 26 assists at even strength. Racking up 54 power-play points is amazing, but 50 even-strength points is behind Forsberg (70), Joe Thornton (64), Glen Murray (61), Milan Hejduk (59), Pavol Demitra (56), Todd Bertuzzi (55), Zigmund Palffy (54), Vincent Lecavalier (52), Mike Modano (51) and Sergei Fedorov (51), and tied with Alex Tanguay (50).

Meanwhile, Forsberg has eight goals and 24 assists with the man advantage, but 19 goals and 51 assists while playing 5-on-5. Seventy points at even strength is astonishing in today's game.

It's clearly a judgement call, and I can't blame those who chose Nazzy over Foppa. I just think the Canucks without Naslund would've been better than the Avalanche without Forsberg this season. And that, after all, is the true definition of what a most valuable player is.

While the two soft-spoken Swedes have tried to avoid the focus on their race for the Hart Trophy and Art Ross Trophy, Swedish rookie sensation and Calder Trophy candidate Henrik Zetterberg is proud of his countrymen.

"It's great to have two Swedes being so close in the top scoring," Zetterberg said. "Those are two great players and they are good friends, too. I think it's fun for them to be so close to each other, too."

And close they will be on most voters' ballot. One will likely be No. 1, with the other probably occupying the second spot. It's certain to be a close race, but I just happen to prefer Forsberg by the slimmest of margins.

Too much time on their hands

I actually received some e-mails from people who took issue with my choices for the Lady Byng Trophy.

Are you kidding me? The first sign that you care too much about hockey is when you send writers e-mails criticizing their Lady Byng selections. Find a hobby, guys.

All three lambasted me for my ommission of Alexander Mogilny from my list of 10 Lady Byng candidates. The 33-year-old Russian finished 13th in Lady Byng voting last year with 1 third-place vote, 4 fourth-place votes and 1 fifth-place vote.

So in this reputation-based award, Mogilny clearly has had enough support in the past that he is likely to garner some votes again this season.

But hold on a second. Let's check the fine print. Mogilny has 414 career penalty minutes and had 43 PIM as recently as two years ago. What a goon! There's no way this guy can win the Byng.

Not to mention the fact that his time in the sin bin is up a whopping 50 percent from last season. OK, so it's 12 minutes this year after just eight last year, but still.

The Lady Byng is viewed as a joke by NHL players, most of whom who would rather be subjected to a bag skate every day for an entire season than to have their name join the list of "gentlemanly" players on the Lady Byng. No matter how much heavy metal you listen to or how many tattoos or piercings you get after that, the reputation of a softie will follow you for the rest of your career.

So I don't think Mogilny is going to be too broken-hearted if he doesn't finish among the finalists for this award.

But to Kevin Bhuva, Gerry Johnson and Richard Nield, kudos to you three for being the most die-hard fans in the world and actually caring about who wins the Lady Byng. Mogilny needs to hire you guys as a PR staff.

Most 100-point teams in one season

Seven teams have already passed the 100-point plateau, tying the record set in 1999-2000 and 2000-01. Both Toronto and St. Louis have 98 points, with the Leafs having one game left and the Blues with two games remaining.

While it's impressive to say that there were a lot of good teams this season and that each conference was balanced, the truth is that this potential record number of 100-point teams is a direct result of the lame awarding of a point to teams that lose in overtime.

There have already been a record 154 overtime losses this season, compared to 121 last year, 122 two years ago and 114 in 1999-2000, the first year of the rule.

As for 100-point teams, there were three in 2001-02, seven in 2000-01, seven in 1999-2000, three in 1998-99, three in 1997-98, four in 1996-97, four in 1995-96.

So in the four years before the OT loss rule was enacted, there were an average of 3.5 teams per season over the century mark in points, while that number has jumped to six a year in the four seasons since.

Worth noting

With Mario Lemieux likely to retire, his career stats are impressive, but it's stunning to realize he missed nearly four years worth of games due to injury during his 15-year career, not counting his three-year retirement and year off for cancer treatement. Lemieux's career numbers are 682 goals, 1,010 assists and a plus-133 rating in 879 games. ... Marty Turco lowered his goals-against average to 1.76 in Wednesday's 2-1 win over the Ducks. He could break the NHL record of 1.77, set by Chicago's Tony Esposito in 1971-72 and Toronto's Al Rollins in 1950-51. ... The Sens broke their franchise-best mark of 109 points with Thursday's 5-1 victory over the Caps. ... The Wings are 21-3-0-1 in their past 25 games. ... Luc Robitaille's 10th goal of the season Thursday gave Detroit a league-best 13 players with 10 or more goals. ... Sergei Fedorov has 399 career goals after scoring twice Thursday. ... The Blues have allowed the first goal in 45 of their 80 games, but are 22-14-6-3 when doing so. ... The Maple Leafs have scored first in 11 straight games. ... Mike O'Connell is 2-3-3-0 since replacing Robbie Ftorek as head coach. ... The Oilers are undefeated in seven games (4-0-3-0). ... The Oilers now lead the NHL with 13 short-handed goals. ... The Canucks raised their franchise-best road record to 23-10-7-1 with Wednesday's tie in Phoenix. ... The Avalanche are 13-0-2-1 in their last 16 home games. ... Stars right winger Jason Arnott has scored 25 of his 56 points in the third period or overtime.

Jon A. Dolezar covers the NHL for SI.com.

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