Not to steal any thunder from our more-experienced pessimists here, but a loss tonight and people will start to realize that we are really very similar to the Capitals, if they don't realize it already (1 fluky game aside):
Elderly core, top-heavy offense limited to 2 lines (L3 and L4 suck on both teams), not much defense (but at least we have offense there), middle-of-the-pack caliber goaltending, no great young prospects making any impact.
Aside from Ovi's attempt to decapitate Karlsson and Wilson's courageous attempt to duke it out with Markus "The Breadstick" Pettersson, they don't even bother cheap-shotting so much anymore. While they aren't as "soff" as the Pens (nobody is) they aren't going to win games with super physical play any more than we are.
The main differences between the Pens & Caps: we have "EK65" now and they don't, and they have a new non-retread coach who may implement a system other than "let's all pitch in to get Ovi his record". Shockingly, in the first 60 minutes of the season under that new system, the Caps didn't look so great.