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Andrei SenchenkoSport correspondentAll materialsEmail to the authorThe Washington Capitals began with a victory in the first round of the NHL playoffs, beating the Florida Panthers on the road. The Russian leaders of the «capital» Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Dmitry Orlov taught a lesson to the best and most productive club of the last «regular season». The last full seasons of the National Hockey League have already taught us that the confrontation between the teams of the Eastern Conference in the playoffs is of much higher interest than in the West. In the current drawing, the concentration of this interest naturally rolls over — each pair guarantees the maximum entertainment indicator already at the first round stage. However, the series between “Florida” and “Washington” from this point of view is controversial. On the one hand, Alexander Ovechkin comes to the fore, who “refreshed” and after a short absence returned to the line-up immediately at the start of the playoffs. On the other hand, the Capitals looked unconvincing throughout the regular season and are clearly not among the contenders for the Stanley Cup. Especially when the opponents of the “capital” has the best and most productive club of this draw in the NHL. By tradition, hockey experts on the eve of the start of the playoffs shared their predictions for the outcome of each series, and almost no one believed in the success of the Capitals. For example, among 30 ESPN experts, which included both hockey coaches and eminent journalists and columnists, 28 preferred the Panthers. Pass “capital” in the second round predicted only commentator John Buccigross and well-known coach John Tortorella. The choice of the latter is quite surprising, given his not very positive relationship with the “Washington”.