For Caps fans, playoffs are a fright of spring

A clinical diagnosis of Washington sports fans, circa April 2011,requires neither a couch nor a medical degree, though a box oftissues might come in handy. Instead, kindly stroll the VerizonCenter concourse on a lovely Wednesday evening, with the WashingtonCapitals and New York Rangers set to begin overtime, tied at onegoal apiece, in the first game of a best-of-seven National HockeyLeague playoff series.

"Heart attack," said Josh Shaffer of Linden.

"Like I just got off the Rebel Yell at Kings Dominion," TomColeman offered.

"I need a diaper," said Chris Donovan of Reston.

"It feels like you're walking up to the altar," said JimGorlinsky of Fairfax. "And you're not sure if the Caps are gonna sayyes or not."

Washington won the game 18 minutes 24 seconds into overtime, andnerves were temporarily calmed - middle-aged men in dress clotheswhooping, co-workers exchanging sweaty hugs, Cahlan Mazur seizinghis mom's walker and thrusting it into the air again and again. But,as Capitals fans know, it takes four victories to win a playoffseries - and Game 2 against New York is Friday night.

To be sure, sudden-death postseason hockey might cause such amalady - "Playoffitis," Coleman called it - in many cities, amongfans of many NHL teams. The symptoms seem especially acute inWashington, however, where sports fans have been battered into astate of near-constant skittishness.

For one thing, the city's other pro teams have been mired inbetter than a decade of frustration and disappointment. The Redskinshave won a single playoff game in the past 10 years. The Wizardshave won a single playoff series since 1982. The Nationals havenever had a winning season. D.C. United, which did last win theMajor League Soccer title in 2004, hasn't made the playoffs in threeyears.

But more than that, these Capitals have toyed with their fans'emotions since becoming playoff regulars in 2008. They've had home-ice advantage in all four of their playoff series. All four havegone to a deciding Game 7, in the District. And the Capitals havelost three of those games, including last year's shocking upset tothe Montreal Canadiens after the Caps had amassed the NHL's bestregular season record and taken a series lead of three games to one.

"Once bitten, twice shy," the team's television play-by-playannouncer, Joe Beninati, said on Thursday. "I understand where thepeople are coming from, and yeah, you can feel it in the stands: As soon as the game is nothing-nothing in the third period, fans arelike, 'Oh God, when is it going to happen? . . . It's gonna happento us again.' I wish that specter would go away. I want it to, andit will. They've just got to win."

And there's no shortage of sentiment that this might be the year.Despite a turbulent season filled with injuries and losing streaks,the Caps again finished with the Eastern Conference's best record,giving them the top seed in the first round of the playoffs againstthe eighth-seeded Rangers. They adopted a more defensive playingstyle, which has typically been the mark of Stanley Cup champions.They made several late-season trades, bringing in steady veteranssuch as Jason Arnott, who assisted on Wednesday's game-winning goal.National analysts labeled them the best team in the East, andoddsmakers installed them as Eastern Conference favorites.

But the tension remains among fans who seem torn between cautiousoptimism and existential despair. It was still there in a Chinatownbar, an hour after the Caps claimed Game 1.

"We've been down this road; we know," longtime fan John Weaversaid. "If I wouldn't have had the presence of mind to buy anovertime beer, I don't know what I'd have done."

That anxiety was pinging around the Internet, where fans havespent days sharing their stories of stress and worry.

"Terrified," tweeted Danny Rouhier, a comic and host on sports-talk station 106.7 The Fan. "I have the DC Sports Fear."

"I need to calm down a bit. My swearing is scaring the dog,"tweeted Natasha Jasso, a mother of four from Stafford.

And it was still on display Thursday, when fans attempted tosteel themselves for yet another tangle with dread in Friday's Game2 at Verizon Center.

"Last night was rough," Lizzie McManus said while watching theCaps practice at their training facility in Arlington.

"Really rough," her friend Ella Gomez agreed.

"I almost drove my car off the road," Alana Gillen said insidethe team's pro shop. "So much rides on this. D.C. needs it. TheCaps need it. D.C. doesn't have a winning team, and it's somethingfor us to be proud of, especially after last year."

The players are largely shielded from such expectations. They'renot trying to redeem a generation of Washington sports teams, norare they responsible for the Caps' playoff disasters of the 1980sand '90s. And yet the region's tension is palpable for those who arepaying attention.

"It's hard to not notice how badly they want us to win, how badlythey want to celebrate," defenseman Karl Alzner said. "They reallywant us to win, but at the same time they're nervous because theyknow what happened last year. I can understand that."

If nothing else, fans seem to have built up a fellowship inshared stress, a nightly group therapy session that extends fromblogs to talk-radio stations to the arena itself. When Capitals starforward Alex Ovechkin tied Wednesday's game late in the thirdperiod, two fans sitting behind the net headbutted each other. Whenfellow Russian Alexander Semin won it in overtime, Art Litvak jumpedinto the arms of a man whose name he couldn't recall - "Dude, Idon't know, I was just exuberant," he tried to explain.

And after the game, fans were still grappling with theiremotions.

"Hope every game isn't like this. 1 vs. 8 series shouldn't bethis nerve-wracking," one fan messaged ESPN host and Washingtonnative Bram Weinstein.

"Welcome to DC," Weinstein replied.