Previously on A View from the Cheap Seats...

[Note: I'm feeling a little under the weather today so instead of a fresh out of the box gameday preview, I'm acting like a television network and showing a rerun. Luckily most of the same stuff holds true...except players might be gunning for Tim Taylor with a little extra oomph tonight. You know, during the whole 3 minutes he's on the ice.]

Another Southeast Division showdown! Can you FEEL the excitement??

Here are a few tips and tricks for the Caps to keep in mind as they take on the Bolts this afternoon.
- Score early
- Stay out of the box
- Don’t take the second period off.
- Win in regulation
- Shut down St. Louis
- Shut down Richards
- Shut down Lecavalier
- Shut down Lecavalier
- Shut down Lecavalier

Fun Facts (courtesy of these fine sites):

- Contrary to popular belief, it is quite common for people to be struck by lightning, and in fact lightning is a very poor killer. While people do get killed by lightning, most survive it.
- Still, lightning kills more people each year on average than hurricanes and tornadoes combined.
- A lightning stroke begins with a faint predischarge, called the leader, which goes from the cloud to the ground. The leader establishes a path for the highly luminous return stroke (what you really see) which propagates from the ground up to the cloud. The first stroke of a flash is usually preceded by a "stepped leader", so called because it appears to progress in discrete steps (about 100 segments, each 50 m long) from cloud to ground. The subsequent strokes are preceded by a "dart leader" which smoothly follows the path of the previous return stroke (and is about 10 times faster).

- Safety Tips (courtesy of the National Weather Service):

• The safest place commonly available during a lightning storm is a large, fully enclosed, substantially constructed building, e.g. your typical house, school, library, or other public building. [St. Pete Times - check!]
• Proceed from higher to lower elevations [so much for the Cheap Seats...]
• Once inside, stay away from corded telephones, electrical appliances, lighting fixtures, ham radio microphones, electric sockets and plumbing. [Um...there’s none of that in a modern NHL arena, right??]
• Avoid tall, isolated objects like trees, poles, and light posts. [Or Jeff Schultz, Milan Jurcina, and Shaone Morrisonn.]
• Do not remain in open vehicles like farm tractors, cabless construction machinery, riding lawnmowers and golf carts [No zamboni-driving. Got it.]
• If circumstances or a series of bad decisions [AHEM, Steve Eminger...or Brian Pothier...or Mike Green...or...anyone in a Caps uniform] have found you outside of a shelter, far removed from a safer place when lightning is occurring, there are still measures to be taken.
• If lightning is about to strike, it will sometimes provide a very few seconds of warning. Sometimes your hair may stand on end, your skin will tingle, light metal objects will vibrate or you will hear a crackling or "kee-kee" sound. [Incidentally, "kee-kee" is the scientific term...]
• If this happens and you're in a group, spread out so there are several body lengths between each person. [A thrilling Southeast Division showdown, so...check.]
• Once you've spread out, use the lightning crouch. Put your feet together, squat down, tuck your head, and cover your ears. [Oh, the Mike Green position!]
• When the immediate threat of lightning has passed, continue heading to the safest place possible. [i.e., the golf course.]

Happy Saturday!