PHILADELPHIA, Pa - All you to know about how the Philadelphia Flyers is one thing: How will they contain Alex the Great?

It's a good question, especially since the Flyers haven’t contained Ovechkin all season long, so why would right now make a difference? Well, if I could be oh so humble as to bestow some words of wisdom into the Flyers locker room right now, I would say one thing to the team:

Let Ovechkin have his goals. Why, do you ask? It is the Michael Jordan theory. Remember back when the NBA was fun to watch? Yeah, it's kind of hard to remember. Anyhow, when Jordan first came into the league, he could score a ton of points, but the Chicago Bulls rarely won.

The Flyers need to let Ovechkin do his thing (within reason), and they only really need to prevent the likes of Nicklas Backstrom from getting theirs as well. If that happens, Philadelphia wins in six games. Otherwise, hockey’s version of "The Big Red Machine" will win this series in seven.

Here is a closer look at each team...

Philadelphia Flyers

The Flyers have virtually lived off of their power play for most of this season. Philadelphia finished the season second overall behind Montreal, scoring at a 21.8 percent rate. The Flyers were third overall at home and third overall on the road. The Flyers were sixth overall in scoring while the Caps finished eighth, and the Flyers were eighteenth in goals allowed while the Caps finished nineteenth overall.

Mike Richards and Daniel Briere led the Flyers offense with 75 and 72 points respectively. In fact, the Flyers set a team record with seven players with 20 or more goals scored on the season, this without last season’s 40 goal scorer Simon Gagne (who the Flyers will not have for the series).

The Flyers had two other players with more than 10 goals (R.J. Umberger and Scottie Upshall), and came close to having two more players (Braydon Coburn and Kimmo Timonen) join them. Needless to say the Flyers have the kind of balanced attack that could cause serious problems for the Capitals.

The defense is the Flyers' Achilles Heel. Jason Smith and Derian Hatcher, who should be back later in the series, don’t have the foot speed to match the Capitals' offense. Both will need help standing up the Caps forwards at the blueline. That is where Randy Jones and Braydon Coburn’s size must come into play, in order for the Flyers to withstand the Caps offense.

This season, the Flyers have had trouble reducing opponents' shots on goal, getting out-shot more often than not. In particular, Ovechkin has killed the Flyers in recent years and if it is one thing that Ovechkin and company are great at is getting their shots off.

The key to the Flyers success will have to be Marty Biron. Fortunately for the Flyers Biron is playing his best hockey at the right time. Biron has two straight shutouts in his last two games. That’s good news for Flyer fans.

Washington Capitals

No playoff team has come further in a shorter period of time than the Capitals, who became the first team in the NHL’s 30-team era to go from 14th or 15th place in its conference to the postseason.

Much of the credit goes to coach Bruce Boudreau, who installed a more aggressive puck-pursuit system after replacing Glen Hanlon on Nov. 22. Boudreau not only fostered a winning attitude in the dressing room, but managed to coax career years out of some of his former charges with the AHL Hershey Bears, particularly center Brooks Laich (who tallied 21 goals and 37 points playing in all 82 games).

Of course, the Capitals’ fortunes are inextricably tied to Ovechkin, who should be a lock for league MVP after a 65-goal, 112-point season. Shift-by-shift, hit-by-hit, Ovechkin is the most energetic player in the NHL and should thrive in his first Stanley Cup playoffs. He skates with Swedish rookie phenom Nicklas Backstrom and veteran Viktor Kozlov on the first line. Alexander Semin and Sergei Fedorov round out a talented top five.

Arguably the Caps’ best player during the seven-game, season-ending winning streak that propelled them into the playoffs was goaltender Cristobal Huet, who was acquired at the trade deadline from Montreal and immediately installed an extra measure of confidence in the team’s end.

As valuable as Olaf Kolzig has been to the Washington franchise, Huet does a better job covering up some of the team’s deficiencies on the blue line, with clutch saves and an unflappable style. His nine-game winning steak at the end of the season was the team’s longest since Pete Peeters pulled the feat in 1987. Huet has a lot to prove heading into unrestricted free agency and with a pretty thin record of playoff accomplishments.

The Capitals will have to stay out of penalty trouble, because their 80.5 percent PK was sixth from last in the league. Boudreau also may have to stress more positional play in the neutral zone to cut down on odd-man rushes.

With the man advantage, however, the Caps have a pretty respectable 18.8 percent power play, helped by blueliners Tom Poti and Mike Green, who finished with 18 goals and 56 points.

Adriel Bettelheim from prohockeynews.com contributed to this article. Brian’s articles can also be found at prohockeynews.com. Brian can be contacted at brian.jennings@prohockeynews.com or at bjennings@insidehockey.com.