After a stunning 4-1 victory Saturday night in New York’s Madison Square Garden, the Washington Capitals have thrusted themselves into the Eastern Conference’s 7th seed for the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. As a result, the Caps will faceoff against the reigning Stanley Cup Champion Boston Bruins in the first round of the playoffs. A bit different from years past though, the Capitals will not have home ice advantage for this series.

As of now, the official schedule is unknown, but is expected to be announced at 1pm on Easter Sunday. Tickets to see the Caps at home will go on sale the following day at 10am.

Taking a look back at the regular season, the Capitals were 3-1 when facing the Bruins, with one of those wins being a shootout win. Also interesting to note, Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin missed one of the four meetings between these two teams, Mike Green missed two of four, and Nicklas Backstrom missed all four. You’ve gotta believe that if the Caps were still able to win the season series when missing such key players like Ovechkin, Green, and Backstrom that they will only do better with all three in the lineup.

No doubt, beating the Bruins will be no easy task. Though, winning the Stanley Cup is anything but easy.