Marc-Andre Fleury: "I think it will be fun. The rivalry between the two teams is always interesting and I think there's no easy matchups. Every team that's in the race right now is a good team. It's just another team in front of us to get to our goal."
Sidney Crosby: "I think both teams know each other pretty well. We play in the same division and saw each other last year in the playoffs. Shouldn't be any surprises as far as how each team plays and you kind of expected that we would probably see each other at some point, so we just have to prepare."
Matt Cullen: "I would imagine it's going to be another tight series. They had a good season. In here, I think we're all excited about who we're going to be playing. Obviously there's a lot of familiarity between the two teams. We've seen a lot of each other the last couple years, so it should be a good series."
Patric Hornqvist: "It's two similar teams going after it, two good teams and it is going to be a hell of a series. We are all looking forward to it. Last year was last year and this year is this year. I think the key this year is going to be momentum and having a good start in Washington."
Bryan Rust: "They're a good, deep team. They play hard. They come at you with all four lines, all six D. They have really good goaltending. Our challenge is to match their depth. Play all four of our lines and all six of our D. It's going to be a fun series."
Conor Sheary: "I think it's two really good teams competing against each other and I think it can go either way, but if we bring our strongest game, I think we'll have an advantage."
Chris Kunitz: "I don't think it really matters who the competition is, they're tough games to win in the playoffs. Whatever the matchups are going to be, it's something that we always believe in our room in the way we play and the style we can have success with against other teams. That rivalry, it's a great building to play in. It's going to be tough. They have an elite all-world goaltender and some offensive threats. They have D that can move the puck. It's something we've known in the past how they play. They're going to be just as urgent as us. We want to go out there and hopefully be our best to beat them in this series.
Ian Cole:"They are going to be a challenge to play for sure. They are a really good team, top to bottom, from No. 1 all the way to their goaltender and defensemen. They are very good, very solid. It is going to be a huge challenge for us. (Alex) Ovechkin is very solid and tends to be a leading goal scorer and he is going to be very dangerous in the weak side on the power play. He always is. We'll try to find him and shut him down."
