As a guy who finds the "tradition" of "celebrating" division championships cloying and underwhelming, I was happy to see the Bruins gave exactly zero mention or notice to the fact that they won the 2008-09 Northeast Division title in Thursday night's season opener. 

There are 30 teams in the NHL, and none of them is in the business of winning division championships. Six teams -- or one-fifth of the teams in the circuit -- will win them, but a year or two from now few will care or remember. It's all about the Stanley Cup, and anything less is a door prize. 

With that in mind, I am happy to report that Saturday night's home opener here in the District will not feature overly needless pomp and circumstance to note the Caps' capturing of the 2008-09 Southeast Division crown.

“I don’t know what kind of message it is," says Caps coach Bruce Boudreau, of the team's decision not to make a big deal of something that happened last season, and something that falls well below the level of expectations that the Capitals have for themselves.

"Boston just introduced the players," notes Boudreau, "They didn’t show any banners, did they? Their goals are bigger than division championships. I think ours are bigger than division championships. We raised the banner last year, so there’s no point in raising it again.”

Hear, hear. A division championship and about four bucks will get you a large cappuccino at a local coffee emporium. And we all know that foam is a key component in the composition of cappuccino.