The biggest jinx since the Oil Painting. (Photo credit: Ted Starkey)

On Monday– many, many hours before the Capitals and Rangers took the ice for Game Five– the New York Rangers sent out an email encouraging its fans to buy tickets for the Eastern Conference Finals. But they left out one tiny little detail: they haven’t made the finals yet.

While we understand the need to sell tickets, this overdone graphic — which shows half the team doing a stick salute in Narnia or something, is pompous and ludicrous. The New York Rangers have lost their last two playoff series against the Capitals. You’d think they’d know better.

Someone in the Capitals organization should print this out, pin it on the team’s bulletin board. Put it in the filing cabinet under eggs, counted, not yet hatched. This is taunting the hockey gods of the highest order.

Monday, after the Rangers won in overtime, streamers fell from the ceiling of Madison Square Garden, which has been their customary celebration after victories. The exploding fireworks were so loud that Pierre McGuire and Marc Staal’s post-game interview was marginally more incoherent than it would have been anyway.

It reminds us. Schoolyard bullies are the loud kids. They gloat because they are insecure. They are insecure because they are weak.

I’m going out on a limb, but I’m gonna do without Photoshop or special effects. Caps in Seven.

Rangers fans should buy their tickets for Saturday’s game now. They should get to say goodbye to their team in person.

Photo via @thenyrangers.