At least the Rangers gave me some hope by eliminating the N.J. Devils in the first round. They looked very solid and ready to take on the talented but young Pittsburgh Penguins. Unfortunately, the Rangers proceeded to fall completely flat against the Penguins, who advanced to the Eastern Conference finals with a four games to one victory.

The other hockey team I like, the Washington Capitals, fell just short of eliminating the hated Philadelphia Flyers in the first round, losing game seven in overtime. Disappointing, but it’s hard to fault the Caps after their great end-of-season run just to make it to the playoffs. Frankly, the fact they took the Flyers to a seventh game was pretty inspiring, and I really look forward to watching the Caps next year.

Over to the NBA, where the Wizards decided to start their opening series against the Cleveland Cavaliers with some trash talk. Brilliant. As might have been imagined, they could not put their play where their mouths were, and for the third straight season the Wizards were eliminated by the Cavs. On their own home court. Not too impressive. I think it would be nice to have a healthy Wizards team (read Gilbert Arenas here) for an entire season heading into the playoffs, but I’m starting to think we’ll never see a completely healthy Arenas, or at least a return to the incredible form he showed two years ago. I hope that’s wrong, but I fear I’m not.

You noticed I don’t talk about any New York basketball team. Well, my hometown team is the Knicks. Need I say more?

Break ‘em up!

Who you ask? How about those Washington Nationals! After a horrendous April in which they started out 5-15, they have rallied to win nine of their last 12, and climbed back up to only four games below .500.

Even more impressive, six of those nine wins came against either division rivals New York Mets or Atlanta Braves, or the Central Division second place Chicago Cubs. This has kept them only 4.5 games behind their division leaders, the Philadelphia Phillies.

Now what I would really like to see is more people in the stands for Nats home games. They are only averaging 29,865 per home game, a measly 71 percent. Against all odds, they are playing some great ball and deserve a larger crowd out there to see the games and cheer them on.

And one other thing about fans at Nationals games - MAKE SOME NOISE! I have been to two games where I had to keep looking around me to see if half the crowd was sleeping. I really don’t quite understand why, but I witnessed the same thing at Wizards games. The ‘‘kiss cam” gets more cheers than the home team! I actually started a ‘‘Let’s go Mets” chant in Nationals Park and nobody seemed to mind.

Anyway, going forward from here, despite their good play, in reality it will be hard for them to stay at .500 (or near it) for too long. I think their pitching is just too suspect and their hitting too spotty. They stand third from last in runs scored and fourth from last in runs allowed, not a great formula for a winning record.

That doesn’t mean you won’t see me attending at least one game every home stand. For my money it’s the best entertainment in town for $5 (game day price for upper deck). And I will cheer on the Nats (unless the Mets are in town). Besides, even when the Mets are here, my wife will root for the Nats, and that resulted in a Felipe Lopez grand slam and Washington win the last time we went.

Next week: If they hold a golf tournament and Tiger doesn’t play, does anybody really watch? Without falling asleep? What do you think? Send your opinion in an E-mail to waterline@dcmilitary.com and let everyone know.