The Ice Of Boston Is For Losers: Not many hockey pundits picked the Washington Capitals to beat the Boston Bruins in the first round of this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. The Bruins won the whole thing last year, after all, and besides, the Caps are from D.C., where all things sport-related for most of the last decade have been dismal. That was then. After last night’s overtime Caps win in Game 7, things are looking better and better for D.C. sports fans. Exhibit A: The Caps. Exhibit B: The Nationals are, inexplicably, the best team in the National League and 10 games over .500. Exhibit C: The Wizards have won five games in a row (though they’ll still finish with the NBA’s second-worst record). Exhibit D: D.C. United beat the crap out of archrival Red Bull New York on Sunday. Exhibit RG3: The Redskins will almost certainly take future franchise quarterback Robert Griffin III in tonight’s NFL draft. That’s a lot of bandwagons to get on all at once for those of you from out of town! +5

Fare Warning: Getting around town will soon be more expensive. So says Metro, which plans to raise fares for buses and subways effective July 1 (the better to make additional money on Fourth of July tourist visits?). Rail fares will go up by an average of 5 percent; bus fares will increase a dime, which works out to about 6 percent. Parking fees will also go up 25 cents. This comes only a few days after a train derailment, of course. The good news: Maybe this will get more people to walk or bike to work? The bad news: Everything else. -3

One Million Dollars: The person sitting next to you as you read this could be a millionaire right now. Someone bought a $1 million Powerball ticket at the Congressional Exxon at 2nd Street and Massachusetts Avenue NW for last night’s drawing, the second $1 million Powerball winning ticket sold in the District in the last month. Another $250,000 Mega Millions winner is out there, too. Whoever these people are who could have six-figure checks coming their way, but haven’t bothered picking them up, we’d be happy to deal with the money for you. +1

18 Million Tourists: Residents here like to grumble about all the tourists (though, of course, without tourists, the economy would be a little worse off) trooping through town. Now a count of last year’s visits estimates there were more than in previous years. Nearly 18 million tourists came to D.C. in 2011, up 3 percent over 2010 and nearly back to the pre-2001 terrorist attack levels. If the trend continues, our get-rich-quick scheme will involve opening a Segway dealership. +1

Yesterday’s Needle rating: 44 Today’s score: +4 Today’s Needle rating: 48