Kudos to the Caps - they finally got the ice tilted late in the game and beat a team on a real hot streak.
Probably too late for the playoffs though - they have 3 teams that are all playing well to climb over, and THEN have to also dislodge one of the teams currently in playoff position. AND they are several points up on ALL the non-playoff teams in the West, so it looks like a draft pick in the low-mid teens. The ONLY way the Caps sneak into the playoffs is obviously to go on a hot streak from now to the end. There is one faint hope to accomplish this, and it is, oddly, due to the fact that everyone else in the league has games, usually multiple games, in hand on the Caps. The Caps' schedule as a result is not too bad - 15 games left in the last 33 days of the regular season. But other teams are really going to be squeezed by the schedule down the stretch, and the Caps may be facing a lot of teams more tired than they are. Perhaps that can work in their favor - though you'd think that fatigue wouldn't be all that much of an issue given the recent 2-week break.
