Don’t freak out. Please. There are still nine games to go in the regular season. Anything can happen. The Washington Capitals could open the playoffs against Toronto or the Islanders or Boston or, well, just about anybody, and another spring of hope and angst will begin. But anybody includes . . .
Let’s not think about that right now.
What we have here, still more than a week from April, is a Capitals playoff situation that hangs in the balance and Capitals regular season games that matter, maybe right down to the final game. This stretch started before Thursday night’s 2 1 shootout victory against hot on their heels Columbus at Verizon Center, a game that, for the moment
http://www.wacapitalsjersey.com/chri...rsey-c-15.html, kept the Caps atop the basically insane Metropolitan Division.
Last year, with nine games remaining on the schedule, the Capitals had a 19 point lead on their nearest Metro foe. They were coasting and finished the year 3 3 3. This year, with nine games remaining, the Capitals have a two point lead in the Metro. They are grinding
http://www.wacapitalsjersey.com/just...rsey-c-16.html, and who knows what’s next?
[Capitals get past Columbus in shootout]
The Capitals, as a group, have decided at least to say the following This way is better.
“If you could choose, it’s better to be in the position that we are now,” veteran defenseman Matt Niskanen said. “It keeps your good habits.”
“You look at last year when we clinched the Presidents’ Trophy as early as we did,” veteran defenseman Brooks Orpik said, “Maybe we took our foot off the gas a little bit.”
“Having gone sort of both routes now, I prefer this because it’s more meaningful,” Coach Barry Trotz said. “. . . It was in our hands too early last year. It took a little edge off. I really do. You get too comfortable for too long, you get too soft.”
So let’s run with that. These Caps, whatever happens over this upcoming stretch, will be better off than those Caps because they will have endured whatever comes next. In a world in which you have to convince yourself that whatever is present is also better, this is believable.
But the reason the Caps are in this situation, pushing to the end, is because of the standings, which relates to who they play in the first round, which is directly tied to the NHL’s stupid playoff format. And when I say “stupid,” I’m not taking an unwarranted potshot. Rather, I’m paraphrasing Caps forward Daniel Winnik.
Wait, that’s not a paraphrase at all. That’s a direct quote “It’s stupid.”
The situation is this The three best teams in the Eastern Conference and three of the four best teams in all of hockey reside in the Metro. One of Washington, Columbus and Pittsburgh will win the division. The other two will be left to play each other in the first round.
Psst. There’s a hint in there about who might provide the freakout factor.
Now, if this was the old formula, the divisions wouldn’t matter and the conference standings would take over and the teams would be seeded 1 through 8 and the cherry blossoms would bloom on time and in full and all would be right with the world.
[Fancy Stats NHL playoff system is broken. Here is how to fix it.]
But it is not that world. It is this world. And in this world, the NHL decided it would be better to foster old school rivalries, as if players didn’t wear helmets and the divisions were still named Norris and Adams and Patrick and the like. There is some logic in that, and given the group that shares the division with Washington — Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and the Rangers and Devils and Islanders and all those teams, save Columbus, that they have postseason history with — it didn’t seem wholly unhealthy at the time.
Yet play out a season, and it’s clear that not only is the conference’s best team over 82 games not rewarded enough, but the fourth place team in a actually division could end up with an advantage. In this case, that team would be the New York Rangers, who currently would be the first of two wild card teams and would cross over and face the champion of the Atlantic Division, currently led by Montreal. Point totals, headed into play Thursday Rangers 94, Canadiens 91. Toss up of a series, right?
That just seems unfair.
“It would kind of sound like whining,” Niskanen said.
Yeah, but come on. You have an NHL best 104 points. You have the right to whine.
“It’s pretty cut and dried right now,” Niskanen said. “Finish first or you’re playing either Columbus or Pittsburgh. There’s no sense in even worrying about it.”
Easy for you to say. You’re just playing the games. You don’t have to watch the standings and wonder if, if, if . . .
Let’s get to it. Just say it out loud.
The Capitals’ first round playoff opponent could be the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Now, Columbus might actually be a more difficult matchup on paper, and the rugged Blue Jackets showed how they wear on teams Thursday night at Verizon, withstanding three second period power plays from Washington and using backbone goalie Sergei Bobrovsky to ward off 44 Washington shots.
But Pittsburgh. Only Pittsburgh has beaten Washington in their past six playoff meetings and in eight of nine overall. History doesn’t matter, right? Well, the Penguins have two Stanley Cups in the Alex Ovechkin Sidney Crosby era. In 2009, the Penguins needed seven games — the last on Washington’s home ice — to beat the Caps in the second round. Last spring
http://www.wacapitalsjersey.com/tj-o...rsey-c-14.html, the Penguins got an overtime goal from Nick Bonino to dispatch the Caps in six games, again in the second round.
These two teams, to open the playoffs?
“I know a lot of people are making a lot of it,” Orpik said.
With good reason.
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On Thursday night, the Caps went through a good team. The two points they earned offset the one Columbus got for pushing the game to overtime, and instead of potentially being tied with the Blue Jackets, they now lead by three. Pittsburgh lost to Ottawa in a shootout, earning just one point to pull into second, two points behind the Caps.
So for one night, the Caps advanced their position atop the division, and a first round series against the Penguins became less likely. Slightly.
“It’s a dangerous game when you try to pick and choose who you’re playing against,” Orpik said.
Find serenity
Mike Weber Jersey, then, over these last nine games. To win a Cup — heck, to reach the finals — the Caps must go through Pittsburgh. Early? Late? What difference does it make?
So don’t freak out. Not yet, anyway.
first round series against the Penguins became less likely
