Friday, April 4, 2008

Playoff Chase Part Trois

As I sit here and right, the three games with playoff implications for the Caps are all in progress. Philadelphia leads the Devils 1-0, Florida leads the Hurricanes 2-1 and Boston and Ottawa are scoreless. As of now the Caps sit in the eighth and final playoff spot after their 4-1 win over Tampa Bay last night.

The Caps best chance to make the playoffs going into tonight in my opinion hung in the balance of the Boston and Ottawa match up. Ottawa throttled the Maple Leafs last night to finally right what seemed to be a sinking ship. If I understand all the tiebreakers correctly, if the game ends in regulation and the Caps win tomorrow night, the Caps are in the playoffs. I'm conflicted a bit about who to root for but have settled on rooting for Ottawa.

I would like nothing more than to see Philadelphia be the odd team out of the playoffs but both of the teams left on their schedule, New Jersey and Pittsburgh, have nothing left to play for. While I doubt that either team with lie down, it is clear that the Flyers will be the more desperate team.

It would be nice to see the Panthers hang on (they now lead 3-2) and beat the Hurricanes tonight. If they do win, the Caps will get to face a team playing on back to back nights and potentially only need a single point to be in the playoffs.

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