The Washington Capitals’ regulation victory over the Buffalo Sabres has done the improbable: fully clawed them back into the Eastern Conference playoff race.
Aided by several teams in front of them losing earlier in the night, the Capitals, with 87 standings points, now sit one point out of the second wild card spot, and two points from the third-place New York Islanders (89) in the Metropolitan Division. The Ottawa Senators, Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, and Columbus Blue Jackets all have 88 points. However, Ottawa, Detroit, and Philadelphia also have a game in hand on the Capitals.
Eastern Conference wild card race at the end of the night on 4/4
Screenshot: NHL.com/standings
According to @JFreshHockey, the Caps (20 percent) now basically have the same chances as the Columbus Blue Jackets (28 percent) and New York Islanders (22 percent) of making the playoffs with five games remaining in the season. (Meanwhile, MoneyPuck has the Caps’ odds improving just to 14.1 percent.)
The Capitals got huge help across the league on Saturday night as Columbus fell to Minnesota 2-1 in regulation, suffering their third-straight loss. The Islanders then lost in regulation to the Carolina Hurricanes 4-3, and the Rangers also blew out the Red Wings 4-1 — perfect scenarios for the Caps in all three matchups.
Ottawa, which has a game in hand on the Capitals, is the best-positioned team to capture the second wild card spot at this moment, as it has 33 regulation wins — the same as the Caps — which is the first tiebreaker if any of the teams tie at the end of the season.
The Capitals now have five games remaining, with dates against the New York Rangers (away), Toronto Maple Leafs (away), and Pittsburgh Penguins (away/home) in the upcoming week. Their final game of the year, against Columbus at Nationwide Arena, could loom large.
