February 08, 2008
Friday's Blogging Roundup
First off, I would like to take this opportunity to mention again that the Catholic University hockey team will be playing GW on the Verizon ice immediately after the Capitals game. I encourage all to stay and enjoy.
With the 'Canes coming into town this becomes a crucial 4-pt. game. The Caps can open up a 3-pt. lead or drop 1-pt. behind Carolina. The Caps come in with momentum and hunger, so don't look for them to slow down tonight.
Tarik has looked over the remaining schedules for the top 4 Southeast teams, and it looks like everyone is pretty even the rest of the way. There was one interesting thing in there.
Each of the four teams close out their schedule with at least seven consecutive games against division foes.
So each team has at least 7 4-pt. games to end the season. It looks like barring a runaway the division won't be decided until the last couple of games. For whoever makes it out of the Southeast they will be banged up, as their schedules mean every one of their last several games is a must-win. Whatever happens, it will certainly be interesting hockey.
But while it is a big game tonight, we haven't actually hit the do-or-die stretch yet. As Caps Nut notes;
Ranking the importance of this game on a scale of 1-10 I would rate it at about a 6, maybe a 6.5. A win tonight would certainly help but a loss tonight would not be totally devastating. The magic number entering tonight is 51 and after tonight's game we'll still have three games remaining against the Canes. The important thing is that the next two of those three will be in Carolina. So while the Caps need to win tonight, it doesn't qualify as a "must" win. Now if the Caps are one point up on the Canes on April 1st when they meet for the final time this season in the Phone Booth, then it will be an 11 but not tonight.
So while a win would be good, a loss won't kill us either. And after tonight we still have a game in hand, which, according to Bruce, "is only good if we win it."
For a couple other pregames check out:
The Peerless Prognosticator
Japers' Rink
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