Sprint to finish begins Wednesday at Buffalo
They last played a meaningful game 17 days ago. Since Feb. 13, five Capitals players have returned from the Winter Olympics in Vancouver sporting varying degrees of disappointment. The other 18 earned a respite from the grind of an NHL season and bided their time waiting for it to resume.
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It finally does on Wednesday at 7 p.m. when the Caps play the Buffalo Sabres, beginning a 20-game stretch to close out the regular season.
There is little tension in the dressing room — save for Wednesday’s 3 p.m. trade deadline, of course. With a 41-13-8 record and an NHL-best 90 points, Washington is assured of a playoff spot and a third consecutive Southeast Division title. Thanks to the franchise-record 14-game winning streak that ended shortly before the Olympic break, the Caps also had a 13-point lead in the Eastern Conference entering play Tuesday.
“Before the break we talked about getting some rest, letting the body heal and the mind rejuvenate,” Caps forward Brooks Laich said last week.
Even a .500 record over the next 40 days would make it all but impossible for another Eastern Conference team to catch Washington. But how about the NHL’s best record? The Caps will still need a strong showing down the stretch to hold off Western Conference powers San Jose and Chicago. That’s looking far, far down the road, though. Washington couldn’t face either of those teams unless they reach the Stanley Cup Finals in late May.
“You can push too early and you can peak too early,” coach Bruce Boudreau said. “And we don’t want to do either of those things.”
The Caps cooled off a bit before the break, losing three in a row — one of those in overtime and one in a shootout. They also allowed 26 goals in the final six games.
“The way we approach it is we have 45 games left in the season,” said Laich, adding what it would realistically take to reach the Stanley Cup Finals. “These next 20 are really going to be used to iron out everything and identify how we are going to play in the playoffs.”
