Sunday, April 5, 2015

Thanks, Jonathan - Caps get an Undangerous Prediction right


Thanks to the heroic goaltending of Jonathan Bernier of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who only let in one goal in a seven-round shootout against Ottawa (the Senators), the Senators only got one point out of that game, which combined with Washington's wild 2-1 victory over Detroit, supplied the final points necessary for the Capitals to get into the playoffs.

Had it not been for the Senators late run, this Undangerous Prediction for 2015 would have been very undangerous, because no other team really had a chance to knock either Washington or Boston out of the wild card spot.  Now, things have changed -- by virtue of a late season losing streak  by the Penguins, the wild card teams in the East are now Detroit and PITTSBURGH.  (Boston has the same number of points as those two teams, but is ahead on a tiebreaker, I guess.)  So Ottawa still has a chance, as there are only two points behind all three of those teams (93 for Ottawa, 95 for Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Boston).  So it could be an interesting last week of the season in the Eastern Conference.   (The Western too - LA and Winnipeg are tied on points, but LA leads on the tiebreaker, wins in regulation or overtime (ROW) and Calgary is only a point ahead of those two).  

So now that they can't catch the Caps, the Senators should be cheering for them against Boston on the upcoming Wednesday, just like we were cheering for Toronto.   The Caps have incentive, as if they stay out of the wild card, they get home ice advantage for the first round (I think).




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