Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Capitals have obviously been one of the hottest teams in the NHL over the last two months. As Washington finishes the regular season on Saturday and gets ready to begin the playoffs, there is a problem that could be developing for the Capitals concerning the first round: If the season ended today, the Capitals would face the Ottawa Senators in the first round, a team which defeated Washington in all three of their meetings this season. It is definitely a worst-case scenario for Washington if that were to happen.
The two teams played on Thursday with Ottawa coming out with a 2-1 overtime win in Washington. I know that the Capitals have played like no one can beat them and I’m sure very few teams can right now. Ottawa may be the one team though that the Capitals can’t seem to get past. It would be a real shame for the Capitals if they got to this point and then fell in the first round of the playoffs again.
It has happened way too much with this team in the past and they really need the seedings to shuffle some before the end of the regular season this weekend. Washington should not want to see Ottawa at any point of this postseason. Alex Ovechkin can only do so much and even with his long scoring streak, the rest of the team needs to pick him up at times. It will be a very tense next few days for the Capitals just looking ahead to the playoffs and hoping that the sixth seed isn’t Ottawa.
Andy Schmidt is a columnist/writer for RantSports. Follow him on Twitter @ASchmidtSports, like his Facebook page or add him to your network on Google.
