Caps Magic Numbers

Amidst the doom and gloom of the NCAA tournament (go Lady Hoyas?), we should all take solace in the great shining light of DC Sports. Not baseball Jesus 1 or 2, but the Washington Caps and the fact that we are now about to clinch home-ice throughout the playoffs. The Caps hold a 16 point lead in the Eastern Conference over the Penguins, and with 10 games to play for both teams, that means the Caps magic number is 4 (thanks to us holding the tiebreaker of more wins). With the Pens playing Detroit tomorrow night, that number could drop to 2, but regardless of that outcome, the Caps can clinch the #1 seed in East on Wednesday when we play, guess who? The Penguins! A regulation win will put us 18 points us with 9 games left for the Penguins, and oh wouldn't that be particularly sweet? Not to mention the mental edge heading into the playoffs.

For the President's trophy, we hold a 9 point edge over Chicago and 10 point edge over San Jose, both of whom have 11 games to play. This means the magic number for home-ice throughout the playoffs is 13, which could come quickly as the Blackhawks and Sharks have been on terrible slides (the Sharks are too predictable). The Blackhawks have gone 4-4-2 in their last 10 games, and the Sharks 3-6-1.

Barring a major collapse, we will win the President's trophy, but in the words of Brooks Laich when we officially made the playoffs, "We have bigger goals."

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