Blackhawks play with similar up-tempo style
Now that the Southeast Division is safely wrapped up for a third consecutive year, the Capitals turn their sights to even bigger goals with the Stanley Cup playoffs less than a month away.
Washington is a virtual lock to finish first in the Eastern Conference. There are just 14 games left in the regular season and it has a 14-point lead over second-place Pittsburgh. That would ensure home-ice advantage through the first three rounds. But how about the entire way?
The Caps can take a huge step towards that final goal — and securing the President’s Trophy for most standings points — with a much-anticipated game Sunday afternoon against the Chicago Blackhawks.
The two teams are almost a mirror image of each other. Chicago is led by young stars Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and plays a similar up-tempo brand of hockey that has revitalized the sport in their city. The Blackhawks are the only team with as many home wins as the Caps (26), making a visit to a sold out United Center a severe challenge.
“Chicago’s definitely one of my favorite teams to watch in the league,” said Caps forward Eric Fehr. “They’re a lot like us. They play a fun style of hockey. We’ve all been looking forward to that one for a while. I think we match up really well.”
The game will be televised nationally on NBC at 12:30 p.m. That, of course, is 11:30 a.m. in the Central time zone. Add in another hour of lost sleep after the switch to daylight savings time this weekend and Fehr has only one complaint about the Chicago game: The carbohydrate-filled 8 a.m. meal — often spaghetti — the Caps will have to choke down before taking the ice so early in the day.
It will be worth it, though. Washington is 45-14-9 with an NHL-best 99 points. Entering Saturday’s action, the Blackhawks sat in second place in the Western Conference at 44-17-5 with 93 points. Only Chicago and first-place San Jose — 43-14-9, 95 points as of Saturday afternoon — are realistically close enough to take away home-ice advantage from the Caps in the Stanley Cup finals. Not that Washington is looking that far ahead yet.
“It would be nice to have home ice all the way in the playoffs, definitely,” Fehr said. “But it’s a pretty long way between now and June, too. Right now we just want to have a good road trip this week and go from there.”
