For most NHL teams, earning five standings points from four games is a perfectly acceptable week. Put together a full season’s worth of runs like that and you can book a ticket to the playoffs.
But an awful start to the season has left the Capitals needing more. Thus begins a critical slate of weekend games that will either draw them to within shouting distance of the playoff contenders in the Eastern Conference or leave them stuck at the bottom of the standings for the foreseeable future.
“It’s still relatively early in the second quarter of the season,” said Caps interim coach Bruce Boudreau after Wednesday’s disappointing 2-1 shootout loss to Florida. “But these extra points are really important and you just can’t squish them away.”
Since Boudreau took over for the fired Glen Hanlon last week, the Caps (8-15-2, 18 points) have beaten Philadelphia and Carolina, lost to Buffalo and earned a point with the shootout loss to Florida. But three of those games were at home.
A three-game road trip now looms, beginning tonight in Raleigh, N.C., against the Hurricanes (13-9-3, 29 points) and continuing Saturday at Florida (12-12-1, 25 points), which has beaten the Caps three times in the last 17 days. And Washington will be without forward Boyd Gordon, week-to-week with an undisclosed injury, and possibly captain Chris Clark (groin), who is day-to-day, according to a team spokesman.
Then comes the longest break of the season — six days until a game at New Jersey next Friday. The Caps still sit last in the conference, eight points behind the eighth-place Devils, who occupy the final playoff spot.
