The Caps have completed 50 games -- 32 remain on the regular season schedule. In those 32 games they have to find a way to climb past four teams to makeup a five point deficit between themselves and eighth place. Here is the challenge . . .
The 32 games remaining involve opponents against whom the Caps have a combined record of 14-18-5. The Caps have been outscored 132-114, not including shootout losses. If one weights these numbers for the number of times the Caps have yet to play each of these opponents, the task appears even more daunting.
It is in this context that the Caps have to win, in The Peerless' estimation, at least 43 points in the 32 remaining games. That would give them 92, the number of the eighth-place finisher last year.
Is it doable? Yes. But what it means is that there are no longer teams on the schedule that the Caps should beat. Those teams are now in the "must beat" category. Given last year's results, there are probably no more than 10 regulation losses in the Caps' remaining schedule that can be sustained (and this assumes no more than one more shootout/overtime loss -- points cannot be left on the table at this point).
A tough row, indeed.
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