Staying alive: Capitals cling to playoff hopes with only a few games left

The Washington Capitals’ roller-coaster campaign is roaring to a finish. The team is embroiled in a tight race for the final playoff spot with four games remaining. 

After a six-game losing streak, the Capitals flung themselves into postseason contention with a vital 2-1 win against the Detroit Red Wings on Tuesday. But players say every game will be crucial during the last week of the regular season.

“It’s a big win,” Capitals center Dylan Strome said Tuesday. “Got to keep it going. It means nothing if we lose the next couple.”

At the time, the win gave Washington a slim lead in the race for the final wild card berth, but the Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins trailed by just one point in the standings. The Capitals lost, 4-2, on Thursday at Buffalo.

After nine wins in March, the Capitals entered April primed for a playoff push, but six consecutive losses battered Washington’s playoff dreams. On April 1, ESPN analytics gave Washington a 76% chance to make the playoffs. That number dropped to just 24% after the skid. 

But Washington has a hero. As he’s done so many times before, Alex Ovechkin pulled through for the Capitals when they needed him most. With a slim 1-0 lead against the Red Wings on Tuesday, the future Hall of Famer found the back of the net to give Washington a game-sealing goal. 

It was Ovechkin’s 30th goal of the season, making him the first player in NHL history to record 18 seasons with 30 or more goals. 

“You kind of run out of words to say about him,” Strome said. “He finds a way to score. He has a great shot. … When he sees a spot in the net, he’s going to put it home. Nice milestone, and we obviously needed the goal, so it helps a lot.”

The victory over Detroit was the biggest game of the season so far for the Capitals, boosting their playoff odds to 42%.

“We knew how important this game was,” Capitals goalie Charlie Lindgren said. “Obviously, we’re coming off a few games in a row where we were on the wrong side of it and playing against a team right next to us in the standings. … I felt like it was a must-win situation.”

Ovechkin has been a driving force for the Capitals’ resurgence. The team was considered a playoff longshot as recently as March 1, when the struggling Capitals sat in 11th place in the Eastern Conference.

A red-hot Ovechkin catapulted the team back into competition. He scored just eight goals in the first 43 games — it seemed like Father Time had finally started to catch up to the gray-haired Russian. Since then, Ovechkin has been on a tear, scoring 21 goals in the last 31 games. Only three players in the league have scored more goals than the Capitals’ winger since Jan. 27.

“I don’t know,” he said of the midseason resurgence. “The puck goes in.”

The late push hasn’t surprised his teammates, who said they know better than to discount Ovechkin. 

“I was talking to [goalie Charlie Lindgren] earlier in the season, and I think [Ovechkin] had, like, seven or eight goals at the time,” Strome said. “We were just talking, and we were like, ‘I’m not going to be surprised when he gets 30 this year,’ and I’ve only been here for one year before this.”

Ovechkin’s NHL career has been littered with playoff runs. Washington missed the postseason last year, but the team hasn’t missed the playoffs in consecutive seasons since 2006 and 2007.

“Everybody understands the situation,” Ovechkin said after a March game against the Winnipeg Jets. “That’s why we fight all year, in training camp. We want to finish the season [strong].”

To make the playoffs, the Capitals will need to beat some of the best teams in the league. Each of Washington’s final three opponents — the Tampa Bay Lightning, Philadelphia Flyers and Boston Bruins — are preparing for their own potential playoff runs.