The Capitals dusted off the Lightning by a score of 5-3 on Saturday to mark the return to the lineup of Andre Burakovsky.
Considering he hadn't played in a month it was a pretty good game. Actually, it was a good game by anyone's standards, picking up an assist and getting seven shots on goal.
The seven shots were actually more than he had in the five games leading up to his injury combined.
Besides Burakovsky's return, the victory was notable for making the Capitals the first team in the league to clinch a playoff spot. They now have 100 games and 11 games to go.
The Blue Jackets also won this weekend and clinched a Playoff spot and have 100 points. The Penguins didn't quite clinch yet but they won too and now they have 99.
Of course, it's an absolute disgrace that the NHL is going to have one of their best teams eliminated in the first round. Then again, I'm still having trouble viewing Columbus as anything more than a decent team that got a bit lucky, so who knows, maybe if Pittsburgh and the Capitals avoid a first round meeting, it's not that bad for the NHL.
Kind of sucks for Columbus, but with Torterella at the helm, I can hardly cheer for them, so who cares?
As for the Caps, while it's bad for the NHL, the road to the Cup goes through Pittsburgh (most likely) so they might as well take them on in the first round instead of risking an embarrassing loss to the Leafs or a horrible matchup against the Lightning.
Either way, it's going to be fun and the last 11 games are just going to cause the Capitals and their fans anxiety. Sure, the stretch run is fun for teams that have games that still matter, but the Caps have three weeks of exhibition games to play out.
All you hope for is to avoid an injury and to hit the Playoffs as healthy as possible.
I'll leave you with the best quote of the day
So, Daniel Winnik, the divisional playoff format ...
— Isabelle Khurshudyan (@ikhurshudyan) March 20, 2017
"It's stupid. It's the stupidest thing ever."
-the end