Follow @james_tanner123 The Capitals will be at home tonight against the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Hurricanes are one of the best up and coming teams in the NHL. Maybe they don't quite sneak into the Playoffs this year, but with Skinner, Aho, Terravainen, Staal, Rask and one of the best collections of young talent on the blue-line in the game, they will be a force for years to come.
While Caps and Penguins fans can enjoy another year or two with wide-open windows for winning, the Canes, Panthers, Sabres and Leafs look to be shaking up the order we've gotten used to seeing the standings.
No coach should be fired when their team is a dominant possession monster. You could make a case Julien should have been the coach of the year - taking his aging roster and making them one of the best in the league.
Except, they weren't the best. Their win loss record was terrible and they'll likely miss the Playoffs. But the NHL is a parity ridden joke and the standings are pretty close to random.
How else do you explain the should be last Canucks competing for a Playoff spot? The Blue Jackets going from first to worst? The Flyers - a brutal team - winning ten in a row?
The fact is, and I know no one wants to hear the truth, but in the NHL - outside a couple of teams - you could just toss a coin to see who is going to win. The salary cap has made it so that about 26 of the 30 teams are so equal that with just a little luck, one of the NHL's most effective teams is outside the Playoffs and firing their coach.
You'd think the people capable of getting jobs running NHL teams would recognize this, but then again, you wouldn't think a guy whose closest peers are the guy who played Screech, Dog the Bounty Hunter and Hulk Hogan could become President.
The Capitals will probably win tonight.
But maybe they won't. Flip a coin.
According to @EliasSports, #Caps run of 8 straight home games with 5+ goals is longest in team history, longest in NHL since '91-92 (PIT).
— Mike Vogel (@VogsCaps) February 5, 2017
Pretty neat stat, eh?
Have a wonderful day.