Not only did the Washington Capitals make history by shutting out the Bruins for the entire season series (3 games, 0 goals for Boston) the Caps did the Senators a massive favor by forcing the Bruins to drop their game in hand and allow the Sens to remain tied for the final playoff spot.
While some things have begun to go right for the Senators in recent days, they still need at least one more solid from a rival if they are going to qualify for the playoffs.
But no matter what happens elsewhere, the Senators need to focus their entire attention on Madison Square Garden tonight, where they face the Rangers, who are officially the best team in the league having clinched the President's Trophy with their win over the Rangers on Tuesday night.
That could work to the Senators' advantage, because New York has put themselves in a position to possibly rest some of their more-used stars or at least take their foot off the gas. However the Senators cannot count on that and you can bet they want to avenge the loss that to this date is the only blemish on Andrew Hammond's record. Hammond played that game almost by default because he really shouldn't have suited up, but there weren't any other viable options. He ended up getting pulled after allowing 5 goals on 22 shots.
This time around a healthy Hammond will take to the ice, and it had better be a hungry Senators team. They have used up a lot of their lives in recent games, having played overtime of further in each of their last 5 games and 6 of their last 7. The Senators can't afford to fall behind and count on a comeback, because they have to be running out of those. They trailed the Penguins for over 58 minutes of Tuesday's game and had to overcome a 3-0 first period deficit to sneak away with a 4-3 win.
There are still 4 playoff spots up for grabs in the Eastern Conference, and all are really for the taking for the Senators, who could conceivably end up with the 5th or 6th seed, or just as easily stay in the dreaded 9th slot.
If the Senators win both of their remaining games, Ottawa can make the playoffs a number of ways:
*The Islanders lose in regulation to both the Penguins and Blue Jackets; *Pittsburgh lose to either the Islanders or Buffalo in regulation, or lose both in extra time; *Detroit manages to get just 1 point or less combined against Montreal and Carolina; *Boston loses to either Florida or Tampa in any manner
Any of the above are entirely possible, as the Islanders, Penguins and Wings have all struggled in recent games, and Boston has been very streaky of late and could be due for another slide falling to the Caps after winning 5 in a row going into that game. Since the latter part of February they have won 5 in a row, lost 6 in a row and then won 5 in a row.
At this point in the season things become incredibly tough to predict because you don't know where different teams' mindsets are. But if the play heading into this final 2 games are any indication, the Islanders might be in the toughest situation because not only do they play a team also fighting for their own playoff lives (Pens), their last game is against a team in Columbus that has certainly shown no signs of mailing anything in, having gotten points in their last 11 (10-0-1) and 15-1-1 in their last 17. Combine that with the fact that the Islanders have won just 3 of their last 12 and are struggling badly.
Obviously if the Senators drop a point their chances will diminish, if they drop 2 points the task becomes much more difficult and they will need much more help and should they drop 3 points the only scenario would be Boston going 0 for Florida. Not impossible but don't really want to take that chance.
The clock has not struck midnight and Cinderella is still wearing the glass slipper, for now. They don't yet control their own fate, but tonight's games will go a long way to keeping the door open, with Detroit in Montreal and Boston visiting Florida. Ottawa needs to come away with 2 points and then look around to see what happened elsewhere. I just know that like Saturday night when Sens fans were regrettably forced to root for the Maple Leafs, they will have the same pain cheering for the Habs to beat the Red Wings.
Since the NHL began using the shootout to solve tie games following the 2004-05 lockout, the most points a team has had and missed the playoffs is 95 (the '06-'07 Avs and the '10-'11 Flames), with the most in the East being 93 (the '08-'09 Panthers). It is conceivable that 99 points might not be enough make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference this year, which is a testament to just how many truly bad teams there are (or perhaps tanking for playoff position), and also how many 3 point games are out there.
The possibilities are there, and as long as Ottawa wins both of their games the pressure will be on the other teams to hold their serve as well, and there is a lot of things that can and will happen in the next 3 nights.