{"id":544080,"date":"2026-04-06T17:30:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:30:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/544080\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T17:30:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T17:30:17","slug":"capitals-playoff-chances-plummet-back-to-single-digits-after-blowout-loss-to-rangers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/544080\/","title":{"rendered":"Capitals\u2019 playoff chances plummet back to single digits after blowout loss to Rangers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Washington Capitals had an opportunity to tangibly claw themselves back into real contention for a playoff spot against the New York Rangers. With their playoff odds rising to around 20 percent after a victory over the Sabres, Washington <a href=\"https:\/\/russianmachineneverbreaks.com\/2026\/04\/04\/washington-capitals-one-point-out-of-playoff-spot\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was about even with the New York Islanders and Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>Now, after their blowout 8-1 loss to the Eastern Conference\u2019s worst team, the Capitals\u2019 chances are back in single digits and back near zero. MoneyPuck, <a href=\"https:\/\/moneypuck.com\/predictions.htm\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">after an update this morning<\/a>, has the Caps\u2019 odds at 6.3 percent. The only other Eastern Conference team below them and still in contention is the New Jersey Devils at 0.1 percent.<\/p>\n<p>After the Ottawa Senators (90 standings points) and Philadelphia Flyers (90) were both victorious last night, the Capitals (87) are now three points out of a playoff spot \u2014 both for the Metropolitan Division\u2019s third spot and the Eastern Conference\u2019s second wild card spot with four games in their season.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/capitals-standings-040626.jpg\" alt=\"Eastern Conference standings as of the morning of April 6\" width=\"1342\" height=\"1369\" class=\"size-full wp-image-588895\"  \/>Screenshot: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhl.com\/standings\/2026-04-05\/wildcard\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">NHL.com\/standings<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the biggest problem for the Capitals is that they have essentially, using Spencer Carbery\u2019s metaphor, run out of runway. At this point, they can only get a maximum of 95 standings points even if they win all four of their remaining games against the Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Penguins (2), and Columbus Blue Jackets.<\/p>\n<p>The Philadelphia Flyers and Ottawa Senators both have a game in hand and their maximum number could still be 100 points. The Detroit Red Wings and Columbus Blue Jackets (88 standings points) have a game in hand and could still reach 98. And while the New York Islanders (89) have slid out of the Metro\u2019s third spot and the second wild card position with their poor play lately, losing four in a row and firing head coach Patrick Roy, they can still reach 97 points \u2014 two more than the Capitals.<\/p>\n<p>So it isn\u2019t over yet, but the Capitals will need a lot of help from other teams and will have to win the rest of their games to even be in the conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Washington Capitals had an opportunity to tangibly claw themselves back into real contention for a playoff spot&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":544081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5114],"tags":[191,5,4,190,109,5222],"class_list":{"0":"post-544080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-washington-capitals","8":"tag-capitals","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-washington","12":"tag-washington-capitals","13":"tag-washingtoncapitals"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116358954653886739","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/544081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}