In a twist of fate that ultimately favored the Washington Capitals, it was the Philadelphia Flyers who unknowingly sealed their own doom—and that of the Detroit Red Wings and the Pittsburgh Penguins—with their Tuesday night defeat. As the Capitals skated off with a 2-1 victory, thanks to T.J. Oshie's empty-netter, the Flyers and their coach John Tortorella were left in the dark until it was too late; their playoff dreams crushed not only by their loss but by Detroit's simultaneous push into overtime against Montreal, reported CBS News Philadelphia.
Despite a late-season rally that saw the Capitals winning four of their final five games—a sequence that propelled them into the playoffs after trailing behind—the Detroit Red Wings clung to hope until the very end, when they were ousted by the Capitals' tiebreaker advantage of more regulation wins, 31 to Detroit's 27, as per details from NHL.com. The Capitals' streak of wins, disrupted by injuries to key players Nick Jensen and Rasmus Sandin, manifested the grit and persistence of a team determined to make the postseason.
Captain Alex Ovechkin expressed his sentiments in an interview with NHL.com, acknowledging the odd situation that led to their playoff berth, "It was a crazy situation [until] tonight... Detroit got a point, and [Philadelphia] still pulled the goalie. They didn't know that. But we'll take it. Thanks, Philly." It's a completion of an improbable return to the playoffs for the Capitals, who faced adversity throughout the season, including a spree of six straight losses that seemed to jeopardize their postseason chances.
Turning their gaze to the future, the Capitals are now prepping to square off against the Presidents' Trophy-winning New York Rangers in a first-round playoff matchup scheduled for the upcoming weekend—it's a return to form for a squad that missed playoff hockey last year after an eight-year streak according to information from 6abc. For the Flyers, it's a bitter pill to swallow, but Coach Tortorella found some solace in goaltender Samuel Ersson's resilience, as he told 6abc, highlighting Ersson's rebound in the final games: "That was one of the most encouraging things of it all, is the last three games that Ers can go home in the summer with that," and recognized Ersson's strength saying "It's ridiculous how much we played him. But he gets to go home feeling he rebounded and he found himself again." Despite their elimination, it seems, at least there's a glimpse of hope amidst the disappointment for the Philadelphia squad as they regroup for the next season.
