from Neil Greenberg of Capitals Insider,

Since the 2005-06 season, the biggest deficit overcome in the East to make the playoffs with 35 games left has been four points. Right now the Capitals are five points out of playoff contention and with no inter-divisional play, the teams ahead of them will always be getting points from somewhere. Take Tuesday night, for example: 12 Eastern Conference teams saw action and nine of them got at least one point. Seven of those clubs are teams Washington needs to leapfrog to get into the postseason.

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