from Katie Carrera of the Washington Post,

In the final year of its existence, the NHL’s Southeast Division is living up to its mocking moniker of “Southleast” — and it couldn’t have come at a better time for the Washington Capitals.

Despite getting off to one of the worst starts in franchise history and an uneven first half of the season in which they couldn’t win more than three games in a row, the Capitals could take comfort in the knowledge that beating up on inferior opponents from their underwhelming division could pave the way to a sixth consecutive playoff berth.

After all, some team has to win the worst division in hockey — taking the third seed in the Eastern Conference and home-ice advantage with it — and it might as well be Washington, which is 12-3 against Southeast foes and 9-14-2 against everyone else.

“It’s been our saving grace this year,” goaltender Braden Holtby said. “It’s been lucky that we’ve got to play those teams so much, but at the same time, we’ve done a good job with them and we haven’t taken a lot of those games lightly because we know how important they are.”

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