For the past few days everyone has been focusing on two teams in front of the Caps in their chase for a playoff spot (Carolina and Philadelphia). Well, how is this for a weird twist: Caps fans should root for the Flyers tomorrow afternoon. Why? Because the team the Caps might be most likely to catch is now, in my opinion at least, the reeling Boston Bruins.

Starting with a 10-2 loss at Verizon Center, the Bruins are 1-4-2 in their past seven (Caps fans know all too well about the 1, of course), which includes losses to non-playoff teams Washington, Florida and Toronto and the worst of the lot, a 3-1 defeat to lottery-bound Tampa last night. Should the Flyers defeat the Bruins on Saturday afternoon and the Caps win tonight against Atlanta and then take care of Boston on Sunday afternoon, then all of the sudden Washington will be within two points of the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference with nine to play.

Sure, the Bruins could beat the Flyers and then if the Caps beat Atlanta and Boston it could actually put them within four points of seventh place, but two more losses by Boston would officially put them in a huge tailspin and maybe they don't recover. The thing that the Caps would fear most about the Boston-Philly game is overtime, of course. After that game Boston has two with Montreal, two with Ottawa, two with Toronto, two with Buffalo and one with New Jersey in its last nine games, or all teams still with playoff aspirations.

As for the Flyers, I've already written about their extremely tough closing schedule. After the Bruins, Philadelphia has 10 games left. In another interesting twist of fate, Caps fans will have to become, temporarily at least, Penguins fans. Philly plays Pittsburgh three times in those final 10, along with two against New Jersey, the Rangers and the Islanders and one next week against Atlanta.

To sum it up, the Caps must win the next two, but if they do a playoff berth will suddenly look like a much more realistic possibility than it did only three or four days ago. Then it would be time to write about a season-defining, six-game road trip.

As for actual Caps news, the team recalled defenseman Sami Lepisto from Hershey today. Bruce Boudreau hinted at this yesterday. Obviously, the team is not comfortable with John Erskine's health (he played only one shift after fighting Calgary's Eric Godard and it appeared that Erskine was on the recieving end of a couple of heavy overhand rights from the Flames tough guy) and didn't want to only have six healthy defensemen around.

- Corey Masisak