Bruce Boudreau said after Thursday's morning skate that defenseman Shaone Morrisonn is "week-to-week" with an upper body injury. This would obviously put his availability for next week into question should the Caps make the playoffs. Steve Eminger will play in place of Morrisonn tonight. After only playing 18 of the team's first 80 games, he is now going to be counted on quite a bit.

"You want to think about it, but then you don't want to think about it too much," Eminger said. "Because then you are overthinking, you're going to be overthinking in the game and you're going to be overplaying. You almost have to treat it like it is another game. Just play it simple and things will fall into place."

David Steckel told me that he still can't bend his previously broken finger enough to play. Basically, he bends it as far as he can and then the physical therapist measures the angle it makes. He got to 50 degrees yesterday, but needs to be closer to 110 (which is normal) to be able to suit up. Also, Brian Pothier just walked by the media room. He isn't allowed to say much about what is going on with his situation, but he did say he is getting better in small increments and started to do some light exercises last week.

And now: The playoff scenarios.

First and foremost, the Caps must win two games. If they do, several paths are close to being open for them. After weeks of winning and hoping, winning and waiting, it is now pretty simple. If Carolina loses to Florida, or any of Boston, Philadelphia or Ottawa loses a game in regulation, the Caps can control their own destiny. If the Caps win tonight, they won't even have to root for a team in the Ottawa-Boston game tomorrow, they can just root against overtime.

"We know what is on the table and the question is, 'Can we do it?'" Boudreau said. "Any team can beat you. They can get great goaltending. They can get a couple of lucky breaks. What shouldn't happen is they shouldn't outwork us because we need this game so bad."

- Corey Masisak