Caps’ hopes hinge on finale

Veterans Tom Poti and Viktor Kozlov are, well, veterans of this situation. So is rookie Nicklas Backstrom.

The Washington Capitals have one game remaining on the schedule, and it will be the difference between success and failure — the difference between jubilation and despair this season. With a win or an overtime or shootout loss, they make the playoffs. Otherwise, their season ends.

Said Poti when asked whether this year felt deja vu: “Definitely. We were in a situation last year where we had to win a bunch of games at the end, and it pretty much came down to the last shot in a shootout and we ended up getting in.”

Poti and Kozlov were part of the New York Islanders last year, when they went to East Rutherford, N.J., on the final day of the regular season, knowing that a victory against the host New Jersey Devils would vault them into the playoffs and a loss would leave them out.

Kozlov had the decisive goal in the shootout and when third-string goaltender Wade Dubielewicz poked the puck away from New Jersey’s Sergei Brylin, the Islanders were in the postseason and a wild celebration ensued.

At practice in Arlington yesterday, the Caps did not know whether they would be in exactly that scenario or not. There were several avenues for the Caps to make the playoffs, but now that Carolina lost its finale to Florida there is one. Washington either will win the Southeast Division — by getting at least one point — or not make the playoffs at all.

“I’ve never been in this situation, and it is kind of crazy. But we knew this could happen even a month or two months earlier this year,” defenseman Mike Green said. “Yeah, one game for what is probably going to be the most exciting time of our lives. It is going to be worth it, and we’ve got to get that win.”

Backstrom said he was in a similar situation last season with Brynas in the Swedish Elite League. His team was in ninth place, and only the top eight made the playoffs. They needed at least a tie in the final game of the regular season to make the postseason.

The details are a little fuzzy for the 20-year-old Backstrom, or at least some of them are.

“[I was] awesome — I think it was the best game of my life,” he joked. “I think the only thing we can do is focus on our game. We can’t do anything about the other results. It will be a huge game for us, but I think we play with this pressure for like the past month so we all know what situation we are in.”

It has been quite a run for the Caps to even be in this position. Washington has won six in a row and 10 of 11, but this wave of momentum started at the trade deadline.

Since general manager George McPhee pulled the trigger on a trio of deals that netted the Caps goalie Cristobal Huet, center Sergei Fedorov and right wing Matt Cooke, the Caps have won 14 of 18 games with two of the losses coming in a span of about 27 hours and in nearly inconceivable fashion.

Sixteen games ago Caps coach Bruce Boudreau tried to figure out exactly what his team needed to accomplish to make the playoffs. The Caps were in 10th place in the conference and had 70 points. He deducted that 10-6 might be enough and 11-5 almost certainly would be, and told his players as much.

Should the Caps win tonight, they will have finished that stretch 12-4.

“I thought 92 [points] or even 90 would be enough,” Boudreau. “Everybody was so bunched up and everybody was beating each other. No one was able to go on any runs. … Every time we lost I said, ’Don’t worry about it. We are still within our goal.’ Evidently I was wrong. I wouldn’t have said anything if I knew we had to go 12-4.

“I would have sat back and said that’s a pretty tough thing to do. But at this stage we only have to win one game.”