The Flames stumbled their way through the easy portion of the road trip so now they face the unfavorable task of picking up points against much tougher competition in order to stay in the thick of the WC playoff race.

That starts tonight with the Caps. It's been a rocky road for WAS so far and it looks like Alex Ovechkin has gone from a freakish force of nature to *just* a very good player. Despite their hiccups, the Capitals remain a formidable foe - they are currently 4th in the league in terms of possession (score-tied) behind only DET, STL and CHI (Flames are 19th). Their goaltending has been relatively mediocre and some big guns are suffering through poor SH%, but their first half record shouldn't be taken as proof that their window has closed.

If I was to pick a team to have a big second half of the season, the Caps are near the top of the list. Calgary will need to be drastically better than they have been in their previous stops recently to have any sort of chance.