Caps Clinch Eastern Conference Title

Despite taking a vacation day in their game against the Calgary Flames (an ugly 5-3 loss), the Caps have clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs -- and guaranteed themselves home-ice advantage for at least the first three rounds of the playoffs. They "earned" this honor by virtue of New Jersey's ugly loss to the Philadelphia Flyers tonight.

The Caps, by normal logic, should have come out strong with a chance to clinch with a win against the Flames. Instead, they treated this afternoon's contest as an extension of their two-day break between games.

The first period was one of the worst 20-minutes stretches in a long time and, by the 10-minute mark, Jose Theodore (who somehow escaped being tagged with the loss) was on the bench, down 3-0. It was a four-goal deficit by the time the Caps scored -- a tally by Alex Ovechkin (his 46th of the season) at 3:49 of the second period. The Caps managed more shots -- five -- by the time Ovie scored than they registered the entire first stanza.

"We didn't have any energy -- it looked like we were skating in quicksand," Coach Bruce Boudreau said. "Their [the Flames] sense of urgency was so tremendous."

Instead of building on the momentum, though, the Caps returned to their lazy ways and somehow managed to keep the Flames off the scoreboard until Rene Bourque scored a goal that was softer than a roll of Charmin at 17:34. Grinder David Steckel notched his fifth less than a minute later.

In the third, the Caps outshot the Flames, 20-2, but only scored once -- a georgeous goal by Mathieu Perreault on the power play at 4:48. From there, they certainly tested the Flames but always were off by a step and couldn't tally again.

"It is easy to look like you are coming back when the other team is sitting with a three-goal lead," Boudreau said. "We didn't have that step. I don't know how to describe it ... We were on four cylinders instead of eight today."

The Caps have until Tuesday, when the Ottawa Senators visit Verizon Center.