NHL Standings ordered by points: Washington Capitals near the bottom

The Washington Capitals started out cold, got hot midway, then played on and off. As a result they're 22-18-7 with 51 points. That's actually a three way tie with the Devils and Penguins.

There's two distinct differences there when you look at it. Of course we all know the Penguins have that retirment home core that the Captials have. What's different with the Devils is they have a legitmate excuse to have that little points after a good season that many believed would be New Jersey competing for a Cup for the next few years.

When you look at those Devils injuries you don't have to even be a super fan to recognize these names. The Devils have FOUR players on injured resrve and that inlcudes Dougie Hamilton with a pectoral muscle. We all know Jack Hughes was the number one draft pick in 2019 and on Jan. 5 he suffered an upper body injury.

Other Devils injuries include Brendan Smith with a knee injury. Jonas Siegenthaler, a former Capital, had a foot injury.

Now that we looked at the teams tied with the Caps among points, let's look at some of the top teams. We won't list all 32 because we know you have to head to work or school. So we'll keep this simple and show you the top 10 teams from 1 to 10 along with their points so far.

1. Vancouver Canucks 71

2. Boston Bruins 71

3. Colorado Avalanche 68

4. Forida Panthers 66

5. Dallas Stars 66

6. Winnipeg Jets 65

7. New York Rangers 65

8. Vegas Golden Knights 64

9. Carolina Hurricanes 61

10. Edmonton Oilers 59

Remember the Oilers started out so bad and many thought they were a Cup contender. But they turned it around and of course it had to come against the Caps when we all went shopping for the hoidays on Black Friday.

So to sum it up, yes the Caps are down right now. But they certainly aren't out of it yet. But they need to get hot soon and that begins tonight