Or maybe they don't need to win and they need the higher abyss. Unfortunately, Washington Capitals fans, we have now reached that fork in the road after they dropped five in a row.
And when you're a team in the Metropolitan Division, no matter who the team is, when it's a five game winning streak those fans go "omg maybe we're not so bad after all, let's get the Cup!".
But right now most Caps fans are thinking the sky is falling. I don't care if you think I'm a glass half empty or a glass half full type of person, I like to get every angle objectively.
Here's your glass half full: salary cap relief from Evgeny Kuznetsov entering the player assistance program. That's money to spend if GMBM believes in this squad enough.
Your glass half empty right now is someone may go. That's not fiction. That's fact.
It's up to the players on the ice really. Spencer Carbery can motivate all he wants. Brian MacLellan can work the phones and try to find a fit and right now it looks like that player that could go is Joel Edmundson.
If they trade him, now what? The return has to be promising. And that hyperlink a few paragrpahs ago that went to Elliotte Friedman's 32 Thoughts indicates that it may be the case.
The Caps have until March 8 to figure this out. The Caps got Edmundson's services at the expense of a third and seventh rounder. They need picks and at the very least a reliable forward or defensman.
If they want to gamble on Darcy Kuemper or Charlie Lindgren, who have been like Jeckyll and Hyde lately, cool. If it works more hockey for everyone if they use the cap releif right. If not, back to the drawing board we go. Either way, should be an interesing week.