You hear it all the time from athletes, coaches and fans - talk of the proverbial “must-win” game. It’s almost always more figurative than literal, not to mention histrionic, and this is the time of the hockey year when you start hearing the term, with the trade deadline and post-season looming and teams confronting the realities of where the past four months have situated them.
Throughout the season, though, most teams (this year’s Washington Capitals among them) have a bunch of “should wins” and “probably shouldn’t wins” and the rest are coin flips, more or less. Of course, things don’t always go according to expectations - teams lose “should wins” all the time, and snag dubs against superior teams out of the ether as if by magic.