As of Tuesday morning, there was a fifty-fifty chance that the Caps would be opening the playoffs next month against one of the top-two offenses in the League in terms of expected goal rate:
No one in the League has scored more goals than the Florida Panthers this year, and the Kitties and Carolina Hurricanes rank first and second, respectively, in all-situation expected goals rate (xGF/60), with Florida posting the highest rate on record (3.53), and Carolina’s pace (3.34) sandwiching their 2018-19 team to round out the top-three since 2007-08.