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Capitals’ two-week gut check begins tonight

Montreal Canadiens v Washington Capitals

WASHINGTON, DC - FEBRUARY 24: Alex Ovechkin #8 of the Washington Capitals celebrates after scoring a goal against the Montreal Canadiens at Verizon Center on February 24, 2012 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)

Patrick McDermott

Many people in the hockey world have already made their minds up about the Washington Capitals - most likely in a bad way. Still, for those who are giving the struggling squad the benefit of the doubt, the next two weeks should provide a succinct answer.

Everything about their season would say that they’ll shrink from the challenge ahead, but that’s the fun thing about sports - if they flourish, they could very well be a dangerous eighth seed or even a surprise division winner. Here’s a game-by-game look at a trying and fascinating stretch.

Tonight: vs. Tampa Bay - The Lightning have been hot lately, but with Mathieu Garon on the mend, the Caps need to squash those upstarts.

Saturday: at Boston - An afternoon road game against the defending champs won’t be easy even with the Bruins being a little off.

Sunday: vs. Toronto - The last home game of this stretch comes against the only team that might be more desperate than them.

March 13: at Islanders - Washington better not take the Isles lightly - this could be a “trap game” considering the rest of the schedule.

March 16: at Winnipeg - The Jets are currently two points ahead of the Capitals and Washington’s game in hand advantage has dropped to one paltry contest. Winnipeg’s 21-10-4 at home so, yeah, this should be a big test.

March 18: at Chicago; March 19: at Detroit - The third and fourth road contests take the Capitals through two dangerous Central Division teams in back-to-back games. Normally getting two points out of that duo would be acceptable, but Washington will likely hope for more.

March 22: at Philadelphia - The tough two-week run ends against a bitter foe of the Capitals.
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To review, this stretch includes three contests against teams at or around their playoff position, four matches against surefire playoff squads and a potential trap game against those meddlesome Islanders. Six of their eight games are on the road, which is the most interesting part since Washington is a pathetic 11-18-3 away from the Verizon Center.

If they can weather this two-week storm, they’ll be in great shape with four out of five home games and five contests in Washington vs. three road matches overall. With all that in mind, share your thoughts: will the Capitals flip the script and actually respond to the challenge or will this challenging run be their predictable undoing?