There's always a Winner and a Loser in the NHL, and this is a new nightly look at some of the winners and losers in the biggest games and biggest situations across the league.Winners
Philadelphia Flyers: The Flyers caught a bit of a break on Thursday night when Toronto's starting goalie, Jonas Gustavsson, was injured during warmups, forcing the Maple Leafs to turn to Jussi Rynnas.
The result probably wasn't all that different from what you would expect. The Flyers blitzed Toronto for seven goals during a 7-1 win, sending the Leafs to their 11th straight home loss and pushing their fans to start chanting for the local baseball team.
When combined with Pittsburgh's second consecutive loss to theIslanders on Thursday, the Flyers are now just two points back of the Penguins for the No. 4 seed and home-ice advantage in the opening round of the playoffs, while the teams still have two head-to-head matchups remaining, including Sunday afternoon's game in Pittsburgh.
At this point it's looking like a very likely first round matchup, and the only question that remains is which team gets the luxury of playing the majority of the games in their home building.
[Related: Flyers 7, Maple Leafs 1 -- Leafs fans ready for baseball season]
Washington Capitals: This one was going to be bad.
The Capitals let yet another multiple goal lead slip away late in regulation, allowing the Bruins to score two goals over the final four minutes of regulation to send the game to overtime. Fortunately for the Capitals they were able to gain the extra point with a 3-2 shootout win thanks to goals from Brooks Laich and Matt Hendricks.
Laich's goal was the winner, but Hendricks is the one that will make highlights for pulling off a move that pretty much embarrassed Bruins goalie Tim Thomas.
With the win the Capitals move back into a tie with Buffalo for the No. 8 seed in the East, and rebounded from what was a disappointing loss to the Sabres on Tuesday.
[Related: Capitals 3, Bruins 2 -- Chimera ejected -- Hendricks goal]
Losers
Pittsburgh Penguins: It was a long shot heading into Thursday night, but another loss to the New York Islanders, their second one in three days, this one by a 5-3 margin, pretty much eliminates any chance of the Penguins catching the New YorkRangers for the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference, all but wrapping up the top spot (and the Atlanta Division title) for the blue shirts.
Following Tuesday's loss in Pittsburgh the Penguins talked about cutting down on the number of scoring chances they allowed, with Dan Bylsma saying prior to Thursday's game they would like to be down around 12 against.
By my count they allowed 18 on Thursday.
Sidney Crosby had a bit of a scare early in the second period when he was hit in the face with a puck on a clearing attempt by Islanders defenseman Dylan Reese, but he was able to return to the game.
About the only other positive for Pittsburgh is that with his 47th goal of the season, Evgeni Malkin became the first player in the NHL this season to reach the 100-point mark.
[Related: Islanders 5, Penguins 3 -- Penguins feel they're giving up too many scoring chances]
Florida Panthers: It may not be a big deal at this point, but by losing in overtime, 3-2, to the Minnesota Wild the Panthers allowed the Capitals to gain a point in the Southeast Division race, but it still seems like Florida is going to take this thing when all is said and done. Though, the Capitals would own the tiebreaker and they still have a head-to-head meeting remaining. They needed to get two points against a team like the Wild.
[Related: Wild 3, Panthers 2 -- Playoff Picture]
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