The Flyers did the Penguins a favor on Friday night.
The Capitals fell to the Flyers, 4-2, in Washington on Friday, setting the stage for the Penguins to potentially clinch the No. 1 seed in the East Division as early as Saturday.
The Penguins will need another favor from the Flyers to clinch Saturday, though.
If the Penguins beat the Sabres in regulation in their 3 p.m. matchup, then the Capitals would need to win their final two games in regulation in order to overtake the Penguins for the No. 1 seed.
So if the Penguins win in regulation and then the Capitals don't beat the Flyers in regulation later that night, then the Penguins lock up the No. 1 seed.
As a Penguins fan, you'll want the Flyers to either beat the Capitals or at least take them to overtime Saturday.
If the Capitals do win in regulation on Saturday, then they still must also beat the Bruins in regulation on Tuesday, so it could potentially be a few more days until we know the final standings.
The games ending in regulation are important because regulation wins is the first tiebreaker when the number of games played and points are even.
The Penguins are currently in first with 75 points and one game remaining, the Capitals are in second with 73 points and two games remaining. Both teams have 28 regulation wins. If the Penguins win in regulation Saturday and get to 29 regulation wins, then the Capitals would need their final two games to be regulation wins to reach 30 regulation wins and pass the Penguins. This is because the next tiebreaker is regulation plus overtime wins, of which the Penguins currently have 33 and the Capitals have 31. So if the Penguins win in regulation and the Capitals only get one more regulation win to finish the season, they'd still lose to the Penguins in the second tiebreaker.