Members of the Ducks wake up this morning with their team holding down fifth place in the battle for one of the eight Western Conference berths in the Stanley Cup playoffs -- a position that is a lot more tenuous than it sounds.
Wednesday's 3-2 overtime win against Calgary came in the Ducks' 57th game of the season -- more than any other team in the conference, and anywhere from two to five games more than the teams behind them in the playoff race.
The Kings, for example, have played five fewer games, meaning they have the potential to make up 10 points -- and at the moment, even though the Kings are in 12th in the West, seven spots behind Anaheim, they trail the Ducks by just six points.
Which is why the three-game homestand that began Wednesday night is hugely critical to Anaheim's playoff prospects, as coach Randy Carlyle noted.
"The points are precious," said Carlyle. "Put an exclamation point on them. The games that we've played -- I guess we're looking at three and four more games than some other teams -- obviously, when you have home games, you're trying to take advantage of your home ice. And we haven't done a good enough job of that this year."
Even with Wednesday's win, the Ducks are just 15-11-3 at home -- 10th in the conference and one point better than the Kings (13-11-6 entering tonight's game with the Flames.)
The games-in-hand situation is such that, if the teams behind Anaheim earned the maximum number of points with those games they have yet to play, Anaheim could fall as far as 12th.
Of course, the math, and more importantly the schedule, doesn't really work that way.
"All those teams that have those games (in hand), they're going to have to play one another," noted Carlyle. That makes it impossible for all of them to get two points every time they're making up a game, but it doesn't mean all of them can't gain ground.
"But with three-point games, there's usually a lot of teams that gain points in games, be it shootouts and overtimes," he said. "And that's why when we're in the situation we're in, we need to win our home games, and we need to win a lot of hockey games against the teams that are around us. And the same goes for all the other teams."
It's why the Ducks knew that extra point they earned against Calgary -- the one they claimed when Scott Niedermayer scored in the first minute of overtime -- was hugely significant.
"They're all big for us, where we are right now," said Niedermayer, who had two goals Wednesday. "We need every point we can get.
"You guys see the standings. We see the standings."
Still, whatever happens in the two games remaining in this homestand -- Sunday against Atlanta and Wednesday against the Kings -- the Ducks will have plenty of chances to cement their current position, or squander it.
There are eight teams trailing the Ducks by eight points or less in the standings, and 15 of the team's 25 remaining games will be against those clubs: three each with Dallas and Phoenix, two with Vancouver, Edmonton and Nashville, and one each with Minnesota, Columbus and the Kings.
From the L.A. perspective, the Kings' 30 remaining games include 16 against the others in that knot of teams battling for the final four playoff spots: three each with Phoenix and Vancouver, two with Edmonton, Minnesota, Dallas and Nashville, and single games with Anaheim and Columbus.
Odd way to start (and finish): The brief overtime -- Niedermayer scored just 55 seconds in -- was unusual because the teams were playing three-on-three.
"Doesn't happen too often," said Niedermayer. "Obviously, there's a lot of room to skate and I tried to take advantage of that. Got a little lucky, obviously, on that goal, but you put it on net, you never know."
Niedermayer broke in with Todd Marchant on the scoring play, flipping the puck toward the net and past Calgary netminder Miikka Kiprusoff, who had been spectacular -- with a little help.
"I was just trying to get it on net," said Niedermayer. "It got deflected, I think."
It's not, as Carlyle noted, a situation you really practice. While there are sometimes three-on-three drills, they're more about conditioning or puck possession or just breaking up the routine, rather than actually working on the situation.
"Usually when you play three-on-three practice," said Carlyle, "it's usually east and west" -- across the width of the ice -- "and you pick teams -- Canadians against Americans ... or old versus young. It's not really any format that you go with.
"We just were fortunate enough that Scotty Niedermayer made a big-time play with Todd Marchant and we got a bounce off of (Dion) Phaneuf's stick."
The overtime was three-on-three, rather than the usual four-on-four, because Anaheim's Chris Kunitz and Calgary's Cory Sarich picked up coincidental roughing minors at the end of regulation.
"It was a little different," said Chris Pronger, who started the overtime for the Ducks with Ryan Getzlaf and Steve Montador. "It's been a while since I've been in three-on-three hockey.
"But it's pretty fun. It's exciting for the fans, and you know somebody's going to be getting some chances somewhere."