Raising the Stanley Cup banner

As the 2017-2018 Washington Capitals season started, I couldn’t begin to imagine that this season might be the season. In fact, I felt like the Caps were going backwards after their usual game 7 loss in round 2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins. It was hard to get excited for another 82-game season and Alex Ovechkin’s famous quote “We’re not going to be suck” did not inspire early season confidence. The Caps looked like they were playing with hangovers although Ovi set out to prove that he wasn’t going to suck by scoring 7 goals in his first 3 games.


The team took until the end of November to start getting into a rhythm of more wins than losses and were making progress towards not sucking. Then, Braden Holtby completely lost his game in February and Philipp Grubauer stepped in to help the Caps make it to the playoffs while Holtby rested and got his game back. Grubauer started in the first two playoff games, both losses against the Columbus Blue Jackets, but, after that, Holtby reclaimed the net for good.


It was inevitable that once the Caps beat the Blue Jackets, they would have to face the Pittsburgh Penguins. There was no other path to the Stanley Cup for this team or its long suffering fans. It would have to go through Pittsburgh. Evgeni Kuznetsov‘s game winning overtime goal off of Alex Ovechkin’s pass in game 6, NOT game 7, couldn’t have been any sweeter for Caps fans.


The 3^rd round against the Tampa Bay Lightning is where game 7 came into play, but I wasn’t worried. I knew the Caps were going to beat the Lightning because it felt inevitable. The Las Vegas Golden Knights were engaged in their storybook inaugural season and former Caps General Manager George McPhee was now the GM of the Golden Knights. Hockey loves a good storyline and GMGM playing his former protégé, Brian MacLellan for the Stanley Cup was too good to be true for the hockey gods.


The Caps dominated Vegas and fans began to believe that there might be a Stanley Cup coming to Washington. Finally, this team shed their bad culture of coaches past and learned how to play for each other, focus on defense in their zone, and play loose, something the Caps of the past had never done before during the playoffs in the Ovechkin era. Coach Barry Trotz earns the credit for establishing that culture and making the players accountable to the team. Brooks Orpik’s leadership didn’t hurt either as the most respected guy in the locker room and only Stanley Cup winner kept the team focused.


When game 5 started, I knew this had to be the game because there was no other choice. The Caps had momentum and they had to close it out. Vegas wasn’t going to make it easy for them though and the game went back/forth with me throwing things when it looked like the Knights scored on Holtby, but it was called back. There were 5 goals scored in the second period and the game had my emotions on a roller coaster. But, the Caps prevailed when the unlikely hero, Devante Smith-Pelly, scored his 7^th goal of the playoffs, after scoring only 7 in the regular season. He tied up the game in the 3^rd period and Lars Eller sealed the victory 12-minutes into the 3^rd period. The final 8-minutes felt like watching the final 10-minutes of the “Miracle on Ice” all over again. The Caps prevailed and finally, finally, finally lifted the Stanley Cup.


What helped the Caps get over the hump? There was the Conn Smythe winner, generational hockey goal scorer, and team captain Alex Ovechkin, who commanded games and set the tone in many of them. Evgeni Kuznetsov’s, prolific point scorer in the playoffs, contributed his wizardry to the cause. There were also no expectations for this Caps team. They weren’t the favorite or the President’s trophy winner, but there was a good mix of young players with zero experience of expectations, like rookies Nathan Walker, Christian Djoos, Madison Bowey, Travis Boyd and Shane Gersich, mixed with the veteran leadership of Brooks Orpik and the team first attitude of everyone. It was awesome to watch.


The final thing that got the Caps over the hump. Luck. The Caps had it. I’ve never seen anything like Yanni Gourde missing a wide-open net in Tampa Bay during game 7 in a Caps playoff game. That was the beginning of the end for that series with the Caps benefitting from multiple lucky breaks.  

The only thing that beat watching that final series was attending the parade. It was the highlight of my hockey fandom, and Washington sports team fandom. I’ve never been in a crowd in Washington D.C that was this happy. It was awesome.


Tonight, the goose bumps started with 2:00 minutes left in the countdown to the banner raising. The tears started rolling down my face as the banner went up. I still can’t believe it, but, boy, do I love this team and am so happy most of them are back.

Let’s go Caps!