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The Washington Capitals Win Their First Stanley Cup



LAS VEGAS — Across their 43 seasons, the Washington Capitals have dabbled in hapless hockey and exquisite hockey, boring hockey and effective hockey, but never had they played winning hockey through four playoff rounds, all the way to a grueling, glorious end.
It took a team hardened by those postseason failures but liberated from high expectations to complete a run as dazzling as it was cathartic, capping it on Thursday night by dispatching the upstart Vegas Golden Knights, 4-3, to win the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
It was the Capitals’ fourth consecutive victory in the finals after a disorienting 6-4 loss in the opener that made little sense in the context of how they played immediately before and afterward. After twice shutting out the offensive powerhouse Tampa Bay Lightning to advance to its first Cup finals since 1998, Washington outscored the Golden Knights across these last four games by 16-8.
Lars Eller scored the winning goal with 7 minutes 27 seconds remaining, jamming in a loose puck that had slid through Marc-Andre Fleury’s pads and rested at the top of the crease behind him. The Capitals’ bench erupted, and Eller hopped away as if dancing.

Unlike past Washington teams puffed with stars that collapsed in the playoffs, this group conveyed a certain resilience that infused their play, in games and in series. Even on Thursday, Washington blew two leads in a frenetic second period that ended with Vegas ahead by 3-2. But Devante Smith-Pelly evened the score on a diving goal at 9:52 of the third before Eller assured that these Capitals would become the second team to win the Cup after trailing in every round, joining the Penguins of 1991.
That same year, the Redskins embarked on a season that ended with Super Bowl glory. None of the Washington area’s major professional franchises (apologies, D.C. United) had won a championship since, and no team since the Capitals in 1998 had even advanced to the conference finals, let alone the last round. That’s even more remarkable considering some of the sporting luminaries who have played there: Bryce Harper, Max Scherzer, Clinton Portis, John Wall, Michael Jordan.

The hockey team alone in the last two decades featured Adam Oates, Jaromir Jagr and Sergei Fedorov.
But along came the Russian stars Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, backed by a robust supporting cast that matched offensive prowess with discipline, structure and tenacity. Ovechkin, who scored the Capitals’ second goal Thursday and was awarded the Conn Smythe Trophy, embodied the two-way commitment demanded by Coach Barry Trotz, blocking shots and delivering checks. He finished this postseason with 27 points, just behind Kuznetsov, who had 32, which was the most since his fellow Russian Evgeni Malkin had 36 for Pittsburgh in 2009.



The team’s captain and longest-tenured player, Ovechkin, 32, endured more disappointment than anyone else on the Capitals. He has spent all 13 seasons of his transcendent career with the team, who drafted him first over all in 2004.
George McPhee — the general manager who selected Ovechkin and constructed Washington’s spine, from Nicklas Backstrom to John Carlson to Kuznetsov to Holtby — also assembled in Vegas the most successful first-year franchise in major North American sports history. Vegas romped to a Pacific Division title and burned through the Western Conference bracket, losing only three times in its first 16 playoff games.
Facing elimination, the Golden Knights confronted their predicament with defiance. Opening their pregame festivities, a video implored fans not to give up — if the Boston Red Sox in 2004 and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016 and the New England Patriots in 2017 could overcome imposing deficits, then so, they hoped, could Vegas.
In contrast to these Golden Knights, the expansion Capitals in 1974-75 compiled what is still regarded as the worst season in league history, an 8-67-5 record worth 21 points. The franchise matured into a perennial contender, and for more than a decade Washington has been one of the N.H.L.’s top teams, winning its division eight times in 11 seasons and making 10 postseason appearances over all in that span.
Each of those playoff forays had been defined, in one way or another, by calamitous defeat: to eighth-seeded Montreal in 2010; in seven games to the Rangers in 2012, 2013 and 2015; in consecutive series to Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017, despite finishing with the most points in the league both seasons. In the Ovechkin era, the Capitals have twice bungled three-games-to-one leads, and before vanquishing Tampa Bay last month, they had lost seven of 10 Game 7s.
“We don’t really dwell on the game before, let alone the things that have happened in years past,” forward T.J. Oshie said after Game 4. “But there’s been heartbreak here, we know that. But I think that’s kind of scarred over and has made us a little stronger for it.”

An hour before face-off, hundreds of Washington fans that assembled near the boards started chanting, “Let’s go, Caps!” Clad in red, they soon filled in sections in the upper and lower bowls, forming a far larger presence than they had in either of the first two games here, and it seemed like half of T-Mobile Arena stood and screamed joyously after Eller scored.
Trotz has discussed the Capitals’ postseason struggles openly, often comparing his teams to others that foundered before winning, like the Islanders dynasty of the early 1980s and the Detroit Red Wings of the mid-1990s.
“All of these experiences,” Trotz said recently, “help you find out how much you can take and how much you can give.”
For years, the Capitals took and took and gave and gave, and now, with nothing more to take and nothing left to give, there is but one thing left for them to do: celebrate.
Because they, after 43 seasons, are finally champions.



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