The NHL regular season is a good way to sort out which teams are pretenders and which are contenders. Of course, once the playoffs roll around throw all that out the window and forget everything you knew. Nobody knows that better than the regular season juggernaut Washington Capitals, but for once it’s actually working in their favour.
Coming into their second round matchup with the Pittsburgh Penguins the Caps had a massive King Kong-sized monkey on their back (yes, we are aware that King Kong was a gorilla, but the monkey on the Caps’ back was the size of that massive gorilla, okay? It works). They had met the Penguins in the playoffs 10 times in their franchise history, and they’d been eliminated by the Pens nine of those times. They had their season ended by the Pens in literally one-third of their 27 franchise playoff appearances.
But it’s a new year, and a new attempt. Could 2018 finally be the year the Caps break the curse? So far the hockey gods seem to be smiling their approval on Alex Ovechkin and his band of merry men, and they even have one of those shocking season-vs-playoffs stats shining in their favour for once.
Pretty nuts that the Pens didn’t lose in regulation once after leading into the 2nd intermission, even more nuts that it’s now happened twice in the three losses they’ve suffered this series. One fan replied with another interesting stat.
Could this finally be the Caps’ year? Maybe, or it may be priming the gears for a little extra devastation.
(H/T Adam Gretz)
