The Comeback Caps

What happens in Vegas does not always stay in Vegas. The best of seven series is all tied up at 1-1 after the Caps secured a 3-2 victory against the Golden Knights in game two of the Stanley Cup finals. Now, the two teams travel to capital to continue their fight for the cup– the first ever for either franchise.

” Picture credit: Associated Press via FoxNews.com

The expansion Knights facing off against the cursed Caps is a match up no one saw coming. It only took the Las Vegas Golden Knights 227 days to make it to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance. That is not the case for Washington Capitals’ players and fans who have been waiting exactly 19 years, 11 months, and 24 days for another chance to prove themselves worthy of an honor they have consistently fallen short of achieving.
To put things into perspective, the Golden Knights had 200 to 1 odds to win the Stanley Cup in their first year of existence, the worst in the league. The Capitals on the other hand, came into the 2018 season with high expectations. While Washington has never made it past the second round of playoffs in the Alex Ovechkin era spanning 13 seasons, the team has come close especially in the recent years, winning the President’s Trophy back to back in 2016 and 2017.

When you think about a word to describe the Caps in the postseason, resilient seems to be recurring. Capitals head coach Barry Trotz agrees, explaining “this group has had everything thrown at them and they just say, ‘You know what? We’re going to push on.'”
Vegas is also pushing on, both on the ice and in the community. The Golden Knights, who opened their inaugural NHL season just five days after the Las Vegas shooting, have been a rallying point in the wake of tragedy. In the deadliest shooting by an individual in US history, 58 people were killed, roughly 850 injured, and an entire community was shocked and shaken.

On opening night, the Golden Knights honored the 58 victims by holding a 58 second moment of silence. Vegas Defenseman Deryk Engelland addressed the crowd with a promise to “do everything we can to help you and our city heal—we are Vegas strong.”

Picture credit: Las Vegas Review Journal

Suddenly, it became bigger than Hockey. A team made up of misfits from across the league managed to win their first game in T-Mobile Arena, just half a mile from where the tragedy took place. A trend that continued all season long.

“It’s been pretty crazy all throughout the year,” Golden Knights forward James Neal said Saturday. “And when you win and you have success it helps, but I think with what happened on October 1 and the way the city was hurting, for us we just tried to do anything possible to help people out and that brought us even tighter to the city and made us play for a little more than ourselves and our team.”
Stringing together 51 wins in the regular season, the Las Vegas Golden Knights are three wins away from hoisting the Stanley Cup and giving the city the happy ending it not only needs, but deserves.

Don’t miss out on any of the action. Here’s how and where to watch:
o Game 1: Golden Knights 6, Capitals 4
o Game 2: Capitals 3, Golden Knights 2
o Game 3 (in Washington): Saturday, June 2, 8 p.m. ET (NBCS)
o Game 4 (in Washington): Monday, June 4, 8 p.m. ET (NBC)
o Game 5 (in Vegas): Thursday, June 7, 8 p.m. ET (NBC)
o Game 6 (in Washington): Sunday, June 10, 8 p.m. ET (NBC)
o Game 7 (in Vegas): Wednesday, June 13, 8 p.m. ET (NBC)