It’s officially that time of year, ladies and gentlemen. The Stanley Cup Playoffs are here, which only means one thing: I’m ready to get my heart broken again. The storylines for this playoffs are endless, including the Penguins’ chances to capture its third straight championship and Vegas making it into the postseason during its inaugural season. However, there’s only one true story fans should be focused on: We’re only a couple months away from Alexander Ovechkin winning his first-ever Stanley Cup.
At the beginning of the season, I wrote a piece guaranteeing Ovechkin will score 50 goals this year and that 2018 will be the year for the Capitals to win the franchise’s first ever Stanley Cup and, although Ovechkin may have fallen just short of this prediction, there’s no reason for me to stray away from my confidence for the Capitals in this year’s playoffs.
Ovechkin still had a season that is worthy of a Hart Trophy. He led a team that was gutted of talent during last summer because of salary cap constraints back to another Metropolitan Division title with a team-leading 49 goals and 87 points. Ovechkin’s hungry and he’s playing some of the best hockey in his career at the tender age of 32. Look out for him to have something to prove in this year’s playoffs, during a season that he was coming into being labeled “washed up.”
Aside from Ovechkin’s MVP-caliber season, it’s also worth mentioning that the Capitals are coming into these playoffs hot. They have won 12 of their last 15 games before coming into the post season and several players are showing they could prove to be an X factor once the puck drops for the playoffs. Evgeny Kuznetsov very quietly put up over a point per game this year, accumulating 83 points in 79 games. If he is able to continue this kind of production over the next two months, this will be a very hard Capitals team to beat; Washington still has the loaded center core of its past Presidents’ Trophy-winning teams of Nicklas Backstrom, Lars Eller and Jay Beagle.
The next, and perhaps most important, dark horse for the Capitals entering this postseason is the play of goaltender Philipp Grubauer. After Braden Holtby forgot how to play hockey this past February, Grubauer has been seeing the majority of the action for the Capitals. He has done nothing but excel at the opportunity and is a huge reason behind much of the team’s recent success at the conclusion of the regular season.
If there’s anything I’ve learned about the roller coaster ride of the NHL playoffs, it’s that a hot goaltender will lead you to places that you never could have imagined. I’m ready to fully strap in on the Philipp Grubauer wave and hopefully ride this wave of stellar play to the promised land of the NHL.
So buckle up, hockey fans, because the Caps are coming. The Capitals may let their fans down and lose in the second round time and time again, but trust me when I say this team is different. All the pressures and expectations to win are off their shoulders, Ovechkin is still the greatest and Philipp Grubauer is ready to prove that all a team really needs is a hot goalie. People may doubt it, but I only have one more thing to say: Caps over Jets in five.
Photo courtesy of espn.com
