from Alex Prewitt of The Washington Post,
The Washington Capitals have told themselves there will be another day, and without question this is cemented in their minds. They feel confident there will be another game beyond the winner-take-all, loser-go-home meeting with the New York Islanders on Monday night, the seventh and last in these Eastern Conference quarterfinals. They believe they will watch the next round while playing in it themselves, not sitting on their couches at home, stewing and wondering what could have been.
They have told themselves they will meet again inside this practice facility to scheme and watch video of the New York Rangers, the opponent awaiting whichever club emerges victorious from Verizon Center, and not to conduct exit interviews. They hope they will peel another frame from their advent calendar, the one with 16 squares, the number of wins necessary to capture the Stanley Cup. Deep down, they insisted all this work wouldn’t be for naught, that what they accomplished in Coach Barry Trotz’s first season wouldn’t get overshadowed by another early-round, Game 7 exit.
They convinced themselves of these things because concentrating on anything else would be to acknowledge the alternative.
“The main thing is having no regrets,” forward Joel Ward said. “You don’t want to have any shoulda-woulda-couldas.”
from Arthur Staple of Newsday,
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