from Barry Svrluga of the Washington Post,
In between the second and third periods of Sunday night’s season-ending gut punch of a hockey game for the Washington Capitals, the video screen that hangs above the ice played the first portion of a team-produced documentary on Nicklas Backstrom. The images flipped from Backstrom raising the Stanley Cup above his head, then to the sea of red on Constitution Avenue — a perfect day for a parade. That was three years back.
Then came Backstrom, remembering.
“I want that feeling again,” he said, and quietly.
That feeling, it seems so long ago. And after the Boston Bruins dumped the Caps from these playoffs with their fourth straight victory in this first-round series — 3-1 in Game 5 at dejected Capital One Arena — it’s worth wondering whether that feeling will be back with this group. The Capitals’ last series win in the Stanley Cup playoffs came against the Vegas Golden Knights in 2018, a spring when they won four straight series for the only time in franchise history. Since then, they’re 0-3 — each one a bit more dejecting than the last.
Lose to the Carolina Hurricanes in double overtime of a Game 7 in 2019? Eh, whatever. Look at the Cup!
Lose to the New York Islanders — and that Cup-winning coach, Barry Trotz — in five quick games of the covid-delayed first round last summer? Well, Backstrom was hurt for most of that series, and who knows how the NHL’s Toronto bubble affected anyone? Move on.
But this loss would seem to bring larger questions about what’s possible for these Caps a year from now, three years from now, for the rest of the careers of Backstrom and forever running mate Alex Ovechkin.
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