STANLEY CUP FINALS: A Baggage-shedding Win

When the Stanley Cup was brought out onto the ice at T-Mobile Arena last night, I cried.  I’m not afraid to admit it.  Tears were welling up in my eyes, and I’m not even a Capitals fan.  When Alex Ovechkin briefly posed for a photo with NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and then jubilantly hoisted the most revered trophy in sports, the tears started streaming down my face.  The overwhelming joy on Alex Ovechkin’s face said it all, but there was another level to his joy than you see with most athletes.  You see, the last time I saw a hockey player with the same look on his face as he received the Stanley Cup and hoisted it was 2001, and that player was Raymond Bourque.[1]  That look was a combination of joy, relief, and reaching the ultimate level of success in his craft after years of disappointment.

Ovechkin is one of the most talented players ever to play hockey.  He entered the NHL in the 2005-06 season[2] and has amassed 607 career goals – more than any other active player not named Jaromir Jagr – and is only 32 years old.[3] [4]  However, he had the reputation of a great player who could never win it all, especially when being compared to Sidney Crosby,[5] who entered the league the same year as Ovechkin.  There were great players across other sports who had that label until late in their career,[6] but Ovechkin is better at his sport than those guys were at theirs.[7]  So when Ovechkin raised the Cup last night, it was so special to see.

There were other guys on the Capitals who have been in the league for a long time – Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Jay Beagle, Braden Holtby, Matt Niskanen, and Lars Eller, just to name a few – and it was great to see them finally win the Cup.  I was especially happy for Head Coach Barry Trotz, who entered the league as the very first head coach of the Nashville Predators in 1998.  But I was also happy for the Capitals fans.  I know, as a Suns, Coyotes, and Cardinals fan, what it is like to support a star-crossed franchise.  The Capitals fans have been through enough.  It’s great to see them with smiles on their faces at the end of the postseason.

I’ll have to admit that I was living vicariously through the Capitals.  I can’t say that it gave me hope as a fan of the Cardinals, Coyotes, or Suns[8], but it certainly showed me what it will be like if one of them do.  When Ovechkin raised the Cup, I saw what it may have looked like for Shane Doan, Steve Nash, Kevin Johnson, or Charles Barkley, or what it will look like for Larry Fitzgerald.  So, in a way, I felt like it was a victory for not just the Capitals fans, but also for fans of the Suns, Cardinals, Vancouver Canucks, Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bills, Minnesota Vikings, Texas Rangers, and San Diego Padres.[9]

Sometimes the victory that finally gets a team or player over the hump opens the floodgates to a dynasty.  Don’t rule this out for the Caps.  Their team is stacked.  But Caps fans, this might never happen again, so enjoy the heck out of it.  Buy every piece of championship apparel that you can afford.  Enjoy this.  You deserve it.  Congratulations to the Washington Capitals for a hard-fought, well-deserved Stanley Cup.

Friday, June 8, 2018, 8:35 am MST

[1] Bourque had entered the league in 1979 but had never won the Stanley Cup before that moment.

[2] He would have started in 2004-05, but that entire season was cancelled due to the lockout.

[3] He turns 33 on September 17.

[4] From the “possible pipe dream” department… Ovechkin averages 0.61 goals per game played.  If – and I know this is a big if – he keeps the same pace, then he will pass Gretzky six seasons from now for first all time.  Amazing.

[5] Crosby has won three Stanley Cups with the Penguins, who, as I pointed out yesterday, consistently have knocked the Capitals out of the playoffs.

[6] Examples: Steve Young, John Elway, Peyton Manning, Kevin Garnett, and Carlos Beltran.  Yes, I believe that Ovechkin is better at hockey than Manning is at football, and I know that opinion might be unpopular.

[7] I will defend this argument until I am blue in the face.

[8] I honestly believe that the Suns will not win the championship as long as Robert Sarver is the owner.

[9] Caps fans, please, give us SOMETHING.