Washington Capitals Playoff Tickets

Since they drafted Alexander Ovechkin in 2005, the Capitals have had one of the best goal scorers ever to play in the NHL. Washington built some strong teams around Ovechkin. They won over a half dozen division titles starting in 2008, and they finished first in league three times between 2010 and 2017.

For a long time, however, the Capitals’ (and Ovechkin’s) regular season success did not carry over into the playoffs. After winning the President’s Trophy in 2010, the Capitals lost to the eighth-seeded Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs. This disappointing performance became a trend, as the Capitals would enter the playoffs with high expectations but would fizzle out in the first two rounds of the playoffs.

The Caps’ most heartbreaking playoff losses came in the 2016 and 2017 playoffs. In both years, the Caps won the President’s Trophy: they were the best team during the regular season. They faced their division rivals, the Pittsburgh Penguins, in the second round. And in both years, the Penguins came out on top. They beat the Capitals in 6 in 2016 and in 7 in 2017. The Penguins went on to win the Stanley Cup both times. It became clear that if the Capitals were going to win the Cup--or even get out of the second round--they were going to have to beat Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins to do it.

Washington entered the 2017-18 season with lower expectations after they’d lost key pieces from their first-place team from the year before. Still, the Capitals won the Metropolitan division. They had a scare in the first round after they lost the first two games of their series with the Columbus Blue Jackets. But after they made a change in goal and started Braden Holtby in Game 3, the Capitals won the next four games. In the second round, they played the Penguins for the third consecutive year. The Capitals finally came out on top after Evgeny Kuznetsov scored in overtime of Game 6, and they made it past the second round for the first time since 1998.

After they defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning in a tough seven game series, the Caps advanced to the franchise’s second Stanley Cup Final. They faced the upstart Vegas Golden Knights. The Golden Knights won Game 1, but the more experienced Capitals won the next four games and captured the team’s first Stanley Cup. Alex Ovechkin might still be celebrating.