Despite dropping last night’s game in overtime to the Pittsburgh Penguins, the Washington Capitals (thanks to forcing overtime) secured a point and not only got 69 points but punched their ticket to the Stanley Cup playoffs for the seventh consecutive year. We can all thank Tom Wilson for not only tying the game but giving us free McNuggets.
Here are some stats via NHL PR about the Caps impressive feat. The Caps have reached the postseason for the 13th time in 14 seasons since 2007-08, one of two clubs to do so in 2020-21. The Penguins have extended their active run to 15 straight postseason appearances.
The Caps run of seven consecutive playoff appearances is the second longest stretch in franchise history. The highest was 14 straight trips from 1983 to 1996. It is also the second longest active run in the NHL behind the Penguins and ahead of the Nashville Predators, who can match the Caps this season.
Alex Ovechkin and Nicklas Backstrom, each holders of Caps recordsfor career playoff goals, assist, points, and games played, will extend their benchmark for most years in the postseason with 12. They are two of 13 active players with at least 100 career playoff points, and one of five sets of current teammates on that list.
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Ovechkin ranks 18th in NHL history with 69 career playoff goals, trailing only Patrick Marleau among active players and is among the top 50 in career playoff points ranking 44th with 131. Ovechkin has scored at least four gaosl in 11 of his 12 previous postseason appearances, second only to Wayne Gretzky for the most such playoff performances.
As one of the last three winners of the Staney Cup, the Caps rank third in the league in terms of both the number of Cup winners on their roster (14) and total combined championships (17), trailing the two most recent winners in each category.
Nine members of Washington’s 2018 Stanley Cup team are still with the club. Those players are Backstrom, Ovechkin, John Carlson, Lars Eller, Michal Kempny, Wilson, Evgeny Kuznetsov, Dmitry Orlov, and T.J. Oshie.
Carl Hagelin, Justin Schultz, and Conor Sheary all won the Cup with Pittsburgh in 2016 and 2017, while Trevor van Riemsdyk was with the Chicago Blackhawks in their 2015 win. Hagelin, Schultz, and Sheary can become the first set of teammates since 1997 to win multiple Cups with one team and then skate in the postseason together with another club. That last happened in 1997 when Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Esa Tikkanen, and Jeff Beukeboom all played for the Rangers after winning multiple championships together with the Edmonton Oilers.
NOT SO FAST!!! Tie game 🔥 pic.twitter.com/90xKKWuDFO
— Washington Capitals (@Capitals) April 30, 2021
Carlson ranks fifth among active defensemen with 66 career playoff points, teammate Zdeno Chara is one of the blueliners ahead of him on that list. Carlson is one of five active skaters who leads his current franchise in career playoff goals, assists, points, and games played among defensemen.
Vitek Vanecek and Ilya Samsonov will enter the playoffs with fewer than 80 career combined regular season games Only 10 NHL teams have won the Stanley Cup after dressing goaltenders in the postseason who had a combined 100 or fewer career regular season starts, including only two instances in the past 80 years, one in 1944 and the other in 1945.
There is nothing like the excitement of playoff hockey in the district. This Caps team has all the tools and leadership it needs to make some serious noise this spring and potentially summer. This is a strong team and they have a legitimate shot at winning their second Stanley Cup.