Washington Capitals: So Close They Could Taste It
Two more wins. That was it. 14 down and two to go before the Washington Capitals could reach the mountaintop.
One year ago today on June 4, 2018, the Washington Capitals were so close they could taste the beer and the champagne coming from the Stanley Cup. But they knew a pivotal Game 4 was coming up first.
Same deal before the game. T.J. Oshie and Matt Niskanen rode the metro. Fans packed both inside and outside the arena. Then a little different but same vibe with maybe a splash of confidence from winning the other night.
Fall Out Boy rocked the Portrait Gallery Steps before Max Scherzer and Ryan Zimmerman fired up the crowd inside just moments before dropping the puck. Two Nationals players screaming “let’s go Caps” from the top of their lungs… lit is an understatement.
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If you thought the atmosphere at Game 3 was crazy, you hadn’t seen nothing yet.
It was intense from the drop of the puck and after Lars Eller got tripped up by Colin Miller, the Capitals headed to the power play.
With Washington on the attack, Evgeny Kuznetsov fed a diagonal pass right in front of the net to a charging T.J. Oshie. Kuznetsov was giving away assists with ease. He set up Tom Wilson later in the period with a beauty right in front of the net. It came off a give-n-go with Wilson cutting to the net and getting the pass on the fly.
With just 20 seconds left in the period, Matt Niskanen fired a long range pass that Devante Smith-Pelly caught with his skate. He soccer styled the puck right to his stick and put it past Marc-Andre Fleury for a goal in his second straight game. Just the latest chapter in the legend of the playoff hero.
The Capitals killed off two Vegas Golden Knights power plays and were later rewarded with a man-advantage when James Neal went to the sin bin for slashing. Then Kuznetsov was at it again, dishing a pass to John Carlson from the wheelhouse that is also Ovechkin’s office.
The 4-0 lead was big because no Washington sporting event is complete without a scare from the other team. Neal redeemed himself to but the Golden Knights on the board early in the third. Reilly Smith cut the deficit in half.
The Capitals needed insurance and on a 4-on-4, Oshie created a chance to Nicklas Backstrom. Backstrom fired a laser to Michal Kempny and the trade deadline acquisition scored his biggest goal as a Capital.
Late in the third with just over a minute left on a 5-on-3, Brett Connolly got the party in D.C. started early and his most adorable fan was right there in the stands screaming.
It seemed like goal after goal the noise grew. It not only grew inside the building.
It not only grew at the watch party outside the arena that hadn’t skipped a beat since Saturday. It extended past the National Harbor. It went to the neighborhoods of Maryland and Baltimore. It stretched all the way to the communities of Virginia from Arlington to Capitalsville, to Richmond.
Next. A look back at Game 3 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final. dark
We’ve all seen other cities celebrate championships. Sometimes we’re happy for them. Sometimes we think it’s a city that’s celebrated too much. But we were so close to a Stanley Cup. Just one more win.
Our city’s time was coming. The 6-2 win made it clear that we wanted the Cup.