Washington Capitals: Remembering that amazing 2018 championship run

On this night three years ago the Washington Capitals won the Stanley Cup. It ended 44 years of frustration and heartbreak whether it was in the regular season when the Caps were an expansion franchise that couldn’t reach double digits in wins or playoff heartbreak after playoff heartbreak for fans young and old.

The Game

The first period was scoreless but the action really picked up in the second period. Jakub Vrana scored on a breakaway to give the Caps an early 1-0 lead. Nate Schmidt would tie it less than three minutes later.

The Caps would take the lead on the power play with Nicklas Backstrom feeding a cross ice pass to Alex Ovechkin for the go ahead goal. It sent the Caps fans at T-Mobile Arena and back in the DMV into a frenzy.

The Vegas Golden Knights would snatch moment right back with a goal from David Perron and Riley Smith on the power play to go up 3-2 heading into the second intermission. The Caps weren’t phased.

In the third period Devante Smith-Pelly rebounded in a Brooks Orpik shot. A few minutes later Lars Eller buried in a shot from Brett Connolly for what would turn out to be the game winning goal.

The scene in DC

One week prior to June 7th, my dad and I were looking at Stanley Cup Finals tickets for Games 3, 4 or 6. With the prices being insane, I had an alternative idea which my dad nodded his head on. Instead of going to a game, we were going to go to an away game watch party. I happened to suggest we’d go to the Game 5 one, little did we know what was in store that night a week later.

The Caps had won Game 2 at that point and were coming home. They would win Games 3 and 4 at home. After winning Game 4 and being one win away from the Cup, we knew we were in store for a special night for Game 5.

We get on the metro and there’s people everywhere. People even sitting on the floor who couldn’t get seats. I’ve been to large events like opening day but I’ve never seen it that packed.

When we got to G street where they were showing the game outside the arena on the big screens, I ran into my good friend Andrew Gillis. He’s now with NBC Sports Washington covering the Caps but growing up we talked Caps hockey nonstop and he even helped me get Stars and Sticks off the ground a few years ago. He had just graduated college and we both talked about how we were looking forward to this night for so many years.

When Vegas had their long pregame intro the crowd was booing but they went nuts when the Caps character actually stopped the Golden Knight before he rallied toward the end. We weren’t inside the arena, we tried to get tickets for inside but the computer crashed and they sold out. But outside it was a party.

The energy outside was unlike anything I had seen before and we sent good vibes to the team who was all the way out in Vegas looking to get the job done. Even when the Caps were trailing entering the final period, there was no negative energy whatsoever.

When Eller put the puck past, or should I say further behind, Marc-Andre Fleury, it sent the city into an euphoric hysteria that hasn’t been seen in these parts in a long time.

When Ovechkin handed the Cup to Backstrom, myself and fans around me let it all out. We had all waited for that moment our whole lives and somehow Backstrom and Ovechkin had waited longer.

On the way back, strangers were hugging each other, cars were honking, I high five random people until all of a sudden I ran into Ty Walker, another friend of mine. We both couldn’t believe what had just happened. I know many more people that were there, some inside, some outside, that I didn’t get to see that night. It was because there was so many people, practically the entire DMV coming together.