All of the playoff games going to multiple overtimes in the past week stresses me out. The tension is like nothing else in sports. I am always amazed by how slow the players skate as the game wears on. Those contests show just how hockey players are gladiators. Watching the tension grow as the players skate slower and slower. One mistake and BAM! Game over. Nothing is more exciting and nerve-racking than anything else in sports than sudden-death overtime playoff hockey, unless you’re a Washington Capitals fan.
While many franchises have been on the winning end of a series deciding Game 7 double or triple overtime win, the Capitals have had little success in those kind of games., where they have ended up on the losing end more often than they have won. We are extra sensitive to OT playoff gmaes because they are vivid reminders of the playoff heartbreak Caps fans have endured for over fifty years. Here are four that still sting Caps fans to this day.
2015 Game 5 OT Loss to Rangers 2nd Round
This one was a gut punch, as the Caps were on the verge of finishing off the New York Rangers in the second round in 2015, when the hockey gods pulled a fast one. With less than a minute to go and up 1-0 against John Tortarella’s Rangers, the Caps were less than one minute away from their first trip to the conference finals in over 17 years. The Rangers pulled Henrik Lundquist for the extra skater and they scored to tied the game. The Caps would than go on to lose just a few minutes into OT. The Rangers won the next two games and the Caps had to wait three more years to get to the conference finals.
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