The Capitals in 2017 finished 1st in the entire NHL and won the Presidents' Trophy as the NHL's best regular-season team. But right behind them, finishing 2nd, were the Pittsburgh Penguins, who at the time were coming off a 2016 Stanley Cup win and looking to repeat.
In the first round, the Capitals would take on the Toronto Maple Leafs and find themselves down 2-1 in the series, but would battle back to defeat them in 6 games. Then the Capitals would find themselves in the 2nd round facing the Pittsburgh Penguins, who had eliminated them in 6 games the year before. While the Penguins won in 7 games, what if the Capitals had won game 7?
If the Capitals had beaten the Penguins in Game 7, they would have advanced to take on the Ottawa Senators, and with the Capitals having Alex Ovechkin at the top of his game, that series could have been swung in favour of the Capitals. While this is all hypothetical, the Capitals in 2017 were the best team in the entire NHL, so if they had gotten past the Pittsburgh Penguins, they might have captured the Stanley Cup.
While history ended up working in favour of the Capitals after they won the Stanley Cup, looking back, the landscape of today's NHL could have been very different if the Capitals had beaten the Penguins in 2017. Not only would the rivalry between Sidney Crosby and Alex Ovechkin be different, but also the way they would be looked at throughout their careers. While both players are among the greatest ever to play the sport, had the Capitals beaten the Penguins in 2017, it would have created major changes in today's NHL.
Add us as a preferred source on Google