The best part about Game No. 82 for the Washington Capitals tonight is that it was…Game No. 82.
It’s not that they didn’t want to win the game – a 2-0 loss to the Florida Panthers at the Verizon Center in the season finale – but what difference will it make if Washington ended the season with 55 wins or 56. Most won’t know what the number is, but they will know if they get to 16 postseason wins – the number needed to secure the first Stanley Cup in franchise history.
“This is the fun part,” said Capitals head coach Barry Trotz after the game against the Panthers. “The season does drag on sometimes in 82 games. This is part of the year that everybody lives for. I always say that if you’re not playing at this part of the year, you’re missing out as a hockey player.”
Once again, the Capitals are going to be playing in this part of the year, the playoffs. Last season, after a President’s Trophy winning campaign, they took out the Philadelphia Flyers in six games before being eliminated by fellow Keystone State team Pittsburgh in the Metropolitan Division Finals. The Penguins went on to win the Stanley Cup, something the Capitals, President’s Trophy winners once again this season, are finally looking to do after a run of near unprecedented success in league annals.
At least with one of the veteran players, inspiration to get the job done this year came from a championship game that was played just last week.
“I’m thinking of the [University of North Carolina] Tar Heels, the basketball Tar Heels,” said defenseman Karl Alzner, referring to the 2017 national champions in men’s basketball who lost in the national title game to Villanova last season. “They’re the redeem team and we would like to be along those lines. We’d like to have another chance at that and show people that we are the real deal.”
Despite racking up 55 wins for a second consecutive season, only the second team in NHL history to accomplish that feat, Alzner says the road to the playoffs this season had its differences than last season, especially with the competition they faced for Metropolitan Division supremacy, a division which saw four teams finish with at least 100 points.
“This season, one of the big differences was that we didn’t have it easy throughout the whole year, like we did last year.” Alzner said. “Easy might not be a great word, but we were out front by a lot [last year]). We didn’t start out good and we weren’t in a good position for a while there, and it seemed like no matter what we did, we couldn’t catch those other teams. It was nice that we had to really work hard and battle. I think we got a chance to see a good side of this team, off the ice as well as on the ice. We’re just a good group of teammates. It’s fun to be around everybody.
We’ll know how much more fun the Capitals will have once the playoffs get started, as they will take on the Toronto Maple Leafs, who secured the second wild card spot last night but lost earlier today to the Columbus Blue Jackets in a bid to move up to the first wild card spot. The first game of the series is on Thursday at the Verizon Center.
