Capitals, Golden Knights in improbable final
LAS VEGAS — The Washington Capitals have waited nearly 44 years to raise the Stanley Cup for the first time.
Their only remaining obstacles are some desert-dwelling misfits who refuse to wait for anything.
The expansion Vegas Golden Knights are just four wins away from an astounding championship when they host Alex Ovechkin’s long-striving Caps tonight to open a thoroughly improbable Stanley Cup Final.
Even the players from the NHL’s last two teams standing seemed a bit surprised by their achievements when they gathered Sunday in balmy 84-degree Nevada weather.
“Who would have thunk it?” asked Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt, who played the previous four seasons for the Capitals. “The Stanley Cup Final that was never meant to be, right?”
Indeed, a first-time NHL champ will be crowned next month after a final between two teams that arrived at hockey’s ultimate destination from very different directions. While the Caps finally climbed over the hump in the Eastern Conference, the Golden Knights have been bulldozing every logical obstacle in their path since October.
“We’ve been able to do some things in the playoffs, but we never got to that last stage until now,” Washington forward T.J. Oshie said. “And everybody
knows what Vegas did in the first year is very special. We’re both hungry. This is going to be a beast of a series.”
The Golden Knights have exceeded every expectation by utilizing a rich expansion draft and multiple clever coaching moves to create a team that dominated the Pacific Division and then rampaged through the Western Conference playoffs. Their story still carries a ring of impossibility, but they’re close to adding a real ring to every hand in the dressing room full of self-described “Golden Misfits,” as their T-shirts say.
The Capitals have repeatedly fallen short of their postseason goals during Ovechkin’s career, including a heartbreaking shutout loss to Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 7 of the second round against Pittsburgh last spring. After falling to Fleury’s champion Penguins in the past two postseasons, the Caps revamped their roster with youth and finally overcame years of playoff disappointment to reach their first Final in two decades. Of course, Fleury is in the way again — in goal for the Golden Knights.
Neither team was the favorite to get this far. Neither team is ready to stop now.
While Capitals coach Barry Trotz skated his now-customary hot lap before practice at T-Mobile Arena, the Golden Knights had their usual standingroom-only crowd for practice at their training complex in suburban Summerlin.
Their grip on this sports-hungry town was already strong, and the 24-hour gambling mecca will come to a standstill this week during the Cup games in the arena behind the New York New York hotel-casino and its 150-foot Statue of Liberty, which has been wearing a Golden Knights jersey since April.