Capitals better, but Vegas team to remember

Tis the cruel part: You don’t always get the storybook ending, even when the tale has been so astonishingly memorable.

It seemingly ends so fast, so sudden, that the bigger picture gets lost in the immediacy of a final chapter and you’re the ones watching as others celebrate in unrestrained joy.

Days and weeks and months will pass and history will be more and more appreciated, but for now, the magical expansion season of the Golden Knights is over, its conclusion coming in

GRANEY

Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final.

Washington is your champion and deserving in every manner, having defeated the Knights 4-3 on Thursday night at T-mobile Arena, where a large contingent of Capitals fans made their way into the enemy’s home to watch their team win its first Cup in 43 years of existence.

There was a lot of red in the place.

They weren’t going to miss it.

The Capitals won this best-of-seven series 4-1, and don’t for a second strain yourself searching for an area in which Vegas had the upper hand. There was none. Washington was better in every phase over five games.

The team holding aloft the Cup more than earned it.

In the end, after a traditional handshake line in which hugs and congratulations were exchanged, the 500-1 long shot to win the Cup before the season, the team that bonded with a town over a mass shooting that altered the trajectory of a first-year franchise and those who would faithfully follow it, acknowledged what was a thundering ovation from the hometown fans.

The Raiders and the NFL will arrive in 2020 and Las Vegas as a sports community will change forever, but