The Washington Capitals Have Won Their First Ever Stanley Cup

With a 4-3 victory over the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Finals, the Washington Capitals can finally hoist professional hockey’s most coveted prize in the air for the first time in the franchise’s 44 year history. This is without a doubt a sweet, sweet sensation for a city whose 4 major sports franchises have failed to win a championship since 1992, finally bringing some light into the nation’s capital amidst all of its chaos.

Team captain Alex Ovechkin is perhaps happier than anybody else. Ovechkin has spent the last decade as one of hockey’s premier athletes, putting up fantastic numbers as efficiently and consistently as anybody else in the sport. However, he has forever been hampered by the dreaded status of being a superstar without a ring on his finger, something which plagued many of the greatest athletes of all time. Now Ovechkin is free of that curse and his relief is palpable, saying “We waited so long. We waited 13 years to get the Cup. It’s something special. It’s unbelievable.”

SLIDESHOW: SPORTS FIGURES WHO DIED IN 2017

Although he also won the Conn Smythe Trophy for the Stanley Cup Playoffs’ most valuable player, Ovechkin insists that he wasn’t alone on the ice, that his teammate deserve this prize as much as he does. “It’s not about me,” he said. “The whole team deserved it. I’m just lucky to get this reward.”

SLIDESHOW: 30 BEST SPORTS INSTAGRAMS

However amazing a feat this is for the Capitals, we cannot discount the almost equally as impressive accomplishment of the 2017-18 Golden Knights, who managed to reach the Stanley Cup Finals in just their first year as a professional hockey team. That is absolutely incredible, as they are the first inaugural expansion team to make the NHL postseason since the Whalers and Oilers in 1979-80, and both of those teams had two of the sport’s all-time greatest players in Gordie Howe and Wayne Gretzky respectively. Even more impressive is the fact that, out of all 64 expansion teams to enter any of the US’s Big 4 sports leagues since 1960, the Golden Knights were the first to have a winning record. This team is legit and is set to be successful for a long time.

However, this moment belongs to the Capitals, who will finally get to hoist the Stanley Cup down the streets of Washington DC. And we can expect this to be as grand a championship parade as any, with franchise owner Ted Leonsis saying that the parade is :going to be much bigger than everyone is expecting.” Regardless of what the parade looks like, this is undoubtably the greatest accomplishment in Capitals history, and is one they deserve to relish for their entire lives.

Article by Mike Conn