Wednesday, May 09, 2018

Rock The Red


The Washington Capitals in their 44 years of existence have gone to the playoffs at least 75% of the time. 29 of 44 seasons. For the last 20 or so they have been almost every year. Most post-seasons they do the old "one and done" losing in the first round to the Philadelphia Flyers, or New York Rangers, Boston Bruins or the dreaded Pittsburgh Penguins who have squashed them 9 out of 10 times.

Occasionally like this year the Caps have advanced to round two like they have done this year. They beat the Columbus Blue Jackets in 6 games. Usually they go the full 7 games and lose in round one. When they do go on to Round 2 again they usually lose in game 7. It seems like it is always at home as well, but not always. So they are always the Bridesmaids NEVER the Bride so to speak.


For both the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons the Caps won the "President's Trophy" which is presented to the league's team that finished the regular season with the best record most "points". These are not the highest scores as in goals but rather the points for games won that are used to determine a team's position in the standings. When a team wins a game they get 2 points,  if they outright lose they don't get any points. If a game ties and goes into overtime they get 1 point for going to overtime and then another point for an overtime win. This season 2017-18 they didn't win the President's Trophy. That is a good thing. Having the best record does not guarantee going to the Stanley Cup finals.


As of the writing of this post the Caps are in Round 2 vs. The Penguins. The series is tied 2-2. The Winner of Round 2 will face the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Championship Final.

Update For Game 5:
Saturday 05 May is game 5. The Caps won game 5 and lead the series 3-2. Game 6 is coming up tonight.

Update Game 6:
Monday 07 May.
The game has gone into Overtime it is tied 1-1. WOW Alex Ovechkin at center ice retrieves the puck and passes to Evgeny Kuznetsov who swoops toward the goal, he shoots and SCORES the Game Winning SERIES WINNING Goal.

The CAPS Move on. Next up The Eastern Conference Finals vs The Tampa Bay Lightning. On the plus side the Caps overall in regular season are 80-49-6 vs the Lightning (61.5%), however they are 2-8 vs Lightning in the playoffs. That is the negative side they are 2-8 (20%) vs Lightning in playoffs.

From last year the Caps made a cute video "All Caps No Pens" starring their mascot Slapshot the Eagle.



No comments: