The Washington Capitals season has come to a close. It was a magicial year celebrating 50 years of Capitals hockey throughout the season and the team did a good job pulling out all the stops.
From Bandz a Make Her Dance to record breaking performances, the 50th anniversary season had it all. It was the most fun watching and writing about this team since capturing the 2018 Stanley Cup.
Washington finished the season in first place in the Metropolitan Divison as well as the Eastern Conference after a complete roster overhaul over the summer. Did many expect the Caps to go as far as they did? Nope.
Some thought they would miss the playoffs entirely. Others thought the new players like Pierre-Luc Dubois or Logan Thompson wouldn't fit in. Instead we saw career resurgences for both especially PLD.
"People re going to look at this team and go, 'How did this team do so well? How did this team win the East'"," Spencer Carbery said after the Game 5 loss to the Carolina Hurricaens that ended the season.
In large part the Capitals did well because their captain Alex Ovechkin rose to the occasion in his 20th season in the NHL. He did so by breaking a record many thought was impossible.
He did it at 39 years old, defying age and father time once again. Ovi finished with 44 goals and would score the record breaking 895th goal to pass Wayne Gretzky on April 6 at the New York Islanders.
Ovechkin carried that success into the first round of the playoffs. He had four goals which led the team in their first round victory over the Montreal Canadiens. That included a game winner in overtime of Game 1 for his first such tally in the playoffs.
Aliaksei Protas had a good season as well as he had 30 goals and 36 assists for 66 points. Back to PLD, he finished with 20 goals and 46 assists also for 66 points. This is after some had low or unfair expectations on him based on what happened with the Los Angeles Kings.
Dylan Strome had a career year with 29 goals and 53 assists for 82 points. On the defense, Jakob Chychrun showed he was worth it and more as he had 20 goals and 27 assists for 47 points.
But what we saw throughout the year was that this team cared for one another. They grew close and it was one of the most tight knit teams we've saw on the ice in a long time. That's important and it's something to build upon for the future.
