As a fan, you never forget your team's first championship.
That feeling of pure bliss and excitement, as if you're a member of the team getting to lift the trophy yourself.
June 7, 2018 was that day for Washington Capitals fans everywhere.
We watched in awe as Alex Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, and the rest of the Caps worked through a gauntlet of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, overcoming an early 2-0 deficit to the Columbus Blue Jackets before "exorcising their demons", as John Walton would say, with the Game 6 OT winner from Evgeny Kuznetsov to beat the Pittsburgh Penguins. Next, a seven-game masterpiece against the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Final to reach the Stanley Cup for just the second time in franchise history.
After a hard-fought 6-4 loss in Game 1 to the Vegas Golden Knights, Washington regrouped and outscored Vegas 16-8 in four straight wins to capture the first championship in the franchise's then 44-year history.
Looking back on that playoff run, what stands out the most isn't the highlight reel goals or Braden Holtby's "The Save" with his stick that is still brought up in conversation by fans. I feel as if the comaderie and togetherness of that team is what made it special.
No matter what hill they had to climb, you believed they'd do it. However, when you're a fan of a team that has suffered numerous heartbreaks, you didn't want to get your hopes up.
Which is why Walton started the movement of "It's Ok to Believe".
With the recent news that TJ Oshie will be making an announcement at the fountains in Georgetown where the Caps partied with the Cup brings back a rush of happiness as well as sorrow. You can't help but feel happy for the memories of Ovi doing keg stands with the Cup and swimming in the fountain like a child, but then you think of Oshie and Backstrom fighting injury for the last few seasons and what the 2025 playoff run could've been if they were healthy. Would Washington have been so overmatched by the Carolina Hurricanes? We'll never know.
What we do know is that winning the Stanley Cup is a feeling unlike any other. Writers will publish books about that historic playoff run for the team's first title, fans will hang newspaper clippings and autographed memorabilia in an at-home museum to relive the excitement every time they look at it.
But those joyous memories will always feel better on June 7. Sit back, pull up a full-game replay of Game 5 and listen as Walton calls the final puck drop:
"As the puck drops, the words that D.C. fans have been waiting to hear since 1974. The Washington Capitals are the 2018 Stanley Cup Champions!"
