The Washington Capitals made franchise history becoming Stanley Cup Champions, a feat that the Montreal Canadiens can relate with.
No team in the NHL has won more Stanley Cups than the Montreal Canadiens. They lead the league with 24 but unfortunately haven’t gotten to that mark since 1993. As emotional as any Cup win is, there’s something special about getting the first and the Washington Capitals experienced that Thursday night.
The Caps went through a lot of premature playoff exits to finally get to the grand stage of a Cup Final. It took achievements from the entire team to get the big win but Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeny Kuznetsov, and Braden Holtby were the stars. It’s a good feeling for a lot of players in that locker room, especially those who thought they’d never get there.
Congratulations go to former Habs players Devante Smith-Pelly and Lars Ellers for being key contributors in that game and the entire playoffs. The former tied the game at three while the latter got the winner. This isn’t going to be a dig on the Montreal Canadiens for moving on from them. At that time, Marc Bergevin had his reasons and chose to pull the trigger.
The positives that can be taken from this is that their time with the Habs will be a part of their careers. Eller got his first NHL gig with the Montreal Canadiens back in the 2010-11 season. Although they may have moved on from a little early, some of those fundamental skills were grown in that uniform.
We’ve all focused on what we can learn from the Vegas Golden Knights. They defied the odds by making it within four wins of a Stanley Cup. However, the Washington Capitals can provide some critical lessons as well.
Sometimes having the best players doesn’t guarantee you anything. At the same time, there are moments where you have to take those challenges head-on and overcome them.
The Capitals came together and played the right way together to get to that common goal. They faced adversity, especially Holtby who was the backup starting out the playoffs and continued to push.
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One day the Montreal Canadiens will be in a similar position. And putting a full team effort on the ice every night is the only way to win. It starts with drafting well, building a core and having them grow as a unit. After that, it’s a heap of hard work and a little bit of luck to carry that big silver thing.