Be it in Game 6, or in Game 7, the Capitals need to be the team that cures the DC Sports Plague (Its not a curse, its a Plague). It seems counter intuitive, but the Capitals have done everything they can in order to earn the right to be the team that breaks the misery that DC Sports fans have had to endure over the past two decades. If the Capitals are able to finally make it to an Eastern Conference Final, and god forbid a Stanley Cup Final, they would ignite a DC Sports renaissance because of what they have come to symbolize for the DC Sports landscape. The Capitals have embodied all that is good and bad about DC Sports over their decade of resurgence, and it is this cornucopia of characteristics that gives them the right to be the ones to end the malaise that all DC Sports Fans have been under since 1998. The evidence for this argument falls within the answer to the question; Why are the Capitals more special than the other DC Sports teams? Let's answer that question in all of it's facets.
Because they were the last DC Sports team to make it to a Conference Final
It would be poetic justice. The last DC Sports team to make it to a Conference Final is the one that ends the plague (its not a curse, its a plague). The Caps need to win because it would connect the current sports fandom to DC Sports history, and in these times the average sports fan is not tied into what happened more than three years ago.
Because Alex Ovechkin was the original Chosen One
Before Bryce Harper, before John Wall, before Stephen Strasburg, there was Alex Ovechkin. Ovechkin was taken number one overall by the Capitals in 2004, and it was not just because the Capitals were awful. They had given up all of their major pieces from that 1998 Stanley Cup Finals team, including the franchise's all time scoring leader Peter Bondra, in order to find themselves in the position to draft Alex Ovechkin. He was brought in to be the next coming, and he has fulfilled those obligations except for the one about team championships. It is time that he gets the right to play for one.
Because the Capitals have given hope to DC over the past decade
While the Redskins sucked, while the Wizards were dealing with the Gilbert Arenas fallout, and while the Nationals were reminding Washington DC what baseball looked like, the Capitals were putting together consistent playoff teams. The Capitals have made the playoffs every year since the 2007-2008 season except for one. No other DC Sports team even comes close to that consistency, and along the way they have built up their fan base organically through winning and savvy marketing. The Capitals have ingratiated themselves to a city that wanted a winner and a hip sports scene, and got it with the combination of Alex Ovechkin's play and Ted Leonsis's business acumen.
Because they stupidly traded away a superstar.
See Filip Forsberg.
Because they smartly traded for another.
See TJ Oshie.
Because they have endured a disappointment that no other DC Sports team has over the past 20 years
The Capitals were literally 1:41 away from defeating the New York Rangers in 2015 and going to the Eastern Conference Finals. Instead, the Rangers won three games in a row to defeat the Caps in seven games. In fact, the Caps have been eliminated from the playoffs in a Game 7 seven times since 2008. No DC fan knows playoff pain like Capitals fans.
Because they have tried to build a team of immeasurable talent and failed
See 2017. That team was hailed as the best team that had ever been assembled around Alex Ovechkin and they still could not get past the second round.
Because in the after math of that collapse they came out stronger
This year was supposed to be a rebuilding year at best, and some were heralding it as the beginning of the end for the Ovechkin era. But then something strange happened. Somehow these players that no one thought could come close to the accomplishments of 2017's super team began to gel. They pulled out tough games in the regular season. They fought through adversity. They gave Capitals fans something they have never seen before; a team that wins based on grit and determination more than talent level.
That determination was on full display Saturday night as the Capitals defeated the Penguins 6-3 in classic 2018 Capitals fashion. They fell behind early in the first period but took the lead late on a PPG and a successive hard working goal. They subsequently squandered that lead in the second period by taking massive penalties, getting horribly out shot, and looking like they had given up on life. But the Caps would not be deterred by those set backs, and like they have done all year, they found a way to win. The Caps once again find themselves in a position to end 20 years of DC Sports misery, and the Capitals have earned the right to be the ones to cure this DC Sports Plague. Twenty years of evolution has provided DC Fans with a sports team that has rarely been seen in Washington during that time. One that will not back down, that will not give up, that has been built organically to come to this point. The Capitals need to be the ones to end DC Fans' misery on Monday Night.
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