It wasn’t possible to script a Stanley Cup Final with two franchises
more dissimilar. The Vegas Golden Knights are four wins away from hoisting the
cup in their inaugural season. For many, it’s still impossible to grasp that an
expansion team could be this good this quickly. For years, the Washington
Capitals have been trying to rid themselves of the reputation that they’re a
regular season juggernaut that constantly came up small in the playoffs. One of
the teams is going to win its first Stanley Cup. Should Vegas win, it would be
a storybook ending to one of the most remarkable seasons in sports. A Capitals
victory would finally mark the end of the playoff shortcomings.
Probably the most intriguing storyline about this Stanley
Cup Final is that the man in charge of putting together the Vegas Golden
Knights used to be employed by the Washington Capitals. Golden Knights’ general
manager George McPhee held the same title in the nation’s capital from
1997-2014. After a year off, McPhee spent a year with the New York Islanders
working under GM Garth Snow before Vegas owner Bill Foley hired him in July
2016 to call the shots. Washington general manager Brian MacLellan worked under
McPhee with the Capitals before McPhee was fired four years ago. TSN’s Frank
Seravalli wrote today about the relationship between the two.
Then there’s Vegas coach Gerard Gallant. Less than two
months into the 2016-17 season with the Florida Panthers, Gallant was fired by
Tom Rowe. Rowe was Florida’s head coach and general manager for the remainder
of the season and the Panthers finished sixth in the Atlantic division and Rowe
was promptly demoted. I’m sure Florida would like a mulligan on how that played
out. Gallant was hired by McPhee and the rest is history. Gallant is a virtual lock
for the Jack Adams Award as the league’s coach of the year and McPhee is a
finalist for GM of the Year. Throw in the fact that practically the entire
roster for the Golden Knights is castoffs who were either left unprotected in
the expansion draft or traded by their former teams to ensure someone else
would be protected, and it’s easy to see why so many have gravitated towards
the Vegas story.
Though, by that same token, it’s easy to see why fans of the
other 29 teams in the NHL may get behind the Capitals. The success of the Golden
Knights has already been an indictment on front offices across the NHL.
Expansion teams are never supposed to be this good in the first season. Washington,
on the other hand, has never lacked the talent. Superstar winger Alex Ovechkin
has won the Rocket Richard trophy as the league’s top goal scorer seven times
in his career. Throughout the Ovechkin era, the Capitals have shuffled up their
roster, changed coaches several times and of course changed general managers. On paper, Washington was almost always better
than whatever followed in the playoffs. By most statistical measures, the
Capitals outplayed the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round of last year’s
playoffs, only to fall to their familiar foe again.
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| John E. Sokolowski/USA Today Sports |
Finally, after 12 years of failing to make it out of the
second round, Ovechkin is playing in his first Stanley Cup Final. He went
through Sidney Crosby and Pittsburgh in the second round to get here. An all-time
great is getting the shot he’s long deserved on the sport’s biggest stage.
Washington head coach Barry Trotz’s coaching career followed a similar path as
Ovechkin’s playing career. Trotz had several playoff disappointments of his own
as the coach of the Nashville Predators from 1997-2014. Players like Nicklas
Backstrom, John Carlson and Braden Holtby have spent their entire careers
alongside Ovechkin. The Tampa Bay team that Washington defeated in seven games
in the Eastern Conference Final is younger and will likely be at the top of the
East longer. There are other young teams like the Toronto Maple Leafs on the
upswing in the East. If this ends up being the only Stanley Cup Final the
Capitals play in during the Ovechkin era, it wouldn’t be a major surprise.
Who knows where Vegas goes from here? Goaltender Marc-Andre
Fleury will almost certainly be the Conn Smythe Trophy winner as the playoff
MVP if the Golden Knights win four more games. Though, Fleury turns 34 in
November and it remains to be seen if his career has been reborn or if this is
a mirage. While that same question could be posed of most of the players for
Vegas, it’s unlikely that the Golden Knights have a sudden tailspin next season
and become the team everyone thought they’d be this year. The window isn’t
going to be open much longer for Washington, but this could be the beginning of
a long and fruitful reign for Vegas atop the Western Conference. Whatever
happens during the series, one thing’s for sure, the pasts, presents and
futures of the Washington Capitals and the Vegas Golden Knights couldn’t be
more different.
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