Now comes the real test, with the Washington Capitals up 3-1 in the Stanley Cup Final. Now we find just whose weight of history is weightier, and to what lengths the Caps will go to raise their level of epic failure to truly epic failure.
The Caps have broken the hearts of D.C. many times across the years, part of a thirsty mosaic that goes back 27 years. Not since 1991, when the Washington Football Team won the Super Bowl, has the nation's capital celebrated a professional sports championship. It's been nothing but blowing dust, tumbleweeds and echoing emptiness since.
Which brings us back to history, and also ... history.
On one side stand the Caps, who have blown 3-1 leads in the playoffs five times.
On the other stands the Stanley Cup Final, which has not seen a team blow a 3-1 lead since the Red Wings did it in 1942.
That's 76 years to you and me, kids.
So, yes, blowing a 3-1 lead now would be the ultimate Capitals thing. And it would rip out the heart of a city that is so ready to celebrate a championship it can barely contain itself.
The Blob thinks containment should not be required this time.
It says this because this Capitals team is different than all the others, in the sense that its greatest player -- Alexander Ovechkin -- finally has a center skilled enough to turn him loose. It's no accident that Ovechkin is having his finest playoff performance (14 goals, 12 assists, 26 points) in the same season when the Caps decided to center his line with Evgeny Kuznetsov. The latter has scored 31 points on 12 goals and 19 assists, and he's like to win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the playoff MVP. He's also the heir apparent to Ovechkin as the Capitals' resident superstar, a hugely gifted player who's the primary reason the Caps are where they are.
So it says here the Caps' history loses to Stanley Cup Final history, and the ticker will go to 77 years since a team blew a 3-1 lead in the Final.
I imagine that's one loss the Caps', and their city, will gladly take.
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