From last September to the middle of May, the Washington Capitals’ 50th anniversary season was a rousing success, and one that could only be improved upon by winning the Stanley Cup. That dream – the one that motivates every NHL player long before they even reach the circuit – died in heartbreaking fashion for the Capitals on Thursday night at Capital One Arena when they were eliminated from the Stanley Cup playoffs in a 3-1 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes, who win the series in five games, 4-1.
With the two teams knotted at 1-1 for almost 45 minutes of playing time, Carolina winger Andrei Svechnikov broke the stalemate with a shot from the bottom of the right circle, a shot that eluded Caps netminder Logan Thompson with 1:59 remaining in regulation.
“It was a 3-on-2, I think,” recounts Thompson. “And it kicked out to my left; I just lost sight of it for a second. There were bodies coming in between, and it’s my job to find a lane and get my eyes on it. He sifted it through, and it’s a terrible goal to give up to end the season, and I’ve got to wear that. I’m an adult, and that’s on me. I have to be better.”
Seth Jarvis’ goal into an empty net in the game’s final half minute ended any hope of a miracle comeback, and with it, what had been a mostly magical season for Washington, which managed a 22-point improvement in the standing from last season to this, finishing first in the Eastern Conference standings.
“It stings; it sucks,” says Thompson. “Credit to them, that’s a good team over there, they’re well-coached. A couple of close games; it could have gone the other way. Credit to Freddie Andersen; I thought he was the better goalie this series. I think I could have been better, and could have made a couple of saves in Raleigh, and definitely tonight. And it sucks.
“It’s a good team, so tip your hat to them.”
Thompson and Andersen both made several big saves to keep the nets puck free for more than two full periods of playing time after both sides scored in the middle of the first.
Washington had three power plays on the night; it had one before the first television timeout in each of the three periods, and each of those opportunities would have given it a one-goal lead at that juncture of the contest. But Carolina’s crack penalty killing outfit limited the Caps to a single shot on net on the man advantage; John Carlson was denied from virtually the same spot on the ice where he scored the game-winner in the Caps’ lone series win in Game 2.
Just ahead of the midpoint of the first, Carolina scored the game’s first goal. From just below the right dot, lefty-shooting Canes captain Jordan Staal ripped a shot that beat Thompson to the far side at 9:38.
Washington responded just over four minutes later. Anthony Beauvillier put some forechecking heat on Carolina blueliner Jaccob Slavin, forcing Slavin into a rare hurried play. As he tried to use the back wall to guide the puck to partner Shayne Gostisbehere on the weak side, Slavin misjudged the angle, and the puck squirted out on the near side, giving Beauvillier the opportunity to grab it, which he did. He went to his backhand and tucked a shot through Andersen’s five-hole to tie the game at 1-1 at 13:41.
That was all the scoring that counted until Svechnikov administered the dagger late in regulation. But for a few moments of bedlam and elation, the Caps and their hopeful and engaged sellout crowd believed Washington had jumped ahead on a one-timer from blueliner Matt Roy.
Alas, it was not to be. Canes coach Rod Brind’Amour used his timeout to take another look, and it was clear that Connor McMichael was in ahead of the play, and the goal – which came at 2:15 of the second period – was quickly and correctly nullified.
Washington probably turned in its best 60-minute effort of the series in Game 5; it’s the only game of the series in which the Caps were able to tee up more shot attempts than the shooting gallery Hurricanes, who took a page out of Washington’s book by blocking nearly half – 26 of 59 – of the Caps’ shot attempts in the game.
Thompson had to make a pair of miracle stops – one right after the other – on Taylor Hall and Logan Stankoven in the final minute of the first just to preserve the deadlock. Thompson also made an excellent stop of Jarvis’ attempt to finish a shot/pass from Slavin midway through the second.
Andersen thwarted Jacob Chychrun’s backhander in the first minute of the middle period, and he denied a McMichael backhand bid in the third as well. But Andersen’s best stops of the night came in the first minute of the third when he walled off consecutive bids from P-L Dubois and Tom Wilson, both from the paint, one right after the other.
Wilson drew a charging call on Jordan Martinook on that sequence, but the Caps couldn’t generate on the power play in this game or this series.
“They close obviously really quick,” says Caps center Dylan Strome of the Carolina penalty kill. “You could probably count on your hand the number of times we actually set up and got some chances. They’ve got really good defensemen with really good sticks, and unfortunately we switched it up a bunch of times and we couldn’t really penetrate it.
“When you have to continuously dump the puck on the power play, it’s tough. They’re great at defending, that’s why they’ve done what they’ve done in this League. We didn’t really have an answer. We tried a bunch of different things, and ultimately it’s on us that we couldn’t figure out how to [score]. You shouldn’t have to dump the puck on the power play, and that’s what we had to resort to in the last couple of games here.”
While Carolina will roll into the Eastern Conference final series with an 8-2 record and the confidence that comes with managing to win short series in each of the first two rounds of the playoffs, the Caps will retain many great memories from a season that started and ended with a loss, but was full of victories, career seasons, agape love and a thrilling and successful Alex Ovechkin chase that culminated in him passing Wayne Gretzky for the top spot on the NHL’s all-time goals list on April 6.
“I don’t think we played bad hockey,” says Ovechkin. “We have lots of chances to get the lead, and it’s tough.”
“Lots to be proud of, and obviously a hell of a season from our team,” says Strome. “I’ve learned the easy way that everyone that comes through here loves playing here and loves being here. It’s a lot of fun to play or this team. A lot of guys are signed for the future, and we’ve got a lot of returning players. And it’s going to be a fun time to be a Caps fan and it’s obviously a fun time to be a Caps player.”
“I really did feel with this team that we had an opportunity to win the Stanley Cup this year,” says Caps center Nic Dowd. “A lot of guys are going to say that as their season ends, but I really felt that we had a great, great season when a lot of people didn’t give us any opportunity. We had a lot of guys who had a lot of individual success and that led to a lot of team success.
“This was a very interesting group off the ice that meshed together very well. I think this will be a group where guys will continue to keep in touch even after the season ends, which can get tricky when guys go to different teams. But we had something special in this room. And yeah, it’s a cliché thing to say, but I think that’s what probably stings the most.
“It's tough,” says Wilson. “It truly is a really special group in here, and I had one of the most fun seasons of my career this year. It was true honor to play with these guys and battle with this group. And every given night you look around the room, and you knew that every guy was going to give it what they what they could, and that's a recipe for success, and we just fell a little bit short at a tough time of the year.
“That's the one silver lining is we can be excited about the future. A lot of good teams play a lot of good hockey at this time of year and fall short. And we got tested in this series, and we're going to learn from it and do the best that we can moving forward.
“We’ve got a great foundation and it’s just tough to tough to think about not having this exact group for next year, but we'll see what happens.”
“It’s awful,” says Caps coach Spencer Carbery, of reaching the end of the line for 2024-25 on Thursday night. “I told [the players] that; it’s awful. Because you did feel that this team was capable of doing something special, and potentially going to the Cup Final, and making some noise.
“We knew we had our work cut out for us. We knew it wasn't going to be smooth sailing through this, but we believed. And this group will never be together again. And that that's just a fact; that's the way that whole thing works. But when the wounds heal, and we have some time to reflect, this 50th anniversary Caps team will go down to history. And I'll just speak for myself, this is one of the greatest seasons that I've ever been a part of as a coach or a player.
“And I'll never forget this group. I told those guys I love them. And every single one of them, what we went through as a group this year, and what they accomplished, and [Ovechkin’s] record and everything that went into this season, I will never forget this group and this really, really memorable year.”
