Capitals will win Stanley Cup led by core group from 2018 champions

The Washington Capitals' road to the Stanley Cup won't be easy, but they are equipped to traverse it and celebrate their second championship.

The Capitals (44-26-12) haven't won a series in the Stanley Cup Playoffs since winning the Cup in 2018 and, as the second wild card into the playoffs from the Eastern Conference, they are unlikely to have home-ice advantage for as far as they advance this postseason.
But that will be a positive for Washington, which was an NHL-best 25-10-6 on the road during the regular season, compared to 19-16-6 at Capital One Arena, its worst home record since going 17-17-7 in 2006-07. The Capitals tied the NHL record for road wins in a playoff year when they went 10-3 during their Cup run and can follow the same path this postseason.
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The Capitals play the kind of structured, straight-ahead, physical game away from home that wears down opponents in playoff series. Their most recent example was a 3-2 victory at the Western Conference-winning Colorado Avalanche on April 18, when they had 34 hits and limited the Avalanche to 26 shots on goal by blocking 23 shot attempts.
Goalies Vitek Vanecek (20-12-6, 2.67 goals-against average, .908 save percentage, four shutouts) and Ilya Samsonov (23-12-6, 3.02 GAA, .896 save percentage, three shutouts) are questions because of their inconsistency, but the Capitals make the game much simpler for them when they play within their structure.

Although Alex Ovechkin's health is a concern after the left wing sustained an upper-body injury against the Toronto Maple Leafs last Sunday, count on him being ready for the start of the playoffs given his track record. Ovechkin, who was fourth in the NHL with 50 goals this season, has never missed a playoff game in his 17 NHL seasons and has been consistently productive in the postseason.
The 36-year-old's 71 goals in 141 playoff games are most among active players and his NHL career average of 0.50 goals per game is fourth among active players with at least 50 games of playoff experience. That includes when Ovechkin led the NHL by scoring 15 goals in 24 games and won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player of the 2018 playoffs.
Most of the core from the 2018 Stanley Cup champions remains including Ovechkin, forwards Nicklas Backstrom, T.J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson, and defensemen John Carlson and Dmitry Orlov. They know what it takes to win the Cup along with coach Peter Laviolette, who won it with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006 and also reached the Cup Final with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2010 and Nashville Predators in 2017.