The Washington Capitals started off the playoffs with a bang at the Capital One Arena on April 21.
The first round of the playoffs were against the Montreal Canadians. Their first game of the playoffs ended in a 3-2 win going into overtime. The Caps played their next game against the Montreal Canadiens and beat them once again with a 3-1 win. The next game was in Canada where the Canadians beat the Caps 6-3. This game, the Capitals’ top-performing goalie, Logan Thompson injured his leg shortly coming back from an upper-body injury where he missed the last 7 games of the regular season. It was later also revealed that he had a head impact injury. Thompson had 6 minutes and 37 seconds left in the last period of the game but unfortunately couldn’t make it through. The Caps head coach then decided to put their other goalie, Charlie Lindgren, in to sub Thompson. Lindgren let in one goal with the time remaining in the third period.
The Capitals then closed out their first round of the playoffs since 2018 with another two wins against the Montreal Canadians,making it to round two of the playoffs.
Ovechkin said in a post-game interview on the Washington Capitals Facebook page that he “was lucky enough this year to be able to score the goals to break the record. I’m looking forward for next year.”
Their next opponents were the Caroline Hurricanes, who were second in the Metropolitan Division. Many fans did not believe the Caps would make it any further in the playoffs and, unfortunately, they were right. The Hurricanes beat the Capitals 2-1 in their first game in overtime. Excitement for Caps fans arose when they beat the Hurricanes 3-1 in the following game. That excitement was quickly lost when the Hurricanes beat the Caps three more times in a row which had the Caps out of the playoffs after round two.
The amazing performance of the Capitals this year got them far, and left fans excited for Ovechkin to come back next season and add to his record. Next season, fans will also hopefully be able to watch the Caps make it to the playoffs in 2026.
