No matchup — save for maybe the New York Rangers — in the second round of this year’s Stanley Cup playoffs would have given the Washington Capitals a bigger dragon to slay than what they got in the Pittsburgh Penguins. Sure enough, the Capitals plucked the long-embedded playoff thorn from their collective side and are on to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in a generation.
That being said, a former Southeast Division rival has played an outsized yet perhaps understated role in the Ted Leonsis era of the Caps.