When the Caps took the ice at Amalie Arena on May 23, 2018, they found themselves in exceedingly familiar and yet completely foreign territory. After all, it was a Game 7 – their first of the 2018 postseason but far from the first one in recent Caps’ history. They knew about these winner-take-all showdowns.
What made this night different were the stakes. Venturing into the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in two decades – and the first time overall for the Alex Ovechkin Capitals – the Caps had stayed alive in the series thanks to an incredible effort in Game 6 at home and now returned to Tampa with the chance to do something no one thought possible.