The Washington Capitals are going to the Stanley Cup Finals after downing the Tampa Bay Lightning in Game Seven 4-0. In the immortal words of Josh Peck, HUG ME BROTHA.

The Capitals were out-shot 29 to 23 and out-attempted at five-on-five 57 to 33, but honestly who cares. I never felt worried once during this game.

First things first, we’re doing this again.

• If we’re being honest with each other these posts have always been my place to vent and occasionally toss you guys a number or two. I’m pretty sure you guys have picked up on that by now (lol), this “series” of posts will likely get a rebrand next season. So with that out of the way we’re going to start with a bullet that has nothing to do with the numbers from the game. Y’all murdered the site again and I don’t think an error message has ever been so beautiful. Cara has been killing the shirt game and designed a shirt dedicated to the site troubles this crazy postseason. While you’re there looking at that, go ahead and check out the new Eastern Conference Finals Champions shirt as well.
• Alex Ovechkin‘s 12th goal of the postseason opened the scoring (ninth fastest in a game seven) and now places him only two goals away from the franchise record in scoring within a single playoffs held by John Druce (14). Lets hope he scores 15 more. I am so proud of this guy, no player in hockey deserves this more than him. He is now also the first Russian to captain a team to the Stanley Cup Finals.
• Sweet baby boy, Andre Burakovsky decided to open his playoff scoring account at just the right time. Dre’s first two points of the postseason were the goals that sealed the series win for the Caps. This was his 3rd career multi-goal playoff game and he is only the second Capitals player to score two goals in a game seven, the first being Dale Hunter in 1988. Everybody forgot about Dre.
• Evgeny Kuznetsov extended his playoff point streak to 10 games which is now a Caps franchise record, passing Nicklas Backstrom‘s nine games in 2009.
• This game was the first time in 11 game sevens in the Ovechkin era that the Capitals scored more than two goals. It’s just the second time in 16 overall in franchise history. That’s a whole lot of pain that we can now partly wash away.
• Braden Holtby recorded the first two shutouts of his season in Game Six and Game Seven of the Eastern Conference Finals. That is the definition of clutch. He has not allowed a goal for 159 straight minutes (I crossed all of my appendages and digits when I wrote this don’t worry). What a stud.
• The Caps are now 8-2 on the road in the playoffs and became the 11th team in NHL history to make the Stanley Cup Finals after losing three games in a row.
• Caps head coach Barry Trotz has reached the final series of the playoffs in his 19th season as a bench boss. No head coach in NHL history reached his first Finals later in his career. Major congrats.
• Lastly, this will be the first time since 1998 that a major-four DC sports team will fight for their league’s championship. If the Caps can take down Vegas, they will be the first champion in DC since the 1991-92 Redskins.

Numbers thanks to Hockey-reference.com, Hockeystats.ca, NaturalStatTrick.com, Capitals PR, and Corsica.hockey.

Full RMNB Coverage of Game Seven

Headline Photo: Mike Ehrmann