LAS VEGAS — As pop music blared inside an empty T-Mobile Arena, a few members Washington Capitals spoke to media a couple hours before Game Five of the Stanley Cup Final. The Capitals are up three games to one on the Vegas Golden Knights. A win Thursday night would give Washington their first Stanley Cup championship in their 44-year history.
“We just want to get that fourth one,” Nicklas Backstrom said of closing out the series on the road. “Our fans have been waiting a long time for this. It’s been an emotional playoff with a lot of people involved, our fans. I think they deserve something special here.”
In the Alex Ovechkin-era, the Capitals have earned three Presidents’ Trophies, gone through five head coaches, and have failed to advance past the second round until this season.
Now they are one win away from DC’s first major sports championship since 1992. Capitol One Arena is a sold-out for a viewing party as the city of Washington anxiously waits for the Capitals to make history.
“A lot of the players, they’ve played for the Cup many times already, thousands of times as kids,” head coach Barry Trotz said. “Whether it’s street hockey, outdoor rinks, in the hallways.”
“They’ve played for the Cup already,” he added. “This is just a bigger stage.”
Headline photo: Ethan Miller
